Go Way You, Kwame Gonja! - Part 2

In the wake of his massive defeat in the December 2016 Presidential Election, the man whom the extant General-Secretary of whose own political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), sheepishly told an Accra-based host of an FM radio station’s current affairs program had had the 2012 Presidential Election literally stolen for the then-Interim President John “STX” Dramani Mahama by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the then Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC), presently unofficially renamed the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), was widely reported and shown on several social media websites promising to fully legitimize and promote small-scale illegal-mining activities, better known as Galamsey, in the highly unlikely event of Mr. Mahama’s being returned to Jubilee House or the Presidency for the second time around.

Actually, his unconscionable and nation-wrecking promotion of Galamsey had been launched about six months before the watershed 2016 Presidential Election. And when he, predictably, lost the 2016 Presidential Election, Candidate Mahama was widely reported to have held dozens of in camera or private secret meetings with some Galamseyers or illegal small-scale miners, several of them on location, to assure them that a Mahama government would offer these nation-wreckers carte-blanche ticket or permission to recklessly and relentlessly prosecute their environmentally destructive activities without any lets or hindrances. He would also be widely reported to have virulently accused the newly elected Akufo-Addo government of scandalously and unjustifiably seeking to destroy the legitimate livelihood activities of these Galamseyers when the newly elected Akufo-Addo government, which had not held the democratic reins of government for even three months, did not seem to be capable of creating any viable and livable-waged jobs for these illegal small-scale miners.

The seismically and democratically ousted former President had conveniently ignored to tell these nation-wrecking Galamseyers that during the eight protracted years that he had been comfortably holed up at Jubilee House with the “mysteriously vanished” President John Evans Atta-Mills, four-and-half of those years as the substantive President of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana, the twain had done little to absolutely nothing to significantly and healthily promote environmentally friendly occupational and vocational activities in the country. This is why it ought to come as absolutely nothing short of inexcusably peevish to learn about the recent participation of Candidate Mahama in the “Third Annual Transformational Dialogue on Small-Scale Mining” that was hosted by the deans and the faculty and the students of the Sunyani-, Bono Region, based University of Energy and Natural Resources.

We are reliably informed that the theme of this otherwise very progressive academic and policy-oriented confab was to “highlight the pressing need for innovative solutions to tackle the menace of Galamsey,” which has plagued Ghanaians and continues to wreak untold havoc on the ecology and the very delicate existence and the survival of some 40-million Ghanaian citizens and residents, the latest of whom are Mr. Stevie Wonder, the globally renowned and legendary African-American musician, and his family, fittingly granted Ghanaian citizenship just a couple of weeks ago by Ghana’s President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. It is quite obvious that a clueless Candidate Mahama’s foremost reason for attending and participating in the “Third Annual Transformational Dialogue on Small-Scale Mining” was to score cheap political points and even more peevishly, hope that a purportedly amnesiac Ghanaian citizenry had so soon and suddenly forgotten all about the unspeakable crimes and insults perpetrated against them by the man who once sneeringly told The Okyenhene, His Majesty, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panyin, II, to his face and his own hometown, that His Majesty was President of the Galamsey Capital of Ghana. Now, ought it not make perfect sense that Nana Akufo-Addo would also rudely order the Paramount Chief of Gonjaland to rise up and do obeisance to the grandson of the legendary Osagyefo Ofori-Atta, I?

After all, wasn’t this scion of both the Akyem-Abomosu and Akwamufie royal families, the very democratically elected Ghanaian leader who promised to create and, in fact, laudably followed through with his electioneering-campaign promise of creating the predominantly Gonja-occupied or inhabited Savannah Region? Now, tell me, Dear Reader, where was the hot-air balloon blowing Kwame Gonja who had, by the way, also made a similar copycat promise to his clansmen and women? That as the democratically elected President of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana, and the First Postcolonial-born Ghanaian Leader to boot, finding a definitive solution for the “Galamsey Menace” was legally among the sheaf of his topmost mandate did not seem to have been even of the least significance and/or relevance to the Bole-Bamboi native, from the Akufo-Addo-created Savannah Region.

Now, his promise to use Artificial Intelligence Technology (AIT) to solve the perennial and the seemingly intractable “Menace of Galamsey” which, by the way, was officially exacerbated by the late former President Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings-led government of the National Democratic Congress’ decision to allow the massive importation of China-made Changfang Mining Excavators, beginning from 1997, and the wanton influx of small-scale fortune-seeking Chinese private miners into the country, makes such promise as inexcusably insulting to the intelligence of the overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian citizenry as it is a despicably hollow mockery that it could ever be. You see, a man who could not even use drone technology to significantly improve general healthcare delivery in the country, as has been masterfully done by both President Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, let alone be able to viably maintain the John “The Gentle Giant” Agyekum-Kufuor-implemented low-premium National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), whose funding, we are reliably informed, had been criminally diverted and embezzled by Mr. Mahama and his cronies and minions, could equally not be counted upon to use AI Technology to extirpate or radically root out the Galamsey Menace.

To be certain, Candidate Mahama’s pontifical and solemn promise to “protect mining concessions” and forest reserves for the exclusive use of bigtime traditional shaft-mining companies, eerily sounded like a sinister love letter personally and directly written and addressed to his younger brother and proprietor of the globally infamous Engineers and Planners firm, namely, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama. Let no one be so facilely deceived. In short, Ghanaians need to critically bear the latter observation firmly in mind as we steadily head towards the polling booth on December 7, 2024. Now, isn’t enough already enough?!

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
May 16, 2024
E-mail: [email protected]