Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the media,
1. When we invited you here last week, it was to announce that the Economic Fighters League will participate in the 2024 general elections by offering our platform and support to candidates we consider credible enough to represent the burning needs of the Ghanaian people. We remain a movement, and not a political party. Our interest is to ensure that a credible alternative to the NPP/NDC duopoly is created, allowing the People reclaim their power, even as we create new structures under a New Constitution that operates in the interest of the people.
2. In furtherance of this objective, we have invited you here today to inform you and the general public that the Economic Fighters League is no longer part of #FixTheCountry conveners, emphasis on #FixTheCountry conveners. This decision was not taken by our leadership lightly.
3. #FixTheCountry begun in April 2020 as a brilliant, viral social media hashtag which simply captured exactly the demand of the Ghanaian youth disenchanted with the political and governance systems that at best serve piecemeal progress whiles the conductors of public and political life improved their lives dramatically.
4. The hashtag was unlike the ones that died off after a few hours or days. This one persisted against the predictions of cynics and beneficiaries of the system. But we can’t solve the country’s problems on social media. And a hashtag typed from a place of safety will not be enough to reform the entire Ghanaian governance system. People need to step out of their room, step up on their commitment and moblise our frustration in a coordinated way. The MESSAGE needed a MOVEMENT to direct the energies just as a mirror can direct the energy of the sun to produce a flame.
5. This was how #FixTheCountry MOVEMENT was formed. The Economic Fighters League, as a growing political organization with experienced mobilisers volunteered our platform as an organizational heartbeat, a sort of Central Processing Unit of the computer called #FixTheCountry MOVEMENT. We offered to be co-conveners. As the only convener that was an organisation, the Economic Fighters League’s preexisting structures have fortified the soul of #FixTheCountry. We have been a powerful force for mobilisation, we have been foot soldiers on the ground; we have stood in the ghettos and the high-rises proclaiming the message of FixTheCountry.
6. We have cleaned streets, We have mobilised our members nationwide. We have thrown our institutional weight and machinery behind this movement. We have lost lives already in this response to duty call, as we recall in the murders of Fighter Mohammed Ibrahim Kaaka and #JusticeForKaaka activists in Ejura, and we have seen on public records how justice has been deliberately disregarded in the case(s) of all fallen heroes in this false republic.
7. We joined forces without any conditions because we were happy to work with different groups and characters as long as we were united and committed to the objective of getting Ghana’s political leaders to listen to the cry of the Ghanaian, as long as despite our differences we had a non-negotiable aim of bringing together the voices of oppressed Ghanaians in a powerful declaration of reclamation.
8. The hard acquired, proven and sustained integrity of the Economic Fighters League dictates that we are ready to partner or work with individuals, organizations or groups only and only if our objectives will not be betrayed. Individuals who intend to, or have actually construed #FixTheCountry as yet another political cash cow like we have seen in the past must rethink. #FixTheCountry belongs to the People of Ghana and will remain thus.
9. Sadly, the #FixTheCountry conveners platform no longer offers a conducive environment for honest and credible mobilisation. The selfish interest of some appears to be driving the movement to what we feared most, namely that the hard work of the numerous activists will be cultivated to benefit certain partisan political interest. Our independent thought is gradually being replaced with remotely controlled
thinking and accountability levels are falling worryingly. The people’s movement is being lost and we have a duty to safeguard it.
10. Like so many of our fellow conveners, we have put everything into this, and so cannot and will not be complicit in actions that will compromise the People’s revolution. We are adamant that the effort to liberate Ghana from the stranglehold of the false republic remains centred on the Ghanaian people and the fight for economic democracy.
11. #FixTheCountry is a call to duty which we at Fighters affirm is in consonance with our objective of economic democracy for the People. It is a rallying cry borne out of the popular discontent of the masses. It is a message we believe in and shall continue to project because it falls within our nationalist/patriotic objective. The Economic Fighters League’s loyalty is to the MESSAGE #FixTheCountry and not to the MOVEMENT which is now in a fix. Our loyalty is to real people – any people – who genuinely seek for this country to be fixed.
12. The Economic Fighters League is now part of the message which Ghanaians identify with as a message to liberate them from the oppression of NPP/NDC duopoly. The Economic Fighters League considers it within our mandate to guard #FixTheCountry from becoming another CJA – AFAG – Occupy Ghana, where works and efforts are appropriated to the benefits of NPP or NDC. We are best positioned to do this from outside the convener space.
13. One of the objectives of the Economic Fighters League is to get the economy working in favour of the economically disadvantaged. We are tired of the excuses and political games when simple commitments, genuine patriotism can get Ghana working. To achieve this, we have for years diagnosed our problem down to the Sakawa 1992 constitution and advocated against the false republic of Ghana, which is propped up by an unproductive and corrupt track records of the NPP and NDC administrations.
14. We continue to champion the mobilization geared towards the dismantling of this rotten system, but are also aware that even as we address the abolition of the rotten foundation that is the 1992 Constitution we must also urgently work to reclaim Power for the People. We cannot effectively dismantle the rotten system without preparing the People who will be the custodians of the new one. This is one of the reasons why Fighters, on the 1st of December 2021, declared our intention to facilitate the building of an alliance or coalition with individuals and/or organizations with the shared objective of reclamation of Power for the People of Ghana. In this regard
we are ready to field #FixTheCountry parliamentary candidates to hold the fort in parliament as we fight in the
streets to restore the hope and dignity of our people.
15. The time of redemption is upon us and we must answer the clarion call of duty to restore the Ghana republic. We must save our nation from the death grips of neocolonialism and rid her of all neocolonialist agents. The time has come for the sons and daughters of mother Ghana to stand in unity of purpose and take on the responsibility of leadership to ensure the successful socialist reconstruction of our Nation.
16. The leadership of the Economic Fighters League has deliberated this difficult and sad decision very carefully. It is in our mandate as vanguards to always put you, the People, first and to stand with you at all times. Our primary role is to ensure that the painful sacrifices and hard work by everyday Ghanaians such as AMG Dangote, Unscripted the Poet, Sandra Esinam, Owura Kwaku, Edem Robby Abbeyquaye, E.O Ntiamoah, Nana Shady, Jamal Yves and countless others do not go to waste as has been the case in movements in our recent past.
17. Here I will address all Fighters. We have not brought you this far to betray you. As you continue to believe in us we assure you that we will continue to put your interests and those of Mother Ghana first. This position is non-negotiable. To our comrades in the #FixTheCountry movement, to some of you this will seem like a betrayal. Know that your efforts are seen. We respect you, we love you, and we believe that in time you will understand why this action is necessary.
I will state this again for clarity. While we are no longer Conveners of the #FixTheCountry movement, #FixTheCountry remains a message we believe in, and shall continue to project. Towards Economic Democracy, Towards a New Constitution. Towards a New Ghana.
Until we are ALL free.
Thank you.
Revolutionary Regards,
CIC Ernesto Yeboah
Commander-in-Chief
Economic Fighters League
April 26, 2022
June 28, 2021
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