Manasseh’s Folder: OccupyGhana or Occupy Partisan Politics?

Manasseh spoke at OccupyGhana's corruption forum

The size of an animal, our wise elders say, does not matter. What matters is the taste in its soup. That is the story of OccupyGhana. They started small. And they are still small. But their impact, like their name, has occupied the minds of Ghanaians. They have gladdened hearts and tormented hearts. They have sugared the gari of people who want to call the bluff of public servants. They have also put sand in the gari of those who are beneficiaries of the stinking status quo.

Those who know very little or nothing about how this group started are spinning weird tales about how a certain political party put them together to propagate its views and push its agenda. But I am lucky to have known how OccupyGhana started. Yes, I know. This is how it started. Or rather, this is what I know:

It started with a young man called Nana Akwasi Awuah. The first time I interacted with this young man was on June 4, 2013, when he sent me a message on Facebook, thanking me for accepting his friend request.

“I'm hopeful that our friendship shall be mutually beneficial since we share a common passion: the betterment of our beloved country. Thank you and keep up the good work.”

I have many friends and followers on Facebook. I do not remember their names except those I know in real life, those regular ones whose posts are worth noting and those who are so stupid that they stand out even if they comment on your post once.

I must confess after our initial encounter, I didn't hear from or notice Nana Akwasi Awuah again until June 25,2014 when he sent me another message:

“Please my name is Nana Akwasi Awuah, and I am a lawyer. I am organising a peaceful protest on Tuesday 1st July against the rising cost of living in the country as well as the general unbearable living conditions. I am sure you may be wondering how you come in. Well this is where you come in...

“First of all you are a Ghanaian and the success of this protest would indubitably inure to your benefit. Secondly I need some media hype. It is strictly non-partisan. I have resolved to show up at the Flagstaff House alone if nobody joins me on Tuesday. At least I know that I will have discharged my civic duty to my people on that day by echoing our hardship right at the doorstep of power.”

The weekend before the Tuesday, I met Nana Akwasi Awuah at Joy FM for our first interview, but it wasn't my interview that gave the Republic Day's protest the needed hype. The hush tag #OccupyFlagstaff had gone viral on social media and was making inroads into the hearts and minds of the middle class like an unrestrained harmattan fire licking a dry and vast savannah grassland.

When the day finally arrived, it was as if the unseen forces of our republic had conspired with nature to frustrate the effort of the young lawyer and his band of people. The sun decided to stay indoors and the sky held a grudge with dark sinister clouds that threatened to rain elephants and hippos. But it looked like the like-minded, smartphones and tablet-wielding middle class of Nkrumah's republic were prepared to defy the odds and send a message to the nation. They seemed to have had the blessings of the Old Man above, who held the rains until the protesters had sent their voice to all parts of the country.

As usual, “yaanom” would not sit down without putting up a fight. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms. Hanna Tetteh, took to social media to mock their numbers. Other worshipers of the ruling National Democratic Congress were lurking around to downplay the event at the least opportunity. I was driving when I heard Lawyer Ace Ankomah on radio reminding Prince Derick Adjei of the National Youth Authority that it was he (Mr. Ankomah's) tax that was being used to feed him (Mr. Adjei) and if he had nothing useful to do, he should shut up.

I was not at the event because I was scheduled to speak at the National Youth Rally at the Accra Academy Park that morning. But the caliber of people who took part in the demonstration, according to media reports, was unprecedented.

Protests are not new in this country, but the protesters are often those of a particular workers' union agitating for what they don't deserve or a congregation of political party worshipers who are bused to take part in protests which some of them don't understand except their allegiance to the political party they support.

But the OccupyFlagstaffHouse protesters were different. These were self-made professionals who were simply outraged by the incompetence of the rulers of the nation. Some of them parked Range Rovers and took part in the march. The event was strictly non-partisan. Known politicians such as the New Patriotic Party's Stephen Asamoah Boateng, who found their way there to plunder where they had not planted, were disgraced and driven out of the protest. The protesters could not occupy the lawns of the Flagstaff House because a team of police officers with armoured tanks and prepared as if they were meeting the deadliest terrorist group was detailed to stop the them from going near the seat of government. The police succeeded in keeping the protesters off the withering lawns of our presidential palace, but they could not succeed in keeping their message and influence from occupying the minds of many. The group, building on the success of their July 1 Protests, united under the name OccupyGhana.

