Stop This Blackmail Over Galamsey!

I was extremely surprised to find that although JoyFm is a prominent member of the “Coalition Against Galamsey”, a report it carried in the early evening of 01.04.2018 incorporated some heart-rending pleas by galamsey sympathisers against “Operation Vanguard”.

“Nana Akufo-Addo, we are begging you! Please, Nana, we cannot get money to buy food for our families!” said a man who claimed he could find no other work to do apart from galamsey.

Sadly, the reporter failed to ask him, “But galamsey is only about 20 years old! How were people like you getting money to feed their families before galamsey?”

Amarket scene was also shown, with the women bitterly complaining that they were unable to make sales.

Again, the reporter failed to take any woman to the pails of yellow water that had been shown in the film earlier as the only water now available to the people of the area. It cannot be used to cook, let alone to be drunk.

The women should have been asked: “Would you rather be able to sell goods than have water to use that had not been spoiled like this by the very people to whom you want to sell food?”

Journalists should know that with regard to galamsey, there is a judgementcall to be made. There is no artificial “balance” to be struck between what galamseyers do to water and the community's needs, in terms of drinkable water.

In fact, everyone should know that the community's right to clean, potable water is not negotiable!

Our wise ancestors chose our present habitats precisely because there was clean, potable water available there. The water was meant to enable their descendants too to survive in perpetuity. To say that one must be allowed to destroy that water because one has no other job to do than galamsey, is equivalent to asking the community to commit suicide on behalf of its descendants.

It is as if we were asking our people to acquiesce to rape because some men have no other means of satisfying their sexual urges than rape. Or saying that one must be allowed to carry out armed robbery because one needs to rob people of their money as a means of 'earning a living'.

It's a starkchoice between either allowing lawlessness to threaten the very existence of other human beings, or doing the duty of government and effectively enforcing laws that protect public safety. It is an existential paradigm that does not allow for any prevarication.

Therefore, members of the Coalition Against Galamsey must constantly guard their media against going “off-message”. Reporters should not feel obliged – because they want to be “objective” – to give