Why and How President Mahama is the best person to deal with Ghana’s Tragedy

‘Sitting by the river and washing hands with saliva instead of using the water flowing from the river to do so’. This an African proverb as in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe that means one or a Country in a position of abundance of resources or access to great resources, Sources of wealth, opportunities and not enjoying the available resources. This is the Situation of Ghana or most Ghanaians. So, the second coming of His Excellency President JD Mahama as granted by God in the 2024 Presidential Election after a deeper reflection after the 2016 humiliation in the National Election should see the elevation or navigation of Ghana from the doldrums towards the Promised Land. Thus he needs everyone on deck. Hence, the Bogobiri submissions to help ginger the nation to effective actions.

‘Africa needs a new type of Citizen, dedicated, modest, selfless, honest, and informed man. A man submerges in self in services to the Nation and Mankind. A man who abhors greed and detest vanity. A new type of Man whose humility is his strength and whose integrity is his greatness. By President Dr Nkrumah. Thus Ghana’s needs a Man who prioritizes the collective good over personal gain. His Excellency JD Mahama, the well-established Statesman since well baked from Assemblyman, MP, Deputy Minister, substantive Minister, Vice President, Acting President, President and the Returned President (Ababio President) is the new type of citizens as envisaged by President Nkrumah, so we need to push on the desire actions including telling the new President about his past regime’s misdeeds thus our past help shape our future and thus afford him the way forward.

So the Tragedy and Resetting of Ghana Development Agenda as published on the reputable website of Modern Ghana as Part one, deals with Ghana’s tragedy in the Fourth Republic effective from the regime of President Rawlings up to a portion of the First Regime of President Mahama, this submission is the continuation.

Much has been said about the alleged massive acts of corruption during the tenure of His Excellency Former President Nana Addo and since these acts were catalogued in the Report of the Committee for Operation Recover Loot and now with the Attorney General for the appropriate actions. So, no need to waste time on these alleged corrupt acts since they are subject to confirmation by the Attorney General. Hence, this paper will concentrate on matters on our God sent political savior His Excellency Mr JD Mahama, the new Citizen number one of Ghana with the support of the Second New Citizen of Ghana, Her Excellency Professor Naana Opoku Agyeman.

The New Citizen, Mr JD Mahama
History will tell that Mr JD Mahama currently our beloved President, is the greatest and most experienced global Statesman due to the political offices he occupied in his life. Hence, a Global icon. History will also tell that the regime of His Excellency President JD Mahama has caused the greatest of Ghana’s tragedy especially matters on the disaster in the Small Scale Mining Sector, problem in the Agricultural Sector, the Service Sector and the Industrial Sector. Hence, he is the best Leader by his Second Coming as granted by God after a deeper reflection to resolve the tragedy, so caused by him and others.

In the Small Scale Mining Sector, his regime caused tragedy with the Minerals and Mining Regulation (Support Services) 2012 (LI 2174). This bad law motivated the Chinese and their Ghanaian accomplices to bring a lot of excavators and Chafang machines to Ghana for Small Scale Mining. Hence, the massive destruction of the environment, diversion of rivers, damages to Cocoa farms should be attributed as the misdeeds of some bad officials in the first Regime of President Mahama.

The state of the destruction of the environment, culminated in the Military and Police personnel on OPERATIONS HALT from 2013 to 2015 for the ejection of the Chinese from the Small Scale Mining Sector without success, despite the deportation of a large number of Chinese Offenders.

So helpless and perplexed President Nana Addo in 2017 inherited the massive state of environmental destruction or the diversion of rivers etc thus by the sins of the regime of President JD Mahama. So, the aspect of LI2174 of 2012 on Support Services by Foreigners for Small Scale Mining was repealed in the Minerals and Mining Amendment Law 2019 (Act 995) by President Nana Addo. This was based on the submission by this author. But of no serious effect, since it was done when the horses have bolted away from the stable, due to the thousands of excavators and Chafang machines already in the Country by then. Our inability to enforce laws in this Country has also contributed to our tragedy.

His Regime with the Ghana Investment Promotion Center 2013 (Act 845) caused serious damages to the Small Scale Mining Sector by failing or neglecting to add Small Scale Mining as NO GO AREA FOR FOREIGNERS as decreed by the Small Scale Mining Law as restricted for only Ghanaians. So the presence of foreigners in the Small Scale Mining is self-inflicted by Ghanaians through the Administrations from President Kofour to President JD Mahama.

President Mahama’s first Regime caused further serious blunder in 2015 through the aspect of the law Minerals and Mining Amendment Law 2015 (Act900) which removed the exclusive right of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company for buying and exporting gold from the Small Scale Mining and strangely gave this role to Private Bullion Export Companies.

So as expected of Ghanaians with their propensity to front or brand for fronting for foreigners, the Bullion or Gold Export Business was/is dominated by Foreigners contrary to the Small Scale Mining Law. Strangely, his regime condemned the Precious Minerals Marketing Company to Laboratory status or the National Assayer. This situation contributed to the massive destruction of the environment due to the sponsoring of illegal mining by some of the greedy foreign gold exporters for more gold. This caused loss of foreign exchange to Ghana. Hence, Ghana lost over 2 Billion US Dollars yearly effective 2015. Google for CIA Report on Smuggling of Gold from Ghana to the United Emirates.

