Enough is Enough demo: Watch how NDC protestors held swimming competition in $58 million National Cathedral pit

It was one of those blistering afternoons in Accra, a day when it appeared that the sun was determined to roast the earth. Hundreds of National Democratic Congress (NDC) protestors had thronged the streets in yesterday's September 17 "Enough is Enough" demonstration against the Electoral Commission, with banners held high and chants rising like the heat waves above the cracked asphalt.

The demonstration wound its way through the city to converge finally on the controversial construction site of a National Cathedral, which had moved from a land of promise to a bastion of frustration and mismanagement. At the center lies a gaping pit, the center of stalled construction, ringed by rusting cranes and abandoned equipment. In fact, what was once to be grand had become a scar in the landscape, a constant reminder of how progress was stalled.

A small group of protestors detached itself from the larger crowd and formed up at the edge of the pit, staring into the hazed water below. Kwame Mensah, a young firebrand who had been vocal during the protest-suddenly yelled out, "If they won't give us what is due us, then we'll take what they have abandoned!" So saying, he kicked off his sandals, threw his shirt to one side, and, prior to anyone trying to stop him, dived into the stagnant pool.

Young men and women discarded their placards, shirts, and shoes and jumped in. The cool, though dirty, water relieved them somewhat from the scorching heat, and a few moments later, the abandoned pit echoed with the cacophony of joy-the sounds of splashing and laughter-a strange, yet heart-wrenching contrast to the conscientiousness of the protest.

Some lingered on the sidelines and watched the spectacle, for the most part impassively. Several shook their heads in horror, and others taped it on their phones. A chant began to rise once more, "We will rise, we will fight! " as those in the pit swam back and forth some climbing out only to jump back in again in competition.

The swimming then became the symbolic act of daredevil nature, symbolic of how these people were ready to reclaim what was abandoned by the authorities.

News of the impromptu swim spread like wildfire on social media. By evening, videos of the protestors who were splashing in the abandoned pit went viral, capturing the attention of not only Ghanaians but international observers. It wasn't just a protest anymore; it had turned into a spectacle-a living, breathing metaphor of people's determination to dive headfirst into the problems facing the country. The message had been rendered loud and clear: the abandoned National Cathedral site, with its gaping hole and stagnant waters, was only a pointer to promises that were broken. And where the authorities abandoned it, the people wouldn't.

Watch video below: