The #FixTheCountry convenor was at the finance ministry where some pensioners have been picketing for the past eight days, to lend his support to their call for a total exemption from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
Ofori-Atta came out in the company of some other people from the ministry and security guards to address the pensioners and understand their concerns.
He told the pensioners that their continued picketing was no longer necessary because the government has assured them that all bondholders will be paid upon the maturity of their investments because the Debt Exchange has been a success.
“Really, there is no reason for us to be sitting here because that assurance has been given on paper. I want to know what it is that you are afraid of or that you think will not happen. My issue is that now you have very little of the old bonds existing. This means that, in the event of a crisis, your ability to trade your papers is diminished. But that is the choice you made,” Ofori-Atta said.
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However, Barker-Vormawor tried to speak for the pensioners and asked the minister if they could trust him to cease picketing without the pensioners’ funds being endangered.
His intervention did not sit well with the minister and he asked Barker-Vormawor “are you a pensioner”?
Realising that the confrontation might degenerate, the security officers guarding the minister whisked him away with alacrity.
Meanwhile, Barker-Vormawor maintains that “it is important because our conversation has been about building a protest culture. A culture where persons affected by public policy decisions by political officers do not sit aside but raise their voices and match that voice with the determination to show up when it matters.
“When these things are happening, it is also important that persons are inspired by this in the spirit of resilience. So, with what these pensioners have shown, it is important that we the young ones also show up for them by mobilizing people to carry forward the message of resistance expressed even with their age.”
Ofori-Atta has however promised to respond to the concerns of the pensioners after a meeting with the presidency.
The pensioners are also scheduled to meet with the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and the leadership of the house later today to brief them about their concerns.