NDC Demo Flops - Daily Guide

The much-hyped National Democratic Congress (NDC)-led demonstration, yesterday failed to pull the expected 50,000 protesters, the organizers had assured they had in waiting, and eventually garnered just under 1000 marchers.

The demonstrators came in trickles of 100, 60 and 50 after starting the march from Kwame Nkrumah Circle, and ended up with a rally at the Osu Cemetary.

The turn-out was so poor that media houses were struggling to put figures on it. Various media houses quoted different figures, with the BBC pegging it at 200 while JoyFM put it at 500. TV3 on the other hand generously put it in the 100s.

Representatives of media houses and security personnel enhanced the turn-out by their presence, as they expected a large assemblage to the NDC call, but ended up being disappointed. Not even the presence of former President Rawlings who jetted in from Nairobi Kenya on Saturday, to enable him to participate in the march in the company of his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and Prof. John Atta Mills, could muster the expected turn-out.

The former president, who was not spotted for the most of the march, was eventually seen perspiring profusely as he clutched a bottle of mineral water. He was surrounded by a horde of machomen, as he walked for a while before taking a ride in a vehicle. Other NDC leaders like E.T. Mensah, MP for Ningo Prampram and a former minister of youth and sports and Edward Salia, MP for Jirapa were seen driving in their vehicles. A bystanding elderly woman asked how much NDC would have sold a gallon of petrol had it been in power.

The number of people who responded to the call, some of whom came from Konkonba market sporting t-shirts with the picture of the late Ya-Na and inscriptions like ?who killed Mobilla? And in NDC colours, to join in what the organizers dubbed "wahala March", fell so much below expectation that one cop was overhead quipping: "this is disappointing. We expected something bigger.