OccupyGhana would later organize what can pass for the biggest forum and strongest voice against corruption. The event brought together speakers against corruption, including respected Clergymen such as Pastor Mensa Otabil and the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, His Eminence Gabriel Charles Palmer Buckle, as speakers. OccupyGhana has also whipped state institutions, such as the office of the Auditor-General, into action.

The purpose of this piece is not to list the achievements of OccupyGhana. It is about what some say is the battered image of the pressure group following the decision by one of the leading members of the group, George Andah to contest the Awutu Senya West Constituency seat on the ticket of the opposition NPP. The celebrated marketing professional seems to have confirmed what the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have often said of the group: they are NPP elements hiding behind a pressure group to make government unpopular.

So how true is the charge that members of OccupyGhana are mainly elements who are sympathetic to the cause of the opposition NPP?

To some extent this is true. A lot of the leaders whose political ideologies I know swing towards the NPP. The fact that one of its leaders, George Andah, has announced his intention to contest a parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NPP gives some credence to this charge. Another member of the Group and former host of Joy FM's Super Morning Show, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, is also considering going to parliament on the ticket of the NPP. And there are rumours a certain female member of OccupyGhana will soon make a move under the “umbrella” of the NPP.

It is not a coincidence that all the top members of the group who show up gravitate towards a certain political party. This has raised questions about the main motive behind the group's activities and at what time their members had the intentions to do active partisan politics. Even if they did not come together to target the NDC as has been speculated, did they see OccupyGhana as an avenue to launch their own political careers and not necessarily fight against the rot in our system? These are questions that will continue to be asked and I can bet with my balls that government communicators and spin doctors will feast on this for many months or years to come whenever they want to counter OccupyGhana.

But it seems that's where the narrative ends.
Granted that all members and leaders of OccupyGhana are surrogates of the NPP, one fact still remains relevant: NPP supporters are not Afghans. They are Ghanaians and are entitled to the rights enshrined in the 1992 Constituency to associate and promote a cause, as far as it is legal. Besides, no one is neutral except the hypocrites amongst us. We all vote in elections and have our political preferences. OccupyGhana have said they are actively playing in the political space. What they are guarding against is partisan politics.

As long as they remain relevant in the political space and are putting our elected representatives and appointees of government on their toes, which party they support becomes inconsequential. Besides, there is absolutely nothing wrong if activists want to enter into active partisan politics. The only thing that will be wrong is if they go into active politics with the wrong intention: to create, loot and share, as we are currently experiencing.

I was particularly very happy when I heard that the likes of George Andah, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Philip Addison, as well as other notable men and women want to go into parliament. I know when the NDC opens nominations; we will see equally capable men and women who would want to go into active politics.

This is good for our democracy. For a long time, we have sat on the fence and allowed too many criminals and dimwits into the political space. We have allowed too many idiots to toy with our destiny and that of our unborn generation. We are as stupid as those we have allowed to mess us up.

Politics is a dirty game, we say. Mr. A or Mrs. B is too decent to go into politics. It is this kind of backward thinking that has brought us to our knees. We are too decent to go into politics but we are not too decent to sit, watch and obey the commands of dimwits who would not have qualified to be our house-helps but for politics. We are too decent to go into politics but we are not too decent to sleep in darkness and have our businesses collapse because we don't have electricity. We are too decent to meddle in politics but we are not too decent to suffer from acute water shortage. We are too decent to go into politics but we are not too decent to be seen and tagged as stupid people by Europe, America and Asia because some dimwits have plundered our resources and left us as paupers.

We have too many illiterates in our parliament and the entrance of any serious person should be celebrated and not condemned. We must be led by people who have something to offer.

Last year I was a guest speaker together with a deputy minister of state at a programme organized by the NCCE club of the University for Professional Studies. When the deputy minister was asked to name two acts of patriotism he had exhibited as a young person before becoming a deputy minister of state, he was able to mention only one – his decision to go into politics.

If all that a person has done for Ghana is his decision to go into politics then why should it be normal to such people in government while we vilify accomplished professionals such as George Andah when they take the bold decision to serve?

The strongest test of OccupyGhana's intent and character is not how many of them decide to go into partisan politics. It is what they will do if there is a change of government.

At their public forum on corruption, I said the group would fail if their intention was to make the NDC unpopular and join defunct groups like Kwesi Pratt's Committee for Joint Action (CJA) to sip alvaro if there was a change in government. This is what we wait to see as we watch how the middle class and accomplished professionals will fair in their political bid.

The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a senior broadcast journalist with Joy 99.7FM. His email address is [email protected]