Ace journalist and managing editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has said the security situation in West Africa is so grave that any “kume preko” type of protest in Ghana could spell doom for the country.
“Kume preko” is a demonstration that hit the country in 1995 and it is arguably the biggest protest to have occurred in Ghana’s history.
The high cost of living and the imposition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on items fueled the demonstration against the then Rawlings administration.
Speaking with Nana Yaa Mensah on Sunday Night on Asaase Radio on the assertion that there is no difference between the “kume preko” era and situations that brought the likes of OccupyGhana, #FixTheCountry movement and Arise Ghana, Pratt said, “I disagree, there’s a lot of difference. So much difference…”
He said the current security situation in West Africa has added something else to the situation which existed in the mid-1990s.
Pratt said, “You have to understand the geopolitics of West Africa…history proves that what happens in the 15 countries in this region has a rippling effect in other countries…today, Nigeria is suffering from the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East of Nigeria.
“In the Niger Delta area there’s low-intensity civil war, in the east there’s the threat of Biafra; Nigeria is completely destabilized … There have been four coups in West Africa in the last two years; this whole situation in West Africa did not exist then … So the general geopolitics of West Africa has added something else to the situation which existed in the mid-1990s. And I’m afraid that if it gets to an explosion today the consequences may be direr than the consequences of “kume preko.”
Source: asaaseradio