74-year-old Maame Serwaa leading the oldies
Street protests in the country took a different turn yesterday as over 50 senior citizens in the Ashanti Regional capital braved early morning breeze to march against rising cost of living, the power crisis and the general economic hardship in the country.
The demonstration, which was deemed unprecedented in the nation’s history, took many residents by surprise, with the protesters – mainly old ladies – wailing and rolling on the ground to signify their sufferings and pains.
The demonstration, which was dubbed, “Mmerewa re su” (old ladies are wailing), commenced around 9:30 am at the precincts of the Kumasi Centre for National Culture, with the protesters clad in red and black apparels.
The protest march, which aimed at putting pressure on government to be up-and-doing in the face of the economic meltdown, also demanded a quick fixing of the increasing rationing of electricity and the collapsing National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
According to the oldies, the high cost of living, power outages, frequent hike in fuel prices and their attendant hardships were taking a heavy toll on them, as most of their breadwinners had either lost their jobs or their businesses had collapsed.
The protesters said the NHIS had become a dead horse since it could no longer offer them the needed healthcare services as it was instituted to do, insisting that the capitation had contributed to the scheme’s current challenges.
They were also concerned about the recent cancellation of five papers in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) being conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), and described the development as frustrating not only to the candidates, but parents as well.
oldies demo 2Led by one Maame Serwaa, the old ladies threatened to strip naked and march to the Flagstaff House in Accra if the harsh economic condition and the dumsor persisted.
It is the latest protest against the NDC government led by President John Dramani Mahama, following countless promises and assurances of government officials that had yielded no results.
Seventy-four-year-old Maame Serwaa had earlier reiterated to DAILY GUIDE that the impact of the unstable electricity supply in the country had brought the economy to its knees.
