Aged demo rocks Kumasi

Elderly women campaigners, who are trying to save jobs and businesses in the country from folding up, will take to the streets of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, today.

This will be the latest dumsor demonstration to pressurize President John Mahama to step up action to end the ongoing power crisis.

The protest dubbed: ”?merewa ?’su” (the aged are waling), is expected to draw hundreds of senior citizens.

It follows countless promises and assurances by government officials that have yielded no results since the nation was plunged into the energy crisis over three years ago.

The nation’s blackouts are said to be caused by power supply deficit, forcing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to regularly shed load.

Maame Serwaa, 74-year-old convener of the protest march, said the impact of the unstable electricity supply in the country had brought the economy on its knees, with its accompanying job losses and collapse of businesses.

She told DAILY GUIDE that she was anticipating that the dumsor demonstration would be the last straw to break the camel’s back.

“The aged in demonstration should tell you the level of public anger surrounding the power crisis. It’s a reflection of it. It is a clear signal of our displeasure of this phenomenon,” she posited.

According to Maame Serwaa, people are angry because they have lost their jobs; their businesses have gone down the drain and still counting. “We the aged in the society are displeased with the magnitude of emotional and economic hardship the ‘dumsor’ is having on [our] society, most especially the senior citizens who are supposed to be preserved and safeguarded,” she bemoaned.

The 74-year-old lady indicated that the media industry had also been greatly affected by the unstable power situation and called on other senior citizens to join them for the protest.

She said she was unfazed about being tagged with any political colour.