The use of
social media in Ghana shot to its highest peak on Tuesday following the
reported death of the President of Ghana H.E Prof John Evan Atta Mills later in
the day. Many Ghanaians both home and abroad who could not come to terms with
the news of the President demise relied a great deal on their facebooks,
twitters and blogs to authenticate the news. As news media organizations across
the country run their various major bulletin’s confirming the unfortunate
incident which took place at the country’s 37th military hospital, thousands
of face book and twitter messages of condolences were also slipping in for them
to read. Popular informative radio stations in Ghana including Joy 99.7Fm, Vibe
91.9 Fm, Citi 93.7Fm and Peace 104.3 Fm recorded about hundreds of facebook
likes to their various stories they posted on their respective website whiles
many twits on their page about the death of the president. BiztechAfrica can
confirmed that at the Kaneshie Market Complex where brisk business activities
take place, many Ghanaians especially the market women were left devastated,
other shocked by the news , whiles other were seen weeping with their mobile
phones ear device stuck in their ears either receiving a call
or monitoring one of the radio stations.
The Ghanaian
blogger was not also left out in the quest for accurate information by the
public. Most of their blogs that carried the story of the president’s death saw
a rise in the number of comments left by readers on their blog. According to
one blogger, he was surprise at the massive rise in reader comments on his blog.
Today will go down in history as a day when the Ghanaian blogger could not end
reading comments posted on his blog from readers both home and abroad sending
condolence message to the family and love ones of the late president Prof.
J.E.A. Mills” he said.
Many internet
cafés in suburbs like Kaneshie, Odorkor, Darkuman and Mataheko all within the
capital, Accra that BiztechAfrica visited witnessed high attendance at the cafés with customers
glued either in pairs or groups to their computers surfing the internet to read
more about the sadden death of one of Ghana’s most respected and revered president.
There were
also huge traffic on mobile phone network connectivity in the country as fellow
citizens make phone calls and send text
messages to friends, families and love ones to announce or confirm the death of
their beloved president. Even before an official confirmation of the president of
the president death could reach them, some high ranking officials within the
corridors government confirmed to BiztechAfrica that they have heard about the
sad news through a mobile phone call or a text message or read about it on
their facebook page.
At 16:00 GMT major mobile network
providers including MTN, Vodafone and Tigo have had their entire network jammed
with massive traffic making it difficult even to make or receive calls without
interruption. The situation stabilized at about 20:48GMT when the Vice
President H.E. John Dramani Mahama was
officially sworn in as the President of the Republic of Ghana by Parliament.
Indeed just
as the 24th of July 2012 would go down in history, as a solemn day
where Ghanaian from all walks of live lost a sitting president to the cold icy
hands of death, so it would also be remembered as the day when the tentacles of
social media had a better grips on Ghanaians as a people not to stage an up
rising to overthrow a dictative and oppressive government and president, but to
demonstrate their love, respect, honor and reverence to a beloved and cherished
president H.E Prof. John Evan Atta Mills.
Benjamin Nana Appiah
Acquaye
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