#WeAreAllKaaka

 

This is the hashtag of the #FixTheCountry movement in the statement released by the group @ghfixthecountry, following the killing of Ibrahim Mohammed aka Kaaka. For how it resonates with me, I fully associate with it and take the liberty to use it.  

Like many in Ghana, I have also read and heard the news of the killing of Kaaka and matters following. Kaaka is reported to be a journalist, a social activist and member of the #FixTheCountry movement. He was killed under circumstances yet to be unravelled if ever and as expected, several theories are already making the rounds about the motive behind the incident. We may get to the bottom of it or yet again, we may never get beyond the news value of the moment.

For some reason, whenever I hear such reports, I think of the unfettered influx and use of drugs (you know the types), and the obvious progression from a transit to a user country. I think of the challenge of small arms and increasingly bigger arms including those from official armouries in the hands of just about anyone who wants them. I think of the general intolerance of differences encouraged by and fed on by political and self-seeking interests which is taking the place of reasonable discourse. I cringe at the unrestrained greed and extravagance of people with ‘power’ plundering the resources of the vulnerable and the public. I think of the profane misuse of the media- and I am not just talking of the vulgarism, but the sheer lawlessness and dishonesty thrown recklessly at us. I worry about the unrelenting security blunders. I think of EDUCATION or the lack thereof. I think of the growing anger and desperation of the vulnerable, marginalized and oppressed, many of whom will soon exhibit the ‘power’ they don’t think they have, if not already. Oh, and I remember a certain Mr. Osei who has been drawing attention to the mental health situation in Ghana for a while now. There’s just so much that such reports throw up! And for some reason, I think that these are connected and inextricable from the current headline, the daylight robberies, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I may be wrong but while ‘investigations’ get along on Kaaka and all others, and I hope we catch somebody; I wonder about these matters and how perhaps #FixTheCountry is about all of these things and how that slogan is quite appropriately a call on everyone. Fix the country may very well be fix me, fix you, fix us, fix the system, fix our society…and whatever the heck we want to call it.

Something is broken - question is, who is going to fix it, and who is going to make them?

#IAmKaaka

#IAmCaleb

#IAmSuale

#IAmAnyOtherSomebodyWhoMayKillOrBeKilled