Western Region Went Gay With “Wahala”

The CJA-Organisers of the Wahala marches took the twin city of Sekondi/Takoradi by storm last Saturday and set the city agog with an early morning display of “Hardships with Happiness” when the residents turned out in their numbers to participate in the 8th in the series of country wide demonstrations against the hardships imposed and the insensitivity displayed by the NPP Government of President Kufuor.

Against the backdrop of a heavy downpour of rain in the right which threatened to mar the demonstration but which must have gladdened the hearts of the NPP supporters in the metropolis, the march got off to a slow start but picked up numbers as it rolled along.

Earlier the previews night, NPP activists and state security operatives had attempted to derail the march by first causing announcements to be made in the communities that the demonstration had been postponed and also the hanging of large anti-Wahala banners at conspicuous points in the metropolis.

However, the CJA stalwarts had devised a counter-strategy. Instead of starting off from a common point, they broke the group up into three. The first group led by Kwesi Pratt gathered at the main starting point at the Nzema roundabout. The second group led by former President J.J. Rawlings started off from in front of the Lower Pra Rural Bank at Effiakuma, whilst the third group led by 2004 NDC flagbearer Professor J.E.A. Mills approached from the Kwesimintsim area. When the three groups converged at the Nzema roundabout, it was a sight to behold, like two smaller rivers joining a big river, and the number swelled as the march gathered momentum, till at the terminating point, the crowd numbered about 15,000.

The demonstration, which started around 9.00am ended round 11.30am. Former President Rawlings, who was the keynote speaker, in his very brief address an account of the fact that the NDC participants in the demonstration had to leave early to attend the burial and final funeral rites of former NDC Deputy Regional Minister, Mr. H.Q. Jehu-Appiah at Musano Village near Agona Swedru, touched on corruption and human rights abuses under the Kufuor Presidency as a follow up to the CJA's own written statement earlier given to the press in which they raised issues about the current hardships in the society with particular reference to the prices of petroleum products.