Can a hashtag ‘fix’ Ghana – and does it need fixing?

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Young Ghanaians have had it with their politicians.

For more than a week now, many have been using social media to send their government a message, using the hashtag #FixTheCountry.

“As the youth, we have to tell these people this way of leading is not OK,” says Dennis Nettey from the town of Dansoman, which is near the capital, Accra. He was one of many Ghanaians who joined this online campaign.

Their list of grievances is long: they complain about unemployment, poor roads, power cuts, water shortages, rising living costs….

The Ghanaian government says this is an opportunity to get people talking about problems that affect everyone.

“This flame that has been lit will not die as a social media hashtag,” Ghana’s Minister for Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told me.

“It will become a rallying cry that gets us all to examine our collective responsibility on what it takes to fix the challenges that are around us.”

But can a hashtag really fix a country?