75% of Ghanaians endorse lockdown - CDD report

A recent Afrobarometer report released by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has discovered that 75% of Ghanaians are willing to accept restrictions on their freedom of movements, such as curfews and roadblocks, in times of security threats.

Per the findings of the survey, the willingness to accept government restrictions on movement was lower in the Greater Accra Region (64%) than in the Ashanti region (79%).

The report which was conducted between September 16 and October 3, 2019 sampled views from some 2,400 “adult Ghanaians.”

“In late 2019, three-quarters (75%) of Ghanaians said the government should be able to curtail people’s movement in the face of threats to security,” the report said.

“While the data suggest that a majority of citizens are likely to adhere to the lockdown directive, significant proportions of the population – one in four citizens nationwide, one in three in Greater Accra, and one in five in Ashanti – expressed opposition, as of late 2019, to restrictions on their movements even in the face of a security threat.”

The organisation conducted the report ahead of the lockdown of Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi by the government as part efforts to fight the novel coronavirus which has infected some 152 people in Ghana.