#FixTheCountry could be a threat or an opportunity – Okudzeto Ablakwa warns politicians

• Okudzeto Ablakwa has commended the youth for speaking out against the leadership of the country

• Ablakwa says he impressed with the #FixTheCountry campaign

• He wants leadership to address the issues raised by the campaigners

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu has charged political leadership to pay particular attention to the issues being raised by the #FixTheCountry advocates.

In an interview on GhanaWeb's news program, The Lowdown, Okudzeto Ablakwa said that the campaign presents leadership an opportunity to understand the views of the country’s youth and engage them on how the country can be developed.

According to him, though it is the duty of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take the lead in solving the problems highlighted by the campaign, it is imperative that leadership at every level take lessons from it.

“I have said that this offers either an opportunity or a threat. It could be an opportunity if leadership listens. When I say leadership, I mean MPs, ministers and the president. "The President must even listen more because the buck stops with him and he is in control of our national resources. The onus is more on the president but all of us in leadership positions must take responsibility.”

Okudzeto commended the campaigners stressing that the movement marks a re-awakening of consciousness among the Ghanaian youth.

He told GhanaWeb’s Ismail Akwei that at some point he became concerned that the youth of the country had become ‘too docile’ but the emergence of the #FixTheCountry brigade fills him with confidence that youth activism is still present in the country.

“Let me commend the youth of our country for starting this very impactful … It’s been really impactful and it took cyberspace by storm and they’ve made tremendous impact in terms of the buy-in and the followership they’ve been able to garner and see how they’ve been trending for weeks. I don’t recall in living memory the last time we had a movement dominate cyberspace, social media and engage the attention of the nation like this group has done”.

The movement which started on social media site Twitter found its way onto main media platforms and forced conversations about how the country is being governed.

The convenors of the crusade have made attempts at staging demonstrations but have been unsuccessful so far following what appears to a decision by the Ghana Police Service to prevent any protest against the government.

Last month, the group held a virtual protest after the police secured a restraining order against their march slated for May 9, 2021.