"Support Ghanaian protesters like #EndSARS", Twitter users taunt Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey

Some Twitter users have taunted Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder and CEO, asking him to replicate the support he gave Nigeria’s #EndSARS protesters for #FixTheCountry protesters in Ghana.

Hundreds of opposition supporters gathered in the streets of Accra on Tuesday to protest against police brutality. The police reportedly killed two and injured four demonstrators in the south of the country at the end of June. Twitter had in April 2021 announced the siting of its African headquarters in Ghana because Ghana is "... a champion for democracy, a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate.”

The activists, made up of the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), danced through the streets to protest what they described as rising insecurity and lawlessness since Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017.

Demonstrators chanted and held up placards that read: “Youths are unemployed and crying, fix the country!”; “Ghanaians are dying, Akufo-Addo wake up!”; “You tweeted for George Floyd… Ghanaians have died, speak up!

In October 2020, youths in several states across Nigeria protested against police brutality and human rights abuses by the special anti-robbery squad (SARS).

The protests which received global attention led to the disbandment of SARS.

At the peak of the protests, Dorsey expressed solidarity for #EndSARS protesters.

On October 14, the Twitter CEO retweeted an article about the protests with the #EndSARS hashtag alongside a link to the Feminist Coalition, one of the groups providing support for the protesters at the time.

The post had more than 54,000 retweets and over 1,200 comments.

On the same day, he asked people to donate via Bitcoin to support the movement.

“Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS,” he wrote in the post which has so far garnered over 82,000 retweets, 81,000 likes and more than 4,500 comments.

    Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS ?? https://t.co/kf305SFXze

    — jack (@jack) October 14, 2020

On October 16, Dorsey continued his solidarity for the movement by launching a special emoji to give the protesters more visibility on the microblogging platform.

“#EndSARS,” he wrote in the post announcing the emoji.

And again, on October 21 — hours after the shooting at the Lekki tollgate — Dorsey retweeted posts of prominent figures on the matter, including Rihanna, Barbadian singer, and Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, who wrote at the time: “Hello World, our @NigeriaGov of @MBuhari is killing our young citizens on the street on Lagos now. Join us to #StopNigeriaGovernment Now!!!”

Dorsey then shared link to the Feminist Coalition’s website again where those willing to support the movement can donate.

On Wednesday, some tweeps asked Dorsey to replicate his #EndSARS support for Ghana’s #FixTheCountry protesters.

A Twitter user, Adamu Hayatu, taunted Jack, asking him to support Ghanaian protesters with Bitcoins and an emoji.

“Dear @jack, pleading for emoji and bitcoins for Ghanaian protesters protesting against Police brutality,” Hayatu wrote.

Another user, @Daddy F, asked feminist coalition to provide “pro bono” service to Ghana.

“No assistance from @Mochievous & @feminist_co on some pro bono thingy? What are neighbors for based on ECOWAS thingy?” the user wrote.

- Source: The Cable