ACCRA (Reuters) - More than
2,000 Ghanaians took to the
streets of the capital Accra on
Thursday as part of planned
nationwide protests against
what they say is the government's mishandling of
the economy. The demonstration was
organised by the biggest labour
union – the Trades Union
Congress (TUC) – and was the
first nationwide protest since
President John Dramani Mahama took office in January last year.

The president is under pressure
to turn around the economy of
the oil, cocoa and gold-
producing nation, once regarded
as one of Africa's hottest
frontier markets but now saddled with high inflation and
a stubbornly wide government
deficit. Inflation is running at close to
15 percent and the local cedi
currency has fallen by around
30 percent against the dollar
since January. The demonstrators, many
wearing red shirts, armbands
and headbands, red being the
TUC's colour, chanted anti-
government slogans and blew
on Vuvuzela horns as they marched peacefully through the
streets of Accra, escorted by
the police. "Fatal error, (President John)
Mahama's government must
reboot now", read one placard
held up by a demonstrator. "Fix
the cedi now" and "Eh?
Somalia's shilling is doing better than Ghana's cedi?" were
among others. Ghana is still one of the fastest-
growing economies in sub-
Saharan Africa, but even the
middle class are suffering
financially. Kudjoe Kyei, a 39-year old
company driver said he joined
the protest because the
economic hardship had become
unbearable. "Prices of goods are going up
every day and we can't
continue pretending," he told
Reuters, adding that one of his
two daughters had dropped out
of school because he no longer had money to pay for her
tuition.

http://news.yahoo.com/ghanaians-protest-against-governments-handling-economy-120007929.html

God save Africa.