Our democracy is diminished if our citizens fear for their lives when they protest - Barker-Vormawor

The outspoken convener of the #FixTheCountry movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has stated that it should be a matter of grave concern in Ghana, if citizens no longer feel safe when they want to express their disagreements about the government through street protests.

He explained that, with the current legal structure in the country, as well as the disproportionate distribution of lawyers versus citizens, the surest way of registering grievances should be through protests or demonstrations.

By this, he expects this practice is encouraged more, rather than suppressed.

“A couple of days ago, Martin Kpebu was talking about how we’ve gotten to a stage where if we can move forward, then it’s more protests and more demonstrations on the streets. And there’s a truth or justice in that. We’re a nation of over 30 million people, which is served by less than 2000 lawyers on an average today, of that, a vast majority are those who offer their services to corporate law firms…

“It is unimaginable to expect that on every public issue, things that affect people’s lives on a day to day, that the vast majority of the 30 million Ghanaians would end up in our courts: it’s impracticable.

“One of the ways in which so many people in our democracy can show their sense of outrage, can demand questions or answers on things affecting their lives, is being able to show that form on the streets. That I put this idea out there on social media and invited young people that we need to do more demonstrations and the overwhelming response is that the police are going to kill us. Our democratic experience is diminished if our citizens fear for their lives whenever they want to have a conversation with their state; when they have to demand more on how we are governed,” he stressed.

Oliver Barker-Vormawor made this known while addressing a cross-section of the media on the sidelines of The Accra Dialogue (TAD) organized by the Institute of Law and Public Affairs (ILPA) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Accra.

It was on the theme, “Cultivating a Non-Violent and Democratic Policing in West Africa.”



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