Mahama Protected Slavic Galamseyers

He has since profusely apologized to Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor and said that he was grossly misquoted by reporters to the effect that the Russian and Ukrainian nationals recently arrested for engaging in illegal mining activities, in the Amansie-West District of the Asante Region, had applied for and promptly received military protection with the blessing of the former Defense Minister (See “Kumbuor Approved Military Protection for Ukraine, Russia Galamseyers – MP” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/23/17).

The informant in question is the Member of Parliament for the Manso-Adubia Constituency, in the Asante Region, Mr. Yaw Frimpong. The revelation came on the heels of a complaint by Mr. John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, that he and his staff were finding it extremely difficult to bring an immediate halt to the activities of foreign nationals engaged in Galamsey, because these illegal miners were being protected by heavily armed members of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Well, it turns out that Mr. Amewu had his facts dead on the money and that, indeed, under the watch of the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), military personnel had been dispatched all over the country to protect illegal foreign miners. Where Mr. Frimpong’s apology to Dr. Kumbuor, the former Defense Minister, kicks in regards the fact that according to Dr. Kumbuor, the order for the protection of the illegal foreign miners would not have come from the extant Defense Minister, or himself, but rather from the Command Office of the Ghana Armed Forces.

What Dr. Kumbuor, in effect, is saying here without using plain language is that it was then-President John Dramani Mahama who singularly and categorically authorized the use of personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces for the protection of these illegal foreign-born miners. And just why, and how, do I come to such a serious conclusion? Well, the answer is very simple; and it is that per our 1992 Republican Constitution, as sitting President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama was the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The Chief of the Defense Staff and/or the Military High Command could not have taken such a seismic and far-reaching decision without consultation with the Flagstaff House.

Dr. Kumbuor, obviously, has chosen to distance himself from such egregious decision perhaps because he had either protested against it to no avail, or he had acquiesced to simply keep his job. He obviously is in no mood, whatsoever, to serve as a scapegoat for the former President, who has vehemently insisted, and it turns out, falsely that he had fiercely fought off the predatory and environmentally destructive activities of the Galamseyers, both local and foreign, but that he had not received the necessary assistance or fillip from the media on the scale being presently afforded his successor, namely, President Akufo-Addo.

I have observed this before and hereby repeat the same, once more, that in another country and another era, former President Mahama would have been stripped of his post-presidential prosecutorial immunity and other privileges “pertaining thereunto” and been indicted, prosecuted and sentenced to a considerable amount of time behind bars. He would also have been meted the ultimate punishment for such a capital crime against Ghanaian and African humanity. Unfortunately, under our extremely weak and abjectly dysfunctional democratic culture, Mr. Mahama is able to smugly and cavalierly pooh-pooh his successor’s yeomanly efforts at turning the economy around and making our country work again and easily get away with the same.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
May 27, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]