Galamsey is a Ghanaian lingo for illegal small – scale mining. It was emanated from the phrase ‘ gather them (the gold grains) and sell ‘. Galamsey is believed to have started in 1961 in Ghana. In fact, the Galamsey syndrome is a global practicum. In the Francophone Countries, it has been christened ‘ Orpailleurs ‘.The spring of Galamsey activities have debilitated and torpefied this generation and shall do same to the following age _ our forests which serve as a garrison for environmental protection have been wounded ; our lands to accommodate our shelters have been clobbered ; our water bodies to serve as with hygienic water for consumption have been adulterated.
At this point who must be scarified for the emergence of this jam exponentially ? For the past days, the impetuous Haruna Iddrisu has chastised this current government for their lack of alacrity to wrestle the Galamsey operations, the strident Baba Jamal, has also bawled this government out for having tanked their quest to scotch the galamsey activities. Actually, it will be a monster of stumper for me to monster someone with regard to this _ even though I am not a pantywaist. The fact is, no mankind can let galamsey operations go down the toilet, but what one can do is to initiate effectual and stringent measures, aimed at falling it off a cliff, especially in a manner, where galamsey greenlight has become a fervent promise for the NDC Party. Even though, I have said I can’t flay anyone for this cancer, but the reality checks inform me that, John Mahama can be reproached for this tentacle.
Ghana experienced the cruncher of galamsey activities under the presidential aegis of John Mahama. On the 26th February, 2013, when John Mahama visited ‘ Daboase Water Treatment Plant ‘ in the Mpohor Wassa East District of the Western Region evinced that, ” I am going to support the security task force working to clear the miners, and I want to warn those foreigners and their local collaborators that we are going to chase them out “. We thought it was an action – oriented statement not knowing, he intended to just flimflam us with that particular statement. The Galamsey activities under the inept, John Mahama translated our prolific cocoa production into reaching its lowest ebb.
In 2014, experts predicted a global cocoa shortage by 2020. However, cocoa production statistics have been erratic since then, according to the most recent data from the 2015-16 growing season. That year, there was a cocoa surplus, attributed to a prolonged rainy season. During that time, the price of beans had plummeted to historic lows on global commodity exchanges _ which negatively impacted the profits of West African cocoa farmers. In 2011, Ghana produced cocoa, weighing in at over one million tonnes. Since then, when illegal mining steadily ramped up at that time, cocoa production had trended downwards, with a drop to 740,000 tonnes in 2015. Death rates due to Galamsey activities during John Mahama era mushroomed like never before. Although, John Mahama apprehended a section of the galamsayers, but he couldn’t put them into the rightful investigatory processes for a possible indictment, hence they were given indemnity.
Nana Akufo Addo has done better than John Mahama in terms of trimming down the operations of galamsey – one can remember the biggest picture of the blueprint he instituted to incarcerate the notorious and galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang. One may need to be dogged before executing it, which he did it audaciously and gallantly. Nana Akufo Addo in all these years, has stationed military personnels to vibrant galamsey premises in order to bulldoze them from those acts – of which, a plenitude of excavators and other equipments of them, were captured and immolated graciously. It is crystal clear that, the rate of galamsey operations under Nana Akufo Addo has been infrequently seldom as compared to John Mahama.
Whilst Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP leaders are devising methods to grapple with galamsey operators, John Mahama is gallivanting around desultorily, pledging to reignite the efficacy of it, through granting amnesty to the galamsayers who have been detained and rehabilitating the galamsey areas confiscated by this government also. The dichotomy is glaring here, while one ( Nana Addo ) is solicitous about the welfares of the citizenry, the other (John Mahama) is directed to enthrall the citizenry through callous and flagitious way for presidential imprimatur. John Mahama is literally doom – monger and pyromaniac and as a result, we shouldn’t in any way, regale his come back. Let us prioritize our lives and the posterity by forswearing any attempt to indulge into those acts, since we must compromise the government, for the NPP government cannot prune this canker singly.
By : Prof. Dinkum.
(The Buzzing Rapine of Erudition)
E – mail : dinkumchoice@gmail.com
