Helping to improve national cause

Demonstrations or protests help a government to appreciate the challenges confronting the minority groups and they should not be seen as an opposition to government business.

For us, we believe that demonstrations often inspire positive changes in our civil, political, economic and social life.

Demonstrations also strengthen our democracy as they allow individuals and groups to share their views and expose the flaws in the governance system.

While admitting the crucial role of protests, it is imperative to reiterate the fact that it should not give room or be seen as an avenue to cause disruption to the progress of society.

We must be disciplined and demand the resolution of societal challenges and ensure proper accountability of our governments.

This is why we asked that due process must be followed in all we do as we demand accountability from our duty bearers. We cannot build our democracy by taking the law into our own hands and blame duty bearers for the chaos we create ourselves.

The last two months saw the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a social media group, with the #fixthecountry organise separate demonstrations to demand better services in the country.

While the NDC youth wing demonstration was centred on the demand for justice from the security services, the #fixthecountry group asked for jobs and improvement in the living conditions of Ghanaians.

We are pleased that both demonstrations came off peacefully without any challenges.For us at the Daily Graphic, such peaceful events can only add to the democratic successes we have chalked up since 1992.

In times past, the country witnessed demonstrations where the use of brute force by the security agencies was used to counter the demonstrators.

In some of such demonstrations, we have also had counter demonstrations resulting in unwarranted clashes and injuries to some of the participants.

It is interesting that even with the NDC youth wing’s demonstration, the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, insisted on the use of the agreed routes with the security agencies and it ended peacefully.

In the case of the #fixthecountry demonstration, the acting Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, even met the organisers to review the demonstration to see how the police could do better.

Ghana has indeed come of age in its democratic journey and we believe that we can only improve and get better if we all play by the rules.

Diversity of opinions should not make us enemies but provide us with the opportunity to jaw-jaw instead of war-war.

The Daily Graphic will, therefore, urge all stakeholders in our democratic dispensation to simply follow the provisions in our Constitution and our laws.

It is not in every situation we can have our way but at least we can always have a say in helping to improve the national cause.