My Thoughts On The Issue Of Galamsey......

Everybody in this world is entitled to his or her opinions, how the person sees issues and address them, the fact that every individual has the right to his or her opinion doesn’t necessary suggest that your opinions are always right. But let’s not forget, the fact that you have the right to your opinion, so shall others also has the right to analyze your opinions and make conclusions on it, recently on media houses and social media platforms are actual flowing with an opinion of the Deputy Speaker of parliament about the issue the galamseyers. ‘’ shot to kill should be advocated for the military ‘’ as a politicians there are certain comments that are not popular and will always make you ungrateful to the society. I am not a politician and I don't always address such issues politically but rather socially, I am just trying to point out something's that surrounds this galamsey issues.

They have made us to see Small Scale Mining as something very bad and evil, in other for them to convince us, they named it as Galamsey. Nobody is in a way supporting people that destroy our environment, in which every living thing depends on for survival; it will be unwise to agree with this so called galamsey miners who destroy our water bodies, environments and other forest reserves. As much as we try to protect our environment and water bodies from these galamseyers we also need to do little analysis on it before we start putting on inhumane measures to do away with these galamseyers like how our Deputy Speaker of parliament suggested.

We have to look at this Small scale mining called galamsey from the historical point of view, I was privilege to be lectured by one of the best political economist in the country Dr Ayelazunu Jasper, and those who are also inclined to issues concerning history will testify that, before colonialism our great grandfathers were doing this mining just like any other job, is later on after independence that the government brought a law that any resources on the land or sea belongs to the state, so in order for people to operate for these resources, they must obtain a license, meanwhile this mining from the beginning was just like any other work, farming, fishing, hunting, Manson. And this small scale mining weren’t ugly as it is today because they were just using their normal tools, but it was later on when the foreigners came in with their heavy equipment to make the whole thing look odd and dangerous to the environment.

It is amazing how the government tells us how bad and ugly this galamsey is, but is the same government that makes laws to guarantee people who can afford the amount of money proposed in order to do away with the locals that couldn’t afford the money propose by the government.

These people gave reasons to back their laws by saying that the monies collected will be used by the government to bring development as if they are concerned about development, how can you sack the natives claiming they are doing illegal mining with shovel, hoe, and pick axe while foreigners are importing heavy machines to come and do this same mining as I call it. I am not supporting Galamsey, I know it has great effects on the environment but what I am also suggesting is, if the government wants to address this issue, they should do it wholly, and not just singling out these hungry youth who are there to make their ends meet, yes of course we have seen some foreigners that were also sacked but the majority of these foreigners are still mining in our lands.

I don’t trust these politicians one bit, they are doing as if they love Ghana, if their love for Ghana is true, then they should start with their salaries and the cars they are riding, they will never talk about it. Mining in general destroys the environment, and if you people can create measures to solve mining problem why can’t you do that for the galamseyers too, my people if they love us, as they claim, their salaries and cars can have impact on villages, they should tell us where this word Galamsey is coming from, it’s a concocted word to replace small scale mining.

Let us take a second look at this idea of galamsey, before we go around shouting Galamsey must stop, mind you that’s a source of many Ghanaians livelihood and if you sack them, you are indirectly causing a societal problem because it is actually lack of jobs that send most of these young men and women there, even if we don’t consider the environmental issues but these galamseyers lives are endangered more than a baby left in a lion’s den to survive, can you imagine two friends will enter this gold pit and only one will come out alive but within one week you will find the one that was fortunate to be alive there again, so I ask myself, is it that this person is not afraid of death or what, but the response I received is, he or she has been force by unbearable forces like hunger, shelter and clothing………

SUNTAA ABUDU IBRAHIM
UDS NYANKPALA CAMPUS, SCC.