Organisers of the “Wahala” slams Media

THE Committee for Joint Action (CJA), organisers of the “Wahala” demonstrations, has criticised the media for failing in its gate-keeping role by not keeping the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government on its toes.

It accused the media of “ openly glorifying the bad deeds of the government” and added that posterity would judge them.

Mr Bernard Mona, a leading member of the CJA, stated this at a public forum organised by the committee in Accra on Monday.

He noted that instead of the media criticising the bad policies of the government, they had rather turned into praise singers of the Kufuor administration.

According to him, the policies of the Kufuor government had culminated in unemployment which had made women to engage in prostitution.

Mr Mona, who is also the National Youth Organiser of the People's National Convention (PNC), said the rising cost of education, health care, food and the alleged corrupt practices of government officials were all indicative of the fact that there was lack of good leadership.

He suggested that the government could have maintained the import taxes on poultry products and used the proceeds to subsidise the petroleum price increase.

He argued that putting taxes on petroleum products to raise revenue was “a lazy way of generating income.” Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr, another leading member of the group, argued that the importation, refining and other costs of oil production did not exceed ¢13,000 and that government should not peg the price at ¢30,000.

He said the current NPP ministers joined Ghanaians in demonstrating against the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) government when the latter increased fuel prices because the former were buying fuel.

He said the table had now turned and the NDC former ministers and appointees were also feeling the heat because they were no longer in government where they would get free fuel and had now joined in demonstrating against fuel price increases, while the NPP ministers were now comfortable because they also do not buy fuel.

Mr Pratt, who is also the Publicity Director of the Convention People's Party (CPP), said the CJA had no political intention to overthrow the government but to let the government improve the living conditions of the people.

He, however, noted that if the government failed to make life bearable for the people, they would decide to remove it as the constitution had guaranteed, adding that what would keep the government in power was good policies but if they failed “there will be more Asawase.”

The National Youth Organiser of the NDC, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, called on the Auditor General to make public the audited accounts of district chief executives and ensure that those who had squandered state resources were brought to book.

The Deputy General Secretary of the National Reform Party, Mrs Emelia Arthur, also a member of the CJA, said citizens of Ghana had the right to demand quality and affordable health care, water, education and employment.

She urged the CJA members not to take the issues at stake for party political gain, “but is about Ghana, for if we take it like that we will stand against all negative tendencies.