KWESI ANING – Ejura unrest sighn of widespread frustration in Ghana
Director at the Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre has warned of the potential recurrences if nothing is done to address the concerns of the youth.
Prof. Kwesi Aning sees the incident, not as an isolated one, but as a representation of a widespread sentiment of frustration harboured over the period.
“Ejura is only a symbolic representation of the frustrations across this country. Quite a number of our own leaders have spoken about youth frustration, unemployment, as a toxic mix. Ejura has demonstrated that we’ve now moved from the rhetoric of seeming to be concerned…”
He was reacting to the death of two people and the injury of four others after protests by the youth of Ejura Sekyedumase was stormed by security operatives on Tuesday morning.
“When the State and its representatives over time, signal to people, that they don’t matter, it contributes to building frustrations,” he said.
Since the death of the 40-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed, aka Kaaka over the weekend, the youth say they are willing to sacrifice their lives until they get justice for him.
The youth stormed the police station on Tuesday morning to inquire about the extent of investigations regarding the murder of their colleague and #FixTheCountry activist, stressing that they want the Police to leave no stone unturned in bringing the perpetrators to book.
However, things turned turbulent as a joint police and military team accosted the agitated youth on the streets where the 2 were shot in the process.
Speaking in PM Express, the security analyst indicated that efforts by the growing youth to get their voices heard on various pressing issues seem to have been handled with dismissiveness by leadership culminating in what he describes as a looming tipping point.
“We need to say, ‘look, how do we improve our policing so that it doesn’t tip over these aspects of people’s fraustrations,” he told JoyNews.
He further believes that the killing in the Ashanti Regional town could have been avoided if intelligence gathering by the security agencies had been effective.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
