A total of 49 persons have been arrested for converging at the 37-bus station in Accra in an attempt to demonstrate to make known their grievances to the government.
They were arrested for unlawful assembly and violation of the Public Order Act.
The police had initiated a process to secure an injunction against the demonstration yet, the demonstrators under the leadership of a group calling itself Democracy Hub have denied being served with a court order against the planned protest.
We conducted a comprehensive analysis of social media comments from five prominent Ghanaian media outlets including GHOne TV, Citi FM, Joy FM, TV3, and Metro TV to ascertain whether Ghanaians were in support of the “Occupy Jubilee Demonstration” organised by the advocacy group called Democracy Hub.
Over three hours, 3,578 comments were meticulously recorded and examined from several videos shared on the social media pages of the Media houses.
TV3 registered 2,588 comments representing 72% of the total comments, Metro TV had 448 comments representing 12%, Citi FM had 308 representing 9%, GHOne TV had 167 comments representing 5 % and Joy FM had 67 representing 2% of the total comments sampled.
The analysis revealed various sentiments among social media users, with several noteworthy observations. Among the commenters, 458 (representing 12.8%) individuals strongly agreed with the decision of the advocacy group to embark on the three-day demonstration as it would reecho the plights of Ghanaians.
A total of 82 (representing 2.3%) commenters disagreed with demonstrators and questioned their motives. They believed that the demonstration was politically motivated and not solely in the interest of Ghanaians as they earlier said. However, 5 (representing 0.1%) commenters were neither in support of the demonstration nor against it but rather questioned the essence of it as there were more pressing issues in the country that needed to be addressed.
Despite the significant viewership and engagement on social media pages during this period, the vast majority of comments, 3,033 (representing 84.8%) did not directly relate to the central discussion. Instead, these comments predominantly consisted of advertisements promoting various products and services, discussions unrelated to the topics being discussed and other commenters simply made mockery of the situation. Some of the unrelated comments were
A piechart of the total comments from each media house
Key Observations
· While there was significant viewership on the social media pages, the number of comments directly related to the discussed matter remained relatively low. This suggests that a significant portion of the audience may have been passive observers rather than active commenters.
· Most of the comments across the various platforms encompass product and service advertisements, and subjects unrelated to the topics under discussion. This diversity in comment content indicates a wide range of interests and engagement styles among social media users.
Conclusion
Based on the analysis provided, it is clear that a portion of Ghanaian social media users express strong sympathy for the Democracy Hub-led protesters, asserting that their actions were well within their constitutional rights. This group contends that the Ghana Police Service had ulterior motives, particularly questioning the timing of their injunction announcement shortly before the demonstration. Furthermore, the advocacy group, Democracy Hub, has refuted claims of being served with any writ related to the injunction, further fueling doubts about the transparency of the legal process.
In summary, the prevailing sentiment among these individuals is a firm belief in every citizen’s right to peaceful assembly, as enshrined in Article 11 of the Constitution. Consequently, they perceive the actions of the Ghana Police Service as an encroachment upon these fundamental rights. It’s worth noting that public opinion can vary widely, and this analysis reflects the viewpoint of a specific segment of Ghanaian social media users.
