Dear Prof. Frimpoong-Boateng ….(2)

I hope you are well. I watched part of the questioning you endured when you appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament.

In what I saw of it, you were questioned mostly about your CV and your attitude towards technological progress in Ghana, generally. But not a single word had been addressed to you about galamsey, the single most devastating disaster facing our nation at present.

I then watched some of the interviews you have given to various journalists on TV, (including CNN) and which can be accessed on Youtube at: Frimpong Boateng Youtube - Video Results

From these interviews and other sources, I realise that you are very realistic about the problems facing our nation and that you will have a good go at solving them, whether others who should also show an interest in them do so or not.

So without much ado, I'd like to draw your attention to the following report, which, to me, provides a clue to why galamsey has been allowed to grow to be the terrible menace it is today:

QUOTE: ( www.ghanaweb.com)
“Crime & Punishment of Sunday, 5 February 2017

We’re not guilty – 29 foreign illegal miners tell court

“The 29 foreigners arrested for illegal mining in the Atiwa Rain Forest Reserve have pleaded not guilty to three charges levelled against them by a Koforidua Circuit Court B on Friday, February 3. They were charged with three counts of conspiracy to mine without authorization, mining without authorization (Minerals and Mining Amendment Act 2015) and trespassing (Criminal Code Act 29), which they all pleaded not guilty to.

“The court presided over by Her Honour Ms. Mercy Adei Kotei, refused ... the plea for bail from the lawyer for the accused persons, on the grounds of the nature of the offence, the severity of punishment involved, and the fact that there is no proof of permanent residence in Ghana by the accused persons.

“The accused persons have thus been remanded to reappear in two weeks time, for separate trials in batches, which will commence on February 17 to March 1st 2017..... After the court hearing, the lawyer for the accused persons, Dollah D.B Djaba-Mensah, said he [would] consider applying to the High Court for bail for his clients on the grounds of human rights.

“BACKGROUND: The illegal miners of various nationalities were arrested on Thursday, January 26^th, by the Eastern Regional Forestry Commission, in a joint operation with a combined Rapid Task-force of Police and Military personnel in the Atiwa District of the Eastern Region. This was after the Forestry Commission received an anonymous tip that some nationals, suspected to be from Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo, had entered the Atiwa Rain Forest Reserve and were operating illegally with sophisticated devices in search of gold.” UNQUOTE

You will notice Prof, that the charges against the suspects consist of illegal mining and trespassing. The charges, in fact, are depicted without any context. In particular, they are without any reference to environmental vandalism. Also Atiwa Forest is mentioned in isolation, as if it does not possess proximity to human dwellings! An uninhabited wilderness,perhaps?

The only thing in the report that hints at any national concern with the incident is this: “The illegal miners ...were arrested on Thursday, January 26^th, by the Eastern Regional Forestry Commission, in a joint operation with a combined Rapid Task-force of Police and Military personnel in the Atiwa District of the Eastern Region. This was after the Forestry Commission received an anonymous tip”.

Prof, the words I have italicised convince me that it is not a lack of laws or of machinery that has allowed galamsey to take our future survival prisoner. It is rather our determination NOT to recognise galamsey for what it is [environmental vandalism as against the euphemistic small-scale mining or illegal mining].

The laws exist – the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) alone runs to 59 pages on the web! Even so, there are Amendments to it, the latest of which appears to have been passed in 2015.

Probably,the sheer profundity of the legal instruments theoretically available to the Government to deal with galamseycontributes to the Governments inability to eradicate the evil operation. Do the police have to weed through 59 pages of legalese before they can charge environmental vandals to court?

That is ridiculous.
What needs to be done is to distil the provisions in the existing legislation into simple, clear language, so than the police, the Forestry Commission and the other arms of government that are relevant to the battle against galamsey can all have a clear idea regarding what galamsey is, as per the law, and what the penalties for engaging in galamsey are.

A simplified version of the legislation will also teach the populace about how not to get involved in galamsey. Right now, agalamsey operator can rattle off some provisions of the existing legislation to try and convince himself and others that he is engaged in ”small-scale mining”, not galamsey. But it is all poppycock. They know damn well what it is they're doing.

During one of my discussions with members of my Internet Forum, one of them wrote: “We do have an Environmental Minister and two Deputy Ministers, no? So heartbreaking!”

Prof, I am afraid that's the situation you're inheriting,

Another wrote: “I watched a film shown by Al Jazeera. It was was a video about galamsey and how rivers and river-bodies were being destroyed in our country. The video showed how the mighty Pra River has turned "Ntwoma"...RED! The remarkable thing was at Shama, where the Pra empties into the Atlantic Ocean. There is a folk story that Pra considered itself so strong, it refused to be subsumed by the mightier ocean. So, for nearly a mile, Pra cuts across the ocean, until it finally loses strength and is gulped by the ocean.

“The sight of the now distinct 'red' River Pra fighting for survival in the ocean epitomizes the destruction of Ghana's ecosystem. I recall President Mahama setting up a 'commission' to investigate galamsey. I reckon, like all of his 'commissions', its report has never been made public, nor acted upon. I also read a news item that the government of Ghana is now allowing undergroundmining in forest reserves! Is Ghana not a moron country?”

Another wrote: “Know what? We actually do have a whole "Water Resources Commission"!!... Plus an Environmental Protection Agency.... A Ministry of Mines. A Ministry of the Interior (to prevent crime, which MUST include crimes that harm the people's health!) A Ministry of Defence (that must defend the people of Ghana against any activities that can deprive them of their lives, such as war, and/or destruction of their means of livelihood and of life itself.)

“We also have a Ministry of Lands and Forestry. Environmental devastation ruins the land and the forests. Depriving the land and the forests of the draining provided by rivers, of course, kills the land and the forests stone dead. That is what we are sitting down and watching happen!”

Other reports can be gleaned by going to my website, www.cameronduodu.com , and searching with the keyword, galamsey.

Prof, over to you! And may success crown your efforts.