Nyinahin Chiefs Have No Jurisdiction Over Exton Cubic Impasse

The question of who gets to be awarded a concession to either prospect or undertake any mining venture in the country, expressly belongs to the central government, and not the chiefs and people of any particular locality in the country. Which is why it comes as nothing short of the patently absurd for the chiefs of such towns and villages as Nyinahin, Nkawie and Mpasaaso to be huffing and puffing over the perfectly legitimate refusal by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to allow the mining company owned by Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, the younger brother of former President John Dramani Mahama, to exploit the bauxite-laden hills of the Atwima-Mponua District of the Asante Region.

What is significant to highlight here is the fact that the government’s refusal, even as the Chairman of the Minerals Commission and, I believe, also the Chairman of the Forestry Commission, as well as the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. John Peter Amewu, have amply explained, is squarely based on some serious contractual violations committed by the owner and operatives of the Engineers & Planners firm. It has absolutely nothing, whatsoever, to do with the well-known fact that Mr. Ibrahim Mahama took undue advantage of his brother’s executive position to wantonly ride roughshod over the laws of the land.

Him being an indigenous Ghanaian citizen has also not prevented Mr. Ibrahim Mahama from being reckless and less protective of the concessionary environment than many of the foreign mining companies that some of the chiefs and people of Nyinahin fault for unceremoniously abandoning their neighborhood or community. Maybe these dissenting traditional rulers would do themselves a dosage of good by enquiring from the Minerals and Forestry commissions why some of the foreign mining companies abandoned the Nyinahin vicinity. Insulting the intelligence of President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo, by making pointless and illogical comparisons with the Atiwa bauxite deposits, near Kyebi, Nana Akufo-Addo’s hometown, will not address the real issue of legal violations at stake in the Ibrahim Mahama impasse.

We are here talking about a scofflaw entrepreneur who has the routine and criminal habit of paying for import duties on his mining equipment with dud, or fake, checks. And these Nyinahin and Atwima-Mponua chiefs would have the rest of the nation believe that a pathologically irresponsible concessionaire like the Chief Executive Officer of the Engineers & Planners firm is a reliable potential employer of their youths. How pathetic! Indeed, they may not care about whether Mr. Ibrahim Mahama is a serial tax-dodger or not, but President Akufo-Addo does not have this kind of luxury. Rather, he has to account for every cedi or pesewa collected and deposited into our national treasury vault or lost through the callous and systematically unpatriotic scam-artistry of well-positioned reprobate Ghanaian citizens like Mr. Ibrahim Mahama.

Indeed, if the so-called Nkawiepaninhene who claims Mr. Ibrahim Mahama to be his bona fide scion or heir were that much of a responsible adult and traditional ruler himself, he would have ensured that his son or royal “prince” promptly paid his taxes as part of his obligation to our national development effort. In the latter sense, the relevant operatives of the Akufo-Addo Administration may be aptly envisaged to be wisely and honorably engaged in the business of protecting the evidently self-destructive Nyinahin chiefs from themselves. Very likely, some of these chiefs have had their palms literally greased by the operatives of the Exton Cubic firm. That is their problem, and one which they need to keep to themselves.

*visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs