I be at sea and virtually become foxed when the genus of the NDC Party and other callow supposedly learned associations in Ghana, homogenize this two in an attempt to institute opprobrium against this incumbent government, chiefly Chairman Wontumi and other NPP Political heads, which they presume them as the core pest to our Galamsey resurgence casually. It is in fact, viscerally incongruous anatomy of the two activities when making juxtaposition. There is a jumbo lacuna between them _ these two activities are markedly distinct, and the central dichotomy hinges on the legality. I do hypothesize that, some NDC espousers and other obtuse entities ignite such ersatz claim in order to put this government into felonious public pother and ruction using euphuism.
Since Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP ousted power from the feckless NDC government, the NPP, instigated by Nana Akufo Addo has made apodictic decree of his needle against the quiddity of Galamsey operations, hence deployed pugnacious wealth of military personnels to various galamsey sites to steamroller the zealots unrestrictedly and not solitarily. That is why in July 2017, the President, Nana Akufo Addo made a panglossian statement that, he would put his presidency on the line to scuttle the activities of Galamsey, since it had compounded under the Laodicean leadership of John Mahama, which got Ghanaians rankled and ruptured. It will be unmitigated, out on a limb, if one says, the NPP and Nana Akufo Addo haven’t frustrated the ubiquity of the emergence of galamsey.
Upon all these game methodologies, Nana Akufo Addo, made sure our carbon emissions, which were in pitfall under the pachydermatous John Mahama were resuscitated and drafted it in vibrantly vigorous shape, through the employment of 20, 000 young people to have engaged and planted more than 30 million trees in two years to create jobs and redeemed debased lands; the plague of Galamsey operations had goosed perniciously under the erstwhile administration, John Mahama.
“These policy initiatives are already yielding positive results in the attainment of SDG Goals, particularly the goal of reducing our carbon emissions,” President Akufo-Addo pronounced this in the 2023 Africa Summit in Kenya, after he has resiliently truncated the cancer of galamsey indulgence.
Now to establish the limpid point on those entangled in galamsey, it is unassailable fact that, no NPP leader is embroiled in Galamsey activities as the NDC members have pictured it fallaciously _ Nana Addo wouldn’t be in comatose for his own people to level and banjax our lands, water bodies, forests, which are sine qua non for our livelihoods for someone’s parochialism : he is a prophet of altruism and egalitarianism. With Small – Scale Mining it is the licit channel to extract some of our natural mineral resources using the scientifically adapted manner and for this, it persists in Ghana and even all other minerals – endowed/possessed countries, because the law in Ghana greenlights the humoring of Small – Scale mining, although one cannot execute it with intemperance or an act of sybaritism _ there are regulations fending it.
To quote chapter and verse under the regulatory regime of Small – Small mining ;
Mining operations in Ghana are regulated by the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703). It stipulates, inter alia, the clashing types of mining rights and licenses, as well as the requirements and qualifications that must be flattered prior to procuring them. Act 703 legalizes small-scale mining and presents elaborate provisions outlining the desiderata needed to woo to the legality.
Act 703 defines small-scale mining as “a mining operation over an area of land in accordance with the number of blocks prescribed’’. In view of this, the government through the ministry may sanction someone with a demarcation to operate his/her small – scale mining exercises. One cannot use his/her own discretion to mark an area for small – scale mining without being in consonance with the kingpins.
Section 1 of Act 703 states that every mineral transpiring in Ghana is the asset of the Republic of Ghana. It shadows that to acquire or enroll into any activity which will eventuate in the extraction of any mineral, a person must have attained or latitude from the government, through the appropriate governmental institution which in this case will be the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (the Ministry). Act 703 confers on the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources (the Minister) the punch to vouchsafe mineral rights, including the right to engage in small-scale mining.
The Minister liaises with the Minerals Commission (an agency of the Ministry) on whether it is in the public savor to fillip small-scale mining in a scope. Where it is surveyed to be in the public interest, the Minister then designates that expanse for small-scale mining operations and itemizes the types of minerals to be mined. He does this by notice in the Gazette. In each of these designated areas, the Minerals Commission may plant an office known as the ” District Office “, headed by a ” District Officer “.
The onuses of the District Office include compiling a register of small-scale miners and prospective ones, supervise and eyeball the activities of these operators, provide training facilities and submit reports to the Minerals Commission. A person who intends to engross into small-scale mining operations must register with a District Office, en route to an application for a license.
On record, Chairman Wontumi who owns ” Akonta Mining ” has licenced it through the District Office and above this, he has been given a stringent territorial ambience for his mining activities to take place _ therefore, he cannot infract the regulations assigned to him by the Ministry and the District Office. However, who may term Chairman Wontumi and other NPP advocates, who have mining concessions/sites as galamsayers is either psychopathic or plonker, because our law validates Small – Scale Mining, provided one hugs to the articulated recipes.
By : Prof. Dinkum.
(The Buzzing Rapine of Erudition)
E – mail : dinkumchoice@gmail.com
