The Ashanti regional branch of the opposition New Patriotic Party and the party’s Parliamentary Caucus for the region will next week Tuesday lead a massive demonstration dubbed “YA Y3 D3N DEMO”, to wit; “what have we done”, to register their uttermost displeasure over what they believe is the deliberate bastardization of the people of the region, by the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress administration. According to a release signed by the party’s regional secretary, Samuel Pyne, the demonstration will attract about five thousand people who are expected to wear ‘Kuntunkuni’, ‘as a symbol that we are not joking this time’.
Chairman of the Ashanti Regional Parliamentary Caucus and also MP for the Oforikrom constituency, Elizabeth Agyemang, party leaders, Parliamentarians, some national executives, identifiable youth groups, among others, are expected to be in full attendance.
Sam Pyn, in the statement, noted that since the government “for reasons best known to it has decided to turn deaf ears to the plea of the people, it has become necessary that we pour out our frustration through this demonstration…”
“It is obvious the Mahama led NDC government is unable to fulfill the plethora of promises it made to Ghanaians particularly Ashanti Region in the run up to the 2012 elections. The better Ghana promised us has become a mirage and has rather plunged the people of Ashanti Region into an unprecedented hardship,” the release added.
According to the NPP, what annoys the people most is that while Ghanaians are languishing in abject poverty, NDC appointees and their apologists are living lavishly at the expense of the taxpayer, and this they find unacceptable.
According to them, even though they admit that the harsh living conditions are not limited to the region alone, the intensity of the situation in the region is obviously excruciating, adding that hardly does a day pass in Kumasi without continuous power outages, and this they consider to be “mind-boggling.”
“Shockingly, the PRO of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, Nana Yaa Gyantua, has stated categorically that what the people of Ashanti Region is experiencing is way beyond load shedding and very problematic”, the release added.
The NPP recounted how businesses in the region were suffering and had to rely on generators for their activities.
“The cost of production keeps increasing causing businesses to fold up. Jobs are being lost and the people’s despondency keeps heightening. This region houses the largest fraction of the country’s population and so we are alarmed by this unconcerned posture of the government”, Sam Pyne stated.
The release added: “Today analysts and experts are asking that we brace up for a worse energy situation. With the current energy situation, anything worse will actually mean ‘killing’ residents of the region. We can no longer toy with the lives of the people in the region. Now for a Government that promised better living conditions for the people of Ashanti Region, it has now changed to ‘MAHAMA AHOKYER3!!!! and the people respond AGYE B3BIAA!”