Fighter General of the Economic Fighters League, Hardi Yakubu, has disclosed that politicians in the country have mastered the art of deception in his expression of doubt about the intention of government to create 1 million jobs for the youth, starting next year as captured in the 2022 budget.

According to him, the intervention, dubbed “YouStart,” announced by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta when he presented the 2022 budget is a political “gimmick”. Based on historical experience, the League stated that it has come to a conclusion on how political operatives have used measures and languages that are catchy to cause people to forget about their hardships.

“Ghanaian politicians have mastered the art of deception and they are able to come up with slogans that have the purpose of bamboozling the public into believing that there is some scintilla of hope in whatever promises they are making”.
Mr Hardi Yakubu

Mr Yakubu described the ‘YouStart’ intervention as a “deliberate attempt to lag the angst of the people against the increasing hardship that is now going to be exceedingly increased to an unbearable level”.

The Fighter General of the League insisted that budget had “no hope for the people of Ghana”, urgingthe public to join in their planned Friday demonstration. The planned protest, he revealed, is scheduled for Friday, November 26 and spearheaded by the FixtheCountry Movement.

Leaders of the FixTheCountry Movement had equally criticised certain aspects of the Budget in the past by describing it as “ridiculous”, hence their decision to resent it. In a statement, the Movement revealed that the 2022 Budget smacks of “purposeful deceit” and “the absence of truth and genuine accountability”, a situation, the conveners say, they will not tolerate.

Police requests postponement of protest

Elaborating on their planned protest, Mr Yakubu indicated that the Police has requested the duo to postpone its planned protest against the 2022 budget on Friday, November, 26, 2021. He explained that the call was made during a meeting with the Greater Accra Region Police on Monday.

Mr Yakubu noted that in spite of plea from the League, the Police have refused to rescind their decision in cancelling the protest. He insisted that the posture of the Police is irrelevant as the law required them to only notify the law enforcement agency.

“We have notified the Police according to the law and I remind my fellow citizens that we do not require permission from the Police to demonstrate. We have done what the law requires us to do which is to notify them at least five days before. They called us for a meeting today [Monday] we went. As usual, they were asking us to change our date and route and we are not going to accept that request”.
Mr Hardi Yakubu

That notwithstanding, the Fighter General of the League urged Ghanaians to join in the planned protest to express their dissatisfaction with the policies in the 2022 budget.

“On 26th November, the demonstration is going to happen and we are calling on all Ghanaians to come out in their numbers at Accra Tema Station at 8am. We are marching straight to Parliament House to instruct them to their faces as people that we have employed to reject the budget because it does not represent our interest”.
Mr Hardi Yakubu