Did Prez Mahama know about this letter? ...Someone is insulting Ghanaians
Three decades after I heard the word, ‘Galamsey’ and nearly two years after that word became a synonym for “national suicide”, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (in effect, the Government of Ghana) is asking for transcripts of a radio programme aired in September 2016 to enable it to conduct investigations into the harmful effects of galamsey!.
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I felt insulted.
There are two effects shock treatment produces in the human mind: to laugh or to cry. Listening to the Citi Breakfast Show last Monday morning, methinks I did hear a smothered laugh and I swear, I did hear the lady on the show fight back a tear. About the gasps of incredulity by all around, I am absolutely certain.
And why not? It was incredible that a Ministry with more than a fistful of staff in every region and district, each with access to Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), V8s and other “ordinary” cross-country vehicles, plus better monitoring devices, would depend on reports of the lone correspondents of a radio station. My point is, if a radio station with such anaemia of resources, could get a staff to these spots, why not the ministry, with secret service intelligence agents in National Security and BNI at its disposal?
Accessibility aside, what evidence does the Ministry need that has not been produced by the CSIR’s Water Research Institute and Water Resources Commission in the last 10 years? How many cups of creamy coffee/tea/cocoa and imported biscuits (some of the times, sandwiches) have not been sipped and munched in-between sessions of countless seminars and lectures and stakeholder consultations, usually crowned with extra-bulging lunch-packs, just discussing galamsey and the collective future of this over-raped landmass called Ghana?
Don’t doubt me: I have been around. I have “benefited” from the fattening courses that are on offer during these seminars and consultations. If anything amazes me, it is that in spite of the perennial complaints of non-release of budgetary allocations, there is always money available for coffee break at 10am (if the session started at 8am), lunch and another coffee break at 3.30pm thereabout.
I am told that Citi FM has, as service to God and country, dispatched the transcripts. But I’d be surprised that nobody would have read them by now unless it is critical for winning the 2016 Election or unless it is a prepared rebuttal to make the government feel good.
As my duty to God and country, I can forewarn readers that it takes a lot of bravado to stop tears from flowing after listening to those reports, especially from Wassa Akropong and the Kyebi areas.
Some Highlights:
I.Landlords are multiplying rent, just to be able to throw out poor government office workers, teachers and nurses, to make room for Chinese “investors”.
II.Whole houses are being razed to make way for gold exploration and exploitation by Chinese “investors”
III.After negotiations in which the farmers are made an offer they cannot refuse, cocoa farms are converted to open pits and underground mines. (Yours Truly can confess that my eyes widened just imagining the wads of crisp GHc50 notes!!)
IV.With maize farms, there is no negotiation. The farmers are themselves too willing to abandon them. Saves them from the ‘wahala’ of getting the produce to the market.
Someone wondered how come a situation such as this cannot happen in China. For an answer, listen to the “villages.” One reason it does not (cannot and will not) happen in China is that “In China, there is a government”. Another answer was that “In China, there is leadership.”
Then came what, to me, was the bomb-shell. When the Citi FM correspondent wanted to know why the situation persisted in spite of the evidence of threat to human existence and why the culprits were released a few hours after their arrest, no fewer than three of the “villagers” countered, first with a question: “How can the district police commanders refuse ‘order from above’?” A second voice was heard reasoning: “Do you want them to lose the election?” The third asked: “Have you forgotten this is election year?”
Curious, I called a few friends to find out the correlation between galamsey and 2016 election. For an answer, one of them asked me to re-read Mario Puzo’s ‘Godfather ’ (Part one). I did, and also proceeded to watch the movie again. Then I understood. Like the Mafia of America in the heady days of their operations, the Ghanaian galamsey godfathers have the power to influence which presidential or parliamentary candidate their workers, family members and clan heads should vote for and the politicians know it.
Ask yourself, dear reader: Have you heard any of the politicians promising an end to galamsey? The whole Ghana can burn, for all they care. It is who occupies the Flagstaff House. It is who sit on those Chinese chairs in Parliament.
The late broadcaster, Carl Agyemang Bannerman, used to say in his mother tongue, “Yeye mobor”. The pity!
Question: Did President Mahama know about the letter written to Citi FM?
