For the better part of Saturday, government communicators, who usually are all over the place during demonstrations, were dumbfounded, like a boxer against the ropes being pummeled to death by his opponent.
So mammoth was the crowd that the man with the Accra acquired celebrity status, comedian and actor, David Oscar, when he noticed he was no star compared to the organiser of the vigil, Yvonne Nelson, whom he hurled insults at prior to the event, resorted to the distribution of candles to arrest attention.
The peaceful vigil was to put fire under government’s feet to find lasting solution to the rampant power crisis. The march, which had many celebrities of international and local standard in movie and music industries in attendance began at about 4; 30pm, from the old entrance to the University of Ghana; down through to the Tetteh Quarshie round-about with the protestors wielding placards with all kinds of inscriptions, whilst others carried empty coffins and spoilt fridges on their heads all the way through the almost 1kilometer journey.
Things however nearly took a nasty turn when worst critics of the celebrities, Alhaji Halidu Haruna turned up to join in the protest.
But for the timely intervention of the police, the presidential staffer who described women over the age of 30 as prostitutes and later apologised would have been lynched by the protestors who hooted at him, as tempers flared Another student, later identified as the secretary of the University of Ghana TEIN, who was spotted in a T-shirt with the inscription "Mahama will succeed" was escorted from the protesters.
The young man had his shirt ripped apart by some members of the demonstration who did not want to see any party paraphernalia at the venue. They left him bare-chested.
Its was a crowed of mixed generations, with representations from especially the youth, businessmen, lawyers, some Members of Parliament, and the ordinary Ghanaians who are feeling the heat from the power crisis.
In an interview with the former General Secretary of the NPP, Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie who also joined the celebrities in the protest march, he said, the NDC government has decided not to pay heed to the plight of the ordinary Ghanaians and that “The masses can only resort to such protest march to vent out their frustrations, and I think it’s better than silence which in itself is a killer”.
“The President said he won’t listen to anybody and that he has also caught the dead goat syndrome so no amount of demonstrations will move him into swift action but he can be assured that we are aware and we know where to dump a dead goat come 2016”, he added.
One of the actors and organizers of the vigil, Van Vicker also stated that the government’s assurances and failed promises were way too much in three years and he would appreciate government stopped preaching about their efforts and starts talking about the results.
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