Hundreds of residents in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region on Friday, December 3, 2021, poured onto the streets to demonstrate to call on the government to drive development in the area.
Led by the conveners for the #FixTheCountry movement, the residents clad in red bands had inscriptions such as “Why is Obuasi poor?”, “Mr. President please save Obuasi. AGA is killing us”, “AGA is for Adansi not for any other”, “No small scale mining, no AGA” among others.
The residents lamented that the mining town of Obuasi and its environs have been lagging behind in terms of development.
They also complain about the high unemployment rate in the area.
They are thus calling on government to pay attention to the plight of the people in the area.
“We don’t understand why a town, endowed with so many natural resources, mining town as such, continues to crawl on its belly. Where are we heading towards,” a resident complained.
Another resident said, “we want the government to as a matter of urgency turn its gaze on this town. We deserve better than we are getting. Enough is enough,” another resident said.
A convener of the #FixTheCountry movement, Ernesto Yeboah, who led the group, in an interview with Citi News said “Our own GSS has said about 9 million Ghanaians are unable to feed with just GHS 5.00 a day. There is so much hardship in the system.”
“But for us gathered here, we are presenting a question to the government, and we demand answers. Why is Obuasi poor? Considering the resources, it is blessed with. Why are the people living in abject poverty?”
