Tue, 14 Oct 2025 Feature Article

Mr Attorney-General, Please Are You Aware Of “Act 995”?

It is not a very pleasant question to ask of the “learned” Attorney-General of the country, but since that “learned” personage is in charge of all the Government's efforts at enforcing the laws by which it rules us, we sometimes have to ask him unpleasant questions.

Our former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was embarrassed in public when he stated that he did not know whether the Chinese galamsey “queenpin,” Aisha Huang, had been “deported” from the country before reappearing to be rearrested! The embarrassment was greater because of the special relationship between the President and his AG, who had worked in the President's chambers when the President had not yet been elected as head of state. Why wasn't his “own man” briefing him adequately about the legal affairs of the country?

The current AG is also a person who can save his head of state from embarrassment because he served President John Mahama when Mr. Mahama was previously in office.

Such a man would have been expected to listen carefully to what President Mahama has been saying about the national problem that has been dominating the headlines—and public discussion generally—ever since Mr. Mahama regained the presidency. In case anyone reading this lives on the moon, that problem is galamsey. So pervasive has the problem become that the President recently summoned all the Ministers concerned with “fighting” the disaster to a meeting with selected public and social bodies to discuss the problem and see how best to tackle it.

A great amount of verbiage was exchanged at the meeting. Many promises were made about how effective the “new measures” being adopted by the Mahama Government would be in defeating galamsey. The fact that the “new measure” (as announced) amounted to “the same thing, different” was glossed over by the Government members. They showed every inclination to believe in “word power,” just as the NPP Government had done!

Unfortunately for the Government (but fortunately for Ghana!), a simple issue soon occurred that would demonstrate unerringly how serious the Government is in its determination to fight galamsey. A galamsey “kingpin” was caught and charged with carrying out illegal mining. Because past “arrests” of that nature had not contributed to stopping galamsey, everyone was alert as to how the Government would handle this galamsey “kingpin’s” case.

At first, it appeared as if the Government prosecutors were intent on taking the matter extremely seriously. They demanded huge sums of money as “bail” from the accused galamsey “kingpin.” Sureties were enormously difficult to procure. So the public was taken in: yes, the Government wanted to set an example to other galamsey operators and “kingpins” (especially).

But other observers of the court proceedings soon began to ask questions. The charges preferred against the accused were not based on Act 995—the amendment that the Akufo-Addo Government had enacted, against the vociferous opposition of some of its own members of Parliament, to levy such heavy prison sentences plus fines for galamsey offenses that both Ghanaian and foreign galamsey operators would be frightened and would end their participation in galamsey operations. In explaining the need for the legislation, the then President noted that there were many times when the Government had prosecuted galamsey operators, only to find out that the judiciary let them off with light sentences. He wanted heavy sentences to deter galamsey operators because they were destroying Ghana's water bodies and forest reserves.

Maybe the current Attorney-General has an argument against the Akufo-Addo Government's contention? Surely, on such a grievous matter, he and his departments cannot make a unilateral decision without giving the public a rationale for the decision. I humbly ask for one, because no one raised that issue during the President's dialogue with the social organizations. Indeed, rather sadly, many of the bodies that have otherwise been doing excellent work protesting against the destruction wrought by galamsey appear to have failed to notice the disastrous, unilateral shelving of Act 995 by the AG's department!

Martin Cameron Duodu is a United Kingdom-based Ghanaian novelist, journalist, editor and broadcaster. After publishing a novel, The Gab Boys, in 1967, Duodu went on to a career as a journalist and editorialist.. More Martin Cameron Duodu (born 24 May 1937) is a United Kingdom-based Ghanaian novelist, journalist, editor and broadcaster. After publishing a novel, The Gab Boys, in 1967, Duodu went on to a career as a journalist and editorialist.

Education
Duodu was born in Asiakwa in eastern Ghana and educated at Kyebi Government Senior School and the Rapid Results College, London , through which he took his O-Level and A-Level examinations by correspondence course . He began writing while still at school, the first story he ever wrote ("Tough Guy In Town") being broadcast on the radio programme The Singing Net and subsequently included in Voices of Ghana , a 1958 anthology edited by Henry Swanzy that was "the first Ghanaian literary anthology of poems, stories, plays and essays".

Early career
Duodu was a student teacher in 1954, and worked on a general magazine called New Nation in Ghana, before going on to become a radio journalist for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation from 1956 to 1960, becoming editor of radio news <8> (moonlighting by contributing short stories and poetry to The Singing Net and plays to the programme Ghana Theatre). <9> From 1960 to 1965 he was editor of the Ghana edition of the South African magazine Drum , <10> and in 1970 edited the Daily Graphic , <3> the biggest-selling newspaper in Ghana.< citation needed >

The Gab Boys (1967) and creative writing
In 1967, Duodu's novel The Gab Boys was published in London by André Deutsch . The "gab boys" of the title – so called because of their gabardine trousers – are the sharply dressed youths who hang about the village and are considered delinquent by their elders. The novel is the story of the adventures of one of them, who runs away from village life, eventually finding a new life in the Ghana capital of Accra . According to one recent critic, "Duodu simultaneously represents two currents in West African literature of the time, on the one hand the exploration of cultural conflict and political corruption in post-colonial African society associated with novelists and playwrights such as Chinua Achebe and Ama Ata Aidoo , and on the other hand the optimistic affirmation of African cultural strengths found in poets of the time such as David Diop and Frank Kobina Parkes . These themes come together in a very compassionate discussion of the way that individual people, rich and poor, are pushed to compromise themselves as they try to navigate a near-chaotic transitional society."

In June 2010 Duodu was a participant in the symposium Empire and Me: Personal Recollections of Imperialism in Reality and Imagination, held at Cumberland Lodge , alongside other speakers who included Diran Adebayo , Jake Arnott , Margaret Busby , Meira Chand , Michelle de Kretser , Nuruddin Farah , Jack Mapanje , Susheila Nasta , Jacob Ross , Marina Warner , and others.

Duodu also writes plays and poetry. His work was included in the anthology Messages: Poems from Ghana ( Heinemann Educational Books , 1970).

Other activities and journalism
Having worked as a correspondent for various publications in the decades since the 1960s, including The Observer , The Financial Times , The Sunday Times , United Press International , Reuters , De Volkskrant ( Amsterdam ), and The Economist , Duodu has been based in Britain as a freelance journalist since the 1980s. He has had stints with the magazines South and Index on Censorship , and has written regularly for outlets such as The Independent and The Guardian .

He is the author of the blog "Under the Neem Tree" in New African magazine (London), and has also published regular columns in The Mail and Guardian ( Johannesburg ) and City Press (Johannesburg), as well as writing a weekly column for the Ghanaian Times (Accra) for many years.< citation needed >

Duodu has appeared frequently as a contributor on BBC World TV and BBC World Service radio news programmes discussing African politics, economy and culture.

He contributed to the 2014 volume Essays in Honour of Wole Soyinka at 80, edited by Ivor Agyeman-Duah and Ogochukwu Promise.Column: Cameron Duodu

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." Follow our WhatsApp channel for meaningful stories picked for your day.

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Mr Attorney-General, Please Are You Aware Of “Act 995”?

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