And this was no different this year. Despite it being the first year of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s second term, the country some few protests against his government.
2021 saw arguably the biggest mobilization and uprising against any government in the 4th Republic in #FixTheCountry agitations and protests.
Let’s recap this and other demonstrations that rocked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government this year.
1 . #FixTheCountry Demonstrations: Lead by social media activists, the #FixTheCountry protest on Twitter highlighted economic problems and government management.
This was transferred to the streets when several thousand protesters marched in Ghana’s capital Accra in August under the slogan “#FixTheCountry”.
Dressed in red and black and chanting patriotic songs, protesters waved placards declaring “corruption breeds poverty” and “fix our education system now” as they marched in the city centre.
The police initially secured an injunction to block the demonstration, initially scheduled for May 9, citing concerns over the potential about the observance of Covid-19 safety protocols. The ban was lifted after organizers challenged the decision in court and reached an agreement with authorities on precautions.
The protest was peaceful, with no major incident reported by the end of the day.
2 . NDC Demonstration: Hundreds of opposition supporters marched through the streets of Ghana's capital Accra in July, demonstrating against what they described as rising insecurity and lawlessness since President Nana Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017.
Wearing mostly red or black, the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) danced through the streets with signs such as "You tweeted for George Floyd... Ghanaians have died, speak up!".
Accompanied by the honking of motorcycles and music blasting from pick-up trucks, the group delivered a petition to the offices of the president and the speaker of parliament.
The marchers pointed to a string of high-profile killings across the country.
3 . Ejura Protests: Two persons died while nine others got injured after some residents of Ejura in the Ashanti Region clashed with a joint team of police and soldiers on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.
The clash occurred when some residents pelted stones at the security personnel who were deployed around the burial grounds of the late social activist, Ibrahim Muhammed.
Ibrahim "Kaaka" Mohammed was a member of the Economic Fighters League movement and a vocal critic of the government on social media. Police said they arrested two suspects in connection with his death.
Wearing red armbands and scarfs, the protesters also besieged the Ejura Police Station as they urged officers to speed up investigations into the matter and bring the culprits to book. “The police officers know them [the suspects],” one of the protesters said.
“He had been receiving death threats for his activism on the refuse dump situation. He was being forced to stop pointing out the ills in this area. We are unable to name them but we will revenge if the police fail to arrest them.”
4 . Madina Constituency Roads Demonstration: The Madina MP, Francis Xavier-Sosu on Monday, October 25, 2021, led his constituents to demonstrate over the state of roads in the constituency.
The protest, according to the MP, is to force the relevant authorities to quickly fix deplorable roads in the constituency.
Since the protest, there has been back and forth between the MP, parliament and the police.
The police invited the MP to assist with further investigations regarding the demonstration but all attempts to get the MP had been unsuccessful.
After the Speaker of Parliament declined to release the MP to the police for investigations, the law enforcement agency decided to use the courts.
A criminal summons was then obtained after several failed attempts to arrest the MP for his alleged breach of the law.