Head of Programmes at Democracy Hub, Benjamin Darko, the organizer of the three-day #OccupyJulorbiHouse protest, has explained the inspiration behind the selection of the name for the protest, which was criticized by a section of Ghanaians.
The name, which connotes “the child of a thief,” was heavily criticized by members of the political sphere, particularly the New Patriotic Party (NPP), with the police attempting to stop the protest with a failed injunction.
Master Benjamin, in an interview on The Point of View on Citi TV, indicated that the name was coined to symbolize not only how corrupt the seat of the Presidency has become but also to tag the corrupt individuals who occupy Jubilee House.
“The reason behind the coinage of the name is quite fascinating and though people say it feels bad to describe the seat of the presidency in this manner, it goes beyond the presidency, it also describes the individuals that occupy that space, and we had some goals that we needed to achieve and if you look at the Fix The Country demonstration that we organised, you could see that the message resonated with the demands of many Ghanaians. They are demanding accountability, people feel that our constitution is quite porous and has way too many loopholes and the fact that a vote makes the president a demigod.”
He also spoke about the significance of the selection of days for the Hub and its related protests, and in particular, the September 21 date for the #OccupyJulorbiHouse demo, which happened to be Ghana’s first Prime Minister and President’s birthday.
“For almost all our demonstrations, we do them on specific days. The one we had in Tamale was held on Constitution Day, the one we had in August 2021 was also something that was remarkable and these are days that we deliberately pick and not just because we want to march on those days.”
“Now, on Nkrumah’s Day, we realised that the media does less on the day by just playing some videos but then the thing that he fought for is left to rot away, and so we wanted to drum home that spirit and that is what led us to settle on September 21.”
