Joshua Boye Doe, a social media influencer, popularly known as KalyJay, has cited fear that engulfed his family to the point of urging him to quit a campaign he started, as the reason behind his decision to not join a demonstration that was staged as part of the call on the government to fix the country.
In 2021, KalyJay via Twitter, initiated the hashtag #FixTheCountry. This was received by many Ghanaians who craved a new society founded on justice. It consequently sparked a national conversation over the course of the country and the prospects for the future.
As the campaign gained momentum, several thousands of protesters marched on the streets of Accra on August 4, 2021, to demand accountability, and better living conditions, among others from the government.
But Kalyay, known to have founded the campaign, was missing in action. Explaining his absence, the 26-year-old said “I didn’t join because there was tension, and my family members and some of my friends made me hide in the shadows for a while.”
The young man who appeared on The Delay Show, indicated that his decision to quit the campaign was not because he did not have the balls to finish what he started but he had to take heed to concerns of family, especially when the campaign became politicized.
“It’s not about me having balls. When I started the campaign, it was non-partisan, it was to call for change in the lives of the normal Ghanaian. Along the line, it became politicized; I realized the whole campaign was losing its motives, so I had to withdraw because I’m not a political person.”
KalyJay
Touching on how the campaign began, KalyJay said he used to tweet about football and issues that had nothing to do with politics until he realized how influential he was. Having assessed his strength and the challenges the Ghanaian people were facing coupled with the government’s posture, he decided to express himself.
“Hammered on social issues, I used my platform to talk about what ought to be changed. I believe if you have the voice, you have to sometimes speak for the people who don’t have the voice. You see schools under trees, hospitals without beds, whenever I hammered on it, it’d pick up; along the line, ‘fix the country’ was born. I started it on Twitter.”
KalyJay
What Initiated ‘Fix The Country’ Mantra
Joshua Boye Doe started the #FixTheCountry campaign in 2021, and had many Ghanaians join the campaign that called for accountability, good governance, better standard of living, among others, from the government.
The campaign which started on social media transcended to the mainstream with many people joining the chorus of advocacy. While refuting claims political opponents offered him money to embark on the campaign and continuously haunt the government, Joshua Boye Doe (KalyJay) said he meant well when he started the campaign.
“Not even a single pesewa,” he said on The Delay Show when asked if he was influenced by anyone. “At the point I started FixTheCountry.”
“I looked at my life, I was making money on social media; I looked at my friends and my circle and I realized that there are people in my circle that are way brilliant and needed an opportunity to work but they were not getting it.
“People came to my DM asking for money for school fees, money for healthcare. I sometimes give them if l had, it got to a time, I got fed up. I realized that if the system was working, some of these burdens would not be on me.”
KalyJay
KalyJay admitted to becoming more popular and meeting ambassadors but was quick to add that these were realized “because of my hard work.”
“Before #FixTheCountry, people knew me on Twitter. I can change the trends on Twitter. I know I have that power. I was raising funds for people on Twitter before #FixTheCountry.”
KalyJay
When asked if he would also admit that he started something that became bigger than him, the social media influencer responder in the affirmative, “Yeah, I started something and it became bigger than me; and it became politicized. After the whole thing went down, I started to reflect.”
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