The Chiefs Sleep While The Birim Burns: Why President Mahama Must Unleash Act 995 And Crush The Untouchable Galamsey Empires

The recent ring of gunfire echoing across the scarred landscapes of Kyebi is not a localized dispute; it is the death rattle of a nation losing its soul to corporate greed and institutional cowardice. For a generation, Ghana’s environmental policy has been a theatrical performance of broken promises. Former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo famously swore to "put his presidency on the line" to crush this menace, yet his words withered into complicity as illegal mining operations breached the very perimeter of his political backyard. President John Dramani Mahama has countered that "the time for promises has passed" in this war for national survival. As the Dagomba proverb reminds us, "A man who is being carried on someone else's back does not realize how long the journey is." We can no longer carry the heavy weight of elite greed. The Commander-in-Chief must now deploy absolute military force alongside the police and the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) to enforce our statutory laws, invade protected hotspots, and strip away the political and traditional shields of impunity.

The Empirical Proof: Tactical Enforcement Matched with Professional Engineering

We do not need to guess whether the military can solve this problem. The viral footage of the Ghana Armed Forces proves their unparalleled capability when given clear, uncompromised mandates:

• The Accra-Kumasi Expressway Blueprint: Look at the phenomenal speed of the 48th Engineers Regiment. They cleared massive stretches of dense, difficult vegetation along the Accra-Kumasi Expressway corridor within weeks, showing precision, coordination, and rapid mobilization.
• The Tse Addo Waterway Restoration: Under the recent direct post-flood directive of President Mahama, the military engineering units moved to dredge and desilt major choked channels across the capital, demonstrating that where civil state agencies fail, the military delivers immediate results.
• Economical, Professional River Reclamation: Beyond security, the President must task our proud military engineers and sappers to spearhead the ecological restoration of devastated water bodies. Utilizing the Armed Forces' organic engineering assets is significantly more economical than inflating private contracts, ensuring a disciplined, professional, and incorruptible approach to desilting rivers and neutralizing mercury-laden soils.

The Wisdom of the Sages: Why Silence is Treason

In the face of ecocide, the absolute silence of powerful political elites and traditional stools is not diplomacy; it is an active crime. To understand our current paralysis, we must look to the sharp philosophy of Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini and global sages:

• The Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini Doctrine: "You cannot pretend to be asleep when your beard is on fire unless you are a dead man." Our leaders cannot pretend they do not see the excavators tearing up their ancestors' backyards.
• The African Proverb: "The cockroach can never win its case in the court of the fowls." As long as galamsey financiers fund political campaigns, the poor will continue to drink mercury-poisoned water.
• The Biblical Warning: Proverbs 28:15 states, "Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people." A state that fails to protect its own water and land has abandoned its divine duty to its citizens.
• The Global Mandate: As the legendary Native American proverb warns, "Only when the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money."

Hotspots of Impunity: The Ground Zero of Destruction

A policy-oriented, aggressive military strategy requires moving past soft targets and striking the core geographical networks shielded by wealth, royalty, and political influence:

• The Kwabeng and Enyinam Enclaves: Operations must systematically purge the Atiwa East District, where industrial-scale galamsey has turned local communities into environmental disaster zones.
• The Rape of the Birim and Pra Rivers: Immediate tactical deployments are required to protect the Birim River, which has been heavily polluted by illegal miners washing gold directly into its headwaters.
• Complicit Traditional Stools: Royal domains where chiefs turn a blind eye or quietly lease lands to illegal cartels must be subjected to direct, aggressive military sweeps. As Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini would say, "If a chief allows a snake into his palace, he should not complain when his children are bitten."
• Gazetted Forest Reserves: Immediate tactical deployment inside globally recognized ecosystems like the Atewa Range Forest Reserve.

The Statutory Legal Frameworks Left Rotting

Ghana does not lack environmental laws; it lacks the backbone to enforce them. The state must immediately leverage these existing statutory pillars to criminalize and crush the syndicates:

• The Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995): This law prescribes mandatory prison sentences of 15 to 25 years for illegal mining; yet high-profile actors continue to evade state prosecution.
• The Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1994 (Act 490): This act criminalizes the degradation of water bodies and pristine eco-zones, providing full legal justification for immediate state-led asset seizures.
• Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29): The pollution of public water bodies with poisonous mercury constitutes a first-degree felony against national public health.
• Constitutional Mandate (Article 36(9)): The directive principles of state policy legally obligate the President to safeguard the national environment for future generations.

Strategic Policy Recommendations for the Mahama Administration

To translate presidential rhetoric into tangible ecological protection, the administration must adopt these immediate policy and structural reforms:

• Strict Application of Act 995: Ensure the uniform application of the law by investigating and prosecuting any individuals, including traditional authorities or political figures, found to be facilitating illegal mining activities within their jurisdictions.
• Financial Intelligence and Asset Management: Follow through on the pledge to target the financial networks backing illicit mining by deploying financial intelligence units to track and freeze assets linked to environmental crimes.
• Deploy Sappers for Waterway Restoration: Formally assign the 48th Engineers Regiment and military sappers the mandate to professionally and economically rehabilitate the Birim River and other heavily silted galamsey waterways.
• Decommissioning of Illegal Equipment: Mandate the immediate destruction of heavy earthmoving equipment and chanfan machines found operating directly in the Birim River and surrounding riverbeds.
• Establishment of Permanent Environmental Security Zones: Deploy joint task forces to maintain a permanent presence in high-risk areas like Kwabeng and Enyinam to prevent the re-emergence of illegal mining activities.

The protection of national water bodies and ancestral forests is a fundamental duty of the state. Environmental destruction directly undermines the nation's future, and we can no longer afford to let the greed of a few compromise the survival of the many. As the holy scriptures demand in Numbers 35:34, "Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell." The path forward requires a firm, law-driven approach. President Mahama must assert his authority through the rigorous execution of statutory law, ensuring that no enclave remains outside the reach of environmental protection. The time for administrative action is now, focusing on the preservation of our national heritage through established legal and judicial frameworks. Let our proud engineers and sappers heal the waters while our heavy battalions match the heavy text of the law. Enough is enough.

✍️ Retired Senior Citizen
For and on behalf of all Senior Citizens of the Republic of Ghana 🇬🇭

Teshie-Nungua
akpaluck@gmail.com

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