Leadership failure - Cause of galamsey menace
What are we doing to our country? In the next five years, we will be killing one another for water if we do not stop this debasing attitude as a people. Why will we allow our short-term interest to take over our sustainability as a people?
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We have destroyed all our water bodies and we do not seem to be doing anything about this!
Where is leadership in all of this? In the areas where this is rampant, what are we doing as a people? The middle class who come from these areas, why are you quiet? You are complicit in this destruction!
The leadership failure in this regard is attributable to all of us. It is not just the political class, though they have major parts to play. The current government is only two months old, but we need to start seeing some actions from them. Minister of Lands, we have heard your promises, please let them turn into actions soon. The political will is paramount if we will win this battle. President Akufo-Addo, this is one of the battles you have given to the Lord and He is counting on you to fight it. Do not let Him down, “the battle is still for the Lord”.
Now let us come to the various factions of leadership.
We the media are also partly to be blamed. Yes, we have done a little bit but we need to do some more. Can we all decide to dedicate the months of April, May and June to sustained pressure and focus on this menace? Let us use our prime time and front pages to name and shame and praise where it is due, and unleash our investigative team in a coordinated manner for this task. After all, we are the fourth estate of the realm. If the first three estates have failed us, what are we doing?
Posterity will not forgive us if we fail in this duty. The state-owned media, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Assocciation (GIBA), Private Newspaper Publishers Assocation of Ghana (PRINPAG), National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana journalists Association (GJA) etc, let us come together. We can do this. I will be following up with calls to all of you.
Chiefs
The next blame goes to our chiefs, some of whom are directly involved. How could some chiefs have galamsey happening directly behind their palaces but say nothing about them. How can this heavy-duty equipment operate within your jurisdictions and you claim you do not have any knowledge of it? You are losing your legitimacy as our leaders.
We need to see you rise up against this menace and start doing something about this. You are either part of the solution or you are rather the criminals. Our traditions have prescribed what we do to your type, the criminals. Be warned, we are gathering evidence and very soon we shall be publishing your faces and names with the evidence in the newspapers.
How many more water companies will stop operating before you wake up from your greedy slumber? Please, we have many good chiefs and I am sure you know what the bad lots among you are doing. Please speak up, else when they come to call who have eaten the snake, your names might also be mentioned as ‘nanka wifo . ’ I am calling on my Togbega, Togbe Afede, please use your high office to support this noble effort.
Religious leaders
Now priests, pastors, imams, traditional priests, priestesses and other religious leaders, what are you doing about this? Are some of you directly involved? You will account for this.
Our traditional and religious leaders who are the custodians of our sacred groves and rivers, why have you turned a blind eye to the desecration of the abodes of your gods? Some of you are even preparing charms and powers for these people to use in the destruction of our lands.
If it was those times, you should all be sent to Torko Atonlia, where you will be buried alive with only your shaven heads sticking out and smeared with honey for the ants and the birds to deal with you. You need to speak up and end this destruction.
Now to you the Christian leadership, what do you think Christ will do to you, if He were to come and find that you are not speaking up against this barbarism that is happening in places that you have your churches? Some of you have your members directly involved in this and you are accepting their collections, offering and tithes knowing very well their source of income. Some of you offer prayers and fast for these criminals. Shame on you priests and pastors who are involved in these evil acts.
I am calling on the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Christian Council, the Pentecostal Council and other Christian groups. Your silence on this national calamity is unacceptable and grievous.
If Christ were to come, He would take out the whip and come after you. He is asking of the blood of the many people who are dying of mercury and other deadly poisons that are used in mining, those dying in the collapsed pits from your hands. You and I will not be spared if we do not act now.
This has to stop. Can you tell what will happen with the arms and ammunition that these people are holding when gold runs out? After all it is an exhaustive resource, so it will surely run out. We are building a lot of ragtag armies and they will turn on us when they have destroyed the land . To add insult to injury, some of us Ghanaians are only fronting for some Chinese and other foreigners and taking the crumbs while they rape our land.
This has to stop and it should stop right now. We call on concerned Ghanaians to step up and be counted in the fight to stop the menace of galamsey. In the next edition, I will focus on the security forces and other regulatory bodies who are either shirking their responsibilities or are involved directly in this shameful act. This includes a public institution which is using inmates entrusted to its care to engage in this illegal act. Stop it or you will be exposed.
In this light I say kudos to Nana Dwomoh Sarpong, who has dedicated his life to fighting to save our water bodies, including the Barekese Dam. but the question is who has been listening to him?