Demonstration is a right for individuals and groups as well as citizens and politicians in office and on the side-line as members of opposition parties.
So, when the leading opposition National Democratic Congress, as a political party, and its organs and allies decide to go on a demonstration against the E-Levy, it does not make much news, except that most decent Ghanaians believe that the noises against the implementation of the E-Levy are over-flogged.
In a nation where propaganda and hypocrisy appear healthy tonic for anybody who wants to flap his wings, invitation letters asking people in “multi-sectoral” and “non-partisan coalitions” to join a purported demonstration is still part of the game of wanting to look credible in courting the electorate.
According to the organisers of the protest slated for Thursday, February 10, 2022, against the E-Levy, they would expect the whole gamut of Ghana‘s civil society to be part of the much-hyped plot that argues that the E-Levy is anti-people and anti-poor as well as anti-business and anti-development.
For a political party whose government tried all forms of taxes, including those on sanitary pads and condoms, the noise levels, in our opinion, are too shrill.
Antecedents
Ghanaians or, for that matter, civil society and opposition politicians protesting against introduction of new taxes is no new phenomenon. Since the ruling New Patriotic Party led the ‘Kume Preko’ demonstration, the NDC has beaten the NPP to it in terms of frequency. As for the vicious and mischief bits, the difference between the two is as wide as the circumference of an Elephant’s torso.
The simple truth is that, in going on demonstrations, it is important that we commit to restrain ourselves from interfering with free flow of human and vehicular traffic. We must also maintain the security of the public and economic space as well as cooperate with the police in agreeing on the routes through where the demonstrators would be converging and spaces they would be flowing into.
Additionally, the police who are engaged to monitor the exercise are required to be fair and impartial in enforcing laws – putting in place mechanisms that discourage counter-demonstrations. At least, we saw that during the Kume Preko demonstrations, where the NDC armed and sent hooligans onto the turf to find an excuse for the then administration to brutalise genuine, innocent protestors, resulting in fatalities in which the victims were ordinary, defenceless citizens.
Being sincere
It is embarrassing that even before the NDC begins its protests, the lies have begun cascading as reference is made about “people’s opposition to the levy” and it being “forced down their throats, despite all opposition to it.”
The very people who made so much noise about lack of jobs and more inclusivity in social protection, as well as debt servicing, are the very ones opposing lawful, innovative ways of raising of revenue to deal with these developmental challenges.
If they have made any contribution to the debate, it is a statement about going back to the IMF Programme to prove that the NPP in government is as incompetent as their government that took us to the IMF Programme.
It is the opinion of the Daily Statesman, therefore, that at this point, the NDC adds to the debate by proposing viable options, instead of playing the envious mother in the King Solomon judgment story.
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