The ECOWAS Summit is in town, another fuel shortage is in the works, #OccupyFlagStaff House came and went without any meaningful change, and thus the organisers of the protest have decided that it is time to make their voices heard again.
The Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Governance (CGRC), are complaining that the issues raised in the petition they presented on July 1 has not been addressed, therefore the new campaign ‘Red Friday’ is aimed at forcing government to adhere to the concerns raised about the state of the Ghanaian economy.
Under the campaign, workers are to wear red attire to dub the day, and Ghanaians are supposed to raise pertinent issues on social media using the hashtag #redfriday.
It is an innovative move, no doubt aimed at the significant drawing power of social media in this globalised environment. And indeed a cursory look on twitter already shows hundreds of tweets using the #redfriday hashtag.
No doubt there are a lot of issues on our minds, so you can head on over to any social medium and make your voice heard, we don’t know if anyone will listen but at least we’ll know we have tried.
The group CGRC released a statement on the #redfriday protest, signed by its secretary George Kojo Anti and addressed to the President, lining up the issues the group has with the running of our country now.
Below is the full statement on the Red Campaign from CGRG
“Unable to continue to sit back and watch Ghana needlessly slide into economic disarray and the kind of national disgrace that typified the participation of our unique national asset, the Black Stars, in the World Cup, on Republic Day Tuesday, 1st July, 2014, we, the members of the non-partisan civil society group Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Governance, stood up to demand better from our government. In doing so, we acted in the finest traditions of citizen engagement, believing that to be our right and duty.
In the petition we handed to presidential staffers on that day, we made very clear economic demands of the presidency. The demands were not new, but the issues they were to address have persisted beyond reasonable time, leading to a most probable conclusion that either the government has real capacity issues or simply unwilling to budge.
Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Government has decided that it will press on through a campaign of civic engagement and mobilization solely aimed at bringing more concerned Ghanaians together to spur the kind of action needed to reverse the rapidly deteriorating economic situation and to enhance the quality of political discourse.
This Friday, July 11th, Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Government will launch a new campaign called The RED Campaign – #REDFRIDAY. We plan to engage Ghanaians across the board through all appropriate media, with social media as a primary outreach vehicle. Each week, from Sunday to Thursday, the campaign will put out petition points and encourage their dissemination across major social media platforms and traditional media outlets. On Fridays, Ghanaians will be encouraged to join discussions on social media. It is important that Ghanaians using social media to participate in these discussions use the hash tags #redfriday and #occupyflagstaffhouse, as by doing so, it will be possible to gather important data for the campaign.
We will also encourage Ghanaians to wear the colour red on Fridays as the primary means of indicating solidarity with the campaign. Lastly, we encourage Ghanaians to post photos and videos of themselves in red engaged in this campaign, via the hash tags #redfriday #occupyflagstaffhouse.
Please visit the Face book pages CONCERNED GHANAIANS FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNANCE or OCCUPY GHANA for more information.
Do not sit unconcerned. Arise and get involved.
Ghana Deserves Better!
GOD BLESS OUR DEAR HOMELAND GHANA!!!
Thank you for your kind attention.”
SIGNED: George Kojo Anti
Executive Secretary