Media declare war on galamsey
The Ghanaian media Tuesday began the single biggest journey ever to rescue the nation from the scourge of illegal mining (galamsey) with the launch of the media coalition against Galamsey to advocate a complete cessation of the illicit activity.
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The coalition, made up of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), the New Times Corporation, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) and the Community Radio Network, hit the ground running with the formation of an eight-member steering committee to see to the coordination and implementation of the activities of the coalition.
Membership of the steering committee include Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, the Managing Director of the GCGL; Mr Akwasi Agyeman, the President of GIBA; Rev. Dr Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG); Dr Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, the Director-General of the GBC; Ms Carol Annang, the Managing Director of the New Times Corporation; Mr Affail Monney, the President of the GJA, and a representative of the Community Radio Network, Mr Kofi Larweh.
To further demonstrate its commitment to the realisation of its objective, the coalition began the collection of one million signatures to send a petition to the President, the Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice urging them to take action on the galamsey menace.
Town hall meetings will also be organised in galamsey endemic areas, particularly Kyebi, Tarkwa, Dunkwa-on-Offin and other areas in the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Upper East and Northern regions, so sensitise the people to the need to shun the activity.
The overall objective is to get all stakeholders to buy into the advocacy to end galamsey.
Sad day
To the media partners, neither the formation of the coalition nor its inauguration would have happened had national leadership acted positively in the past.
“Today is not a good day when, as a nation, we have overseen this crass failure,” Mr Ashigbey said, adding, however, that all was not lost.
“Today, we have all decided that enough is enough. We want to hold leadership to account,” he noted.
The assembly of media managers and journalists was joined by government officials, including four Ministers of State, and other stakeholders to launch the advocacy group at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.
The ministers present were Mr John Peter Amewu, Lands and Natural Resources; Mr Kofi Adda, Water Resources and Sanitation; Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Information.
A five-minute documentary on galamsey depicting some of the negatives associated with the illegal activity which was shown on a big screen to the packed audience got many shaking their heads
At the end of the documentary, none in the audience applauded because they were saddened by thespectacle.
Already, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government had pledged to end illegal mining once and for all, but the media coalition is of the belief that there is the need to put pressure on the government to keep to its promise, as galamsey activities in gold-rich communities of the country are gradually getting out of hand.
Many water bodies, some of which serve as sources of drinking water for many people, have been polluted. Currently, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is unable to pump water from some of its treatment plants to consumers because of the effects of illegal mining.
Indeed, experts have warned that Ghana risk importing water in the next 10 years if illegal mining is not stopped.
Many farms have also been destroyed, while lives have been lost through the illegal activity.
Past media effort
The power of the media in correcting the wrongs of society was not lost on the event as speaker after speaker urged the coalition on.
Mr Ashigbey, who chaired the launch, said although the media had reported on the menace of illegal mining in the past, the reports had not achieved anything meaningful
“We have reported on galamsey in the past but we do it and leave it. What happens is that we all lose it,” he said.
The danger, he noted, was that Ghana could become “extinct” if the media failed to play their role as expected.
To him, it would not be surprising for people to accuse the media of complicity in the crime, just as we accuse our forebears of complicity in slavery.
“They’ll say we are benefitting,” the GCGL boss, who is a lead advocate of the coalition, said.
Political leadership
Shifting attention to the political leadership, Mr Ashigbey urged the government to put a moratorium on alluvial and small-scale mining, arguing that the situation in which the nation found itself demanded that line of action.
“Everywhere there is mining in the country, there is poverty,” he said, and asked, “After all, how many Ghanaian billionaires have we made from mining?”
He welcomed President Akufo-Addo’s declaration to tackle the galamsey menace in a holistic manner.
“Thank God the President has spoken. In the time of the NDC, we had a task force set up but what happened?” the GCGL MD, an electrical engineer by profession, asked.
He sought to provide an answer to the question, saying, rather regrettably, that when governments took certain actions, their opponents tended to oppose those actions.
“Now the NPP is in power and we will put positive pressure on the government so that it acts to end illegal mining,” he said, and called for co-operation from all.
National issue
Mr Agyeman, for his part, stated that the media coalition wanted to make galamsey a national issue, so that all would act.
He said not only politicians but also traditional rulers, the security agencies and even the ordinary person must have a role to play in fighting the menace.
“The warning signs have been clear. Many agencies have sent signs of the impending disaster as we look on helplessly,” he said, adding that the time to act was now.
Making reference to what the President said in Kumasi last weekend that the galamsey issue was a complex problem, Mr Agyeman said, “We don’t believe that complex problems cannot be resolved and so we (the media) will provide the platform for the problem to be resolved.”
Solidarity messages
There were solidarity messages from various media organisations and groups, including the CCG.
Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, the Director in charge of Newspapers at the GCGL, gave an assurance that the company would give maximum attention to the war waged by the coalition against galamsey.
The MD of the New Times Corporation, Ms Annang, said the company would marshall all the arsenal at its disposal to help make the campaign a success.
When it got to the turn of the CCG, Rev. Dr Opuni Frimpong said the Church was a key partner in national development, as a result of which it would take a front row in the fight to end galamsey.
Mr Larweh, who delivered the solidarity message from the Community Radio Network, stated that since local communities bore the brunt of illegal mining, community radio stations had taken up the challenge to intensify the education to end the illegal activity.
Mr Nii Laryea Sowah of PRINPAG said the media could not sit down unconcerned while galamsey wreaked havoc on the environment.
The GJA President, Mr Monney, said the Ghanaian media had proved over the years that they had the wherewithal to rise up to the occasion when called to duty.
The GBC message was presented by Dr Anoff-Ntow, who said apart from illegal mining, there were other environmental challenges in the country that the media must also focus attention on.