There was the arrest of an Airplane with 50 Million US Dollars’ worth of gold in an Airport in Dubai in 2016. Furthermore were numerous Reports of undervaluation of gold for export by the Private Exporting Companies, gold hoarding or keeping gold without accounting to Minerals Commission etc. Gold smuggling spikes were detected by GRA especially a report of seizure of 18 million worth of gold at Kotoka International Airport in an attempt to smuggle the gold by licensed Gold Exporting firms especially owned by two Indians and three Ghanaian companies bound for India and Dubai.

You may Google for this info. So these activities have contributed to the decay in the foreign exchange situation in Ghana, thus the bad state of the economic fundamentals of Ghana in subsequent years. An attempt in December 2022 to reverse this situation led to the Gold for Oil Deal which was really a decoy Domestic Gold Purchase Program to capture the gold from the Exporting Companies as allowed by the bad law in Act 900 of 2015. So new citizens must ignore persons who spoke or speak against the Golf for Oil Program. Infact they may be part of the looting schemes through the Private Gold Export Companies in the Small Scale Mining Sector.

So as stated earlier on in Part one, the regimes of President JA Kofour and President JD Mahama are the cause of the debacle in the Small Scale Mining Sector with the ambiguous Small Scale Mining Law by President Kofour and related matters or laws. As well as the failure of President Kofour to establish a Medium Scale Mining Sector for the 300 Ghanaians he sent to China to study mining and leave Small Scale Mining to the locals for Galamasey or Artisanal Mining.

Mining is Capital intensive, so, President Kofour should have set up Medium Scale Mining Sector for Ghanaian tycoons to operate with sophisticated technology and substantial expenditure for wealth creation, either solely or with foreign partners. He should have restricted Small Scale Mining to Indigenous Mining or subsistence mining by rural folks with rudimentary tools, that is no usage of sophisticated Technology and no use of substantial expenditure as section 21 of the Small Scale Mining Law 1989 (PNDCL218), which is the parent law..

The solutions in the Small Scale Mining Sector, is the need to take note of the history and underlying factors or characteristics of Small Scale Mining and come out to a reasonable or logical conclusion that Small Scale Mining in English is same as Galamasey in Twi and must be regarded by an honest and informed man or person or a true or new citizen of Ghana as informal sector that requires government intervention and not criminalization by the media and others with the term Galamasey is illegal, if it is illegal, then no need for Government intervention but arrest the situation. So we need to stop the buffoonery acts and understand the plight of the rural miners and see how best we can contain them within limits.

Thanks to God, since our beloved President JD Mahama has bought the recommendations of this writer for a creation of Medium Scale Mining for Ghanaian tycoons to operate solely or in partnership with foreigners because Mining is capital intensive. So that Small Scale Mining is restricted to only Ghanaians as decreed in Small Scale Mining Law 1989 (PNDCL218) with interpretation as no use of sophisticated technology, not use of substantial expenditure, no use of mercury, etc and permissible if and only if, it is in the interest of an affected community. Hence Community Small Scale Mining.

President Mahama also bought the writer’s idea of Minerals Board and Minerals Marketing Company for buying exporting of gold from both the proposed Medium Mining Sector and Small Scale Mining Sector akin to what pertains in the cocoa industry with COCBOD and Cocoa Marketing Company for the purchase and exporting of cocoa. . Instead of the Minerals Board, President Mahama opted for Gold Board. But I hope he will see the wisdom for the Minerals Board to add dealing with Diamond, Salt and maybe lithium, mining of limestone, and new mineral discoveries by Medium Scale Mining Companies by Ghanaians and their partners. The Medium Scale Mining Companies must comply local and international standards as done by the Large Scale Mining Companies.

Small Scale Mining is a necessary human evil, since the operators regard the gold as God sent for them to escape from their poverty miseries, Making it an evil, because failure to Check Small Scale Mining 24/7, in order to reduce the associated risks to the barest minimum, would virtually make it to demo or cause an existential threat to mankind as being experienced in Ghana.

So President JD Mahama’s Resetting of the Small Scale Mining must capture the details of the parent law Small Scale Mining Law 1989 (PNDCL218) and the resetting of Precious Minerals Marketing Company to its original role with the exclusive right for buying and exporting gold from the small Scale Mining Sector. He should consider the establishment of Medium Mining Scale Sector for Ghanaian tycoons to operate solely and or with foreign partners, since mining is capital intensive.

So he should also consider the idea for the establishment of Minerals Board akin to COCBOD, with the conversion of Precious Minerals Marketing Company to Minerals Marketing Company akin to Cocoa Marketing Company in the Cocoa Industry for buying and exporting of Gold, Diamond, Salt, lithium etc from the Small Scale Mining Sector and the proposed Medium Scale Mining Sector. Thus the Minerals Board takes care of the domestic gold purchase Program including the Gold for Oil program.

The situation of the hurriedly cancellation by the current Governor of Bank of Ghana of the matters on the Domestic Gold Purchase Program affecting gold in the Large Scale Mining Sector and suspension of the Gold for Oil Program affecting the Small Scale Ming Sector which was a tactical domestic gold purchase program involving the Gold from the Small Scale Mining Sector, needs new citizens as postulated by President Nkrumah to monitor with critical mindsets to ensure the current Governor of Bank Ghana is not being used for a personal agenda setting by greedy persons.

The tragedy in the Agriculture Sector caused in the first regime of President Mahama, among others, included no much funding to the Sector or the lowest funding in the Agric Sector, it was below 0.4 percent of the national budget, then poor irrigation development or not much refitting of irrigation dams by the regime of President Mahama. As well as not continuing with the Farmers Services Centers as reintroduced by President Kofour’s Regime and bought by the regime of President Mills. His regime rather sold Agric machineries especially tractors to individual farmers. Google for former President Mahama regretted for buying and selling tractors to farmers.

In attempt to achieve import substitution, made the regime of President Mahama to cause further rot in the Ghanaian economy by the wrong establishment of the Sugar Production Series at Komenda by the Ministry of Trade. It was not based on feasibility studies despite available feasibility reports as conducted by the regime of President Mills through Cargill International in 2010 otherwise that by both the Government of Ghana under President JA Kofour and the Government of Brazil through Embrampa, a Brazilian Sugar consultancy firm in 2007.

Strangely, it was also not based on the report of Omnicane Sugar Company of Mauritius who were invited to Ghana in 2014 by President Mahama when he visited Mauritius. Google for Mauritius Sugarcane sweetens trade with Ghana as well as Google for Mauritius Omnicane to invest 250 Million US Dollars into Ghana’ Sugar Plantation. Otherwise, the technical report on the Industries of the CCP regime as submitted to the NLC after the overthrow of President Nkrumah. Thus the Ministry of Trade did not take inputs from Ministry of Agric nor the National Development Planning Commission on the constitutional requirement as at Clause (2) Article 87 of the 1992 Constitution.

Thus, it failed to meet the Constitutional requirement on the need for the economy principle of comparative advantage for suitable areas which have free arable land and noted to give a crop yield of not less than 80 metric tonnes of sugarcane per hectare . The idea of Komenda Sugar Production Series place under Ministry of Trade and Industry is a big error. Hence, it is an albatross on the neck of Ghana.

A sugar production series consists of three Standalones, namely the Sugar Plantation with associated Agriculture infrastructure especially irrigation system etc and should therefore be under Ministry of Agric. The next standalone is the seasonal operative Sugar Mill which may operate for a maximum of six months due to seasonal feed of sugarcane from farms, it must be noted that sugarcane must be milled within 18 hours to ensure sufficient sugar juice of good brix content. Since, operations of Sugar Mill is seasonal not operating throughout the year hence it may be with mostly casual staff due to the long idle period of more than four months in a year.

A Sugar Mill is a primary Agro-industry which must be within a certain maximum radius reach, say 40km, hence Komenda Sugar Mill must be within 40 km reach by Sugar Farms with available suitable arable land with the correct soil and suitable temperature, atmosphere and high yielding not less than 70 Metric tons per hectare. Sugarcane belongs to the Grass family hence good for Savanah Regions and part of the Bono Region around Bui Dam. The situations in Komenda and its enclave with limited arable land are not ok for commercial sugar production as determined by research by Cape Coast University. Google for ‘Spatial Assessment of Sugarcane project in Komenda by DO Yawson.

The Sugar Mill may be under Ministry of Agric otherwise under Ministry of Trade and Industry. The third Standalone is the Sugar Refinery, feeding on Raw Sugar from Sugar Mills. It is 24/7 throughout the year operative system, hence an effective 24hour economy system since the break period is only for very short servicing and maintenance period and may not be more than four days.

As an operable system for24/7 throughout the year, so the best place for a Sugar Refinery is very near to a Harbor especially Tema Harbor for it to enjoy the advantages of economics of scale by depending on imported raw sugar for massive production to reduce unit cost, the advantages for location/ colocation of industries, need to facilitate export of ethanol, one of the byproducts to EU Countries otherwise for use as biofuel. Location of Sugar Refinery at Tema would enable cheap import or raw sugar as when necessary to ensure 24/7 operation when short of local raw sugar, so it must be located close to Tema harbor.

The President must ensure not less than 10 percent of the national budget is allocated to the Agric Sector as agreed by African leaders through the Maputo Declaration in 2003 and the Malabo Declaration in 2014 as part of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development. Google for African Leaders agreed to spend 10 percent of national budget on Agric. Our Beloved President was signatory to it in 2014, so this time he should walk the promise.

The Industrial Sector suffered very much during the first regime of President Mahama, in his efforts to fix the high demand for electricity by stepping up the production to meet peak demand with reserve margin, this resulted in a very long duration of Dumsor with the associated high cost in operation by industries through the use of noisy Generators, this situation affected industries greatly. Mining Companies through the Ghana Chamber of Mines were forced to own power plants and build the Mine Power Reserves.

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