A Presidential Staffer, Dr. Michael Kpesah Whyte has stated that \u2018Occupy Flagstaff House\u2019 demonstrators\u00a0 were ignorant of some of the policies introduced by government to address the challenges facing the country hence the decision to protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe, just maybe, these concerns would not have made the space in the paper if we had engaged the public a lot more,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He clarified that it is important for Ghanaians to understand that the government is not deliberately imposing hardships on people.<\/p>\n A group of concerned Ghanaians on Tuesday embarked on a demonstration\u00a0to protest government’s\u00a0inability to urgently address\u00a0issues hindering the nation’s\u00a0development.<\/p>\n They later presented a petition to the President which was received by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Valery Sawyer.<\/p>\n The petition contained a list of concerns the group wanted the government to address including; the erratic supply of electricity nationwide, unreliable supply of potable water across the country, the ever-depreciating value of the cedi, constant increases in taxes, inefficient revenue collection and very poor road networks.<\/p>\n The group also wanted government to address among other issues, the constant increments in utility tariffs, frequent increase in the prices of petroleum products, government\u2019s inability to make statutory payments timeously to schools, health facilities and other state institutions and government\u2019s inability to address labour-related issues on a timely basis.<\/p>\n Responding to these concerns on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong>, Dr. Whyte said: \u201cThe concerns actually validate some of the things government is doing already.\u201d<\/p>\n He stated that the President is not oblivious to the hardships the populace is going through adding that\u00a0the protestors should not assume that \u201cit isn\u2019t the case that nothing has been done.\u201d<\/p>\n The Presidential Staffer said the\u00a0demands of the demonstrators mean government officials should engage the public more on government interventions.<\/p>\n He opined that a lot of social and political commentators \u201clack a lot of information which probably may not entirely be their fault.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Whyte served notice that the government\u2019s communication team will aggressively put into the public domain, \u201cinformation on government programmes and policies and why government is doing things the way it is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n He bemoaned the assertion that government ordered the heavy Police presence during the demonstration adding that, \u201cthey [Police] may be exposed to certain facts\u2026and I think based on the content of those particular facts, the decided to provide that kind of security they did.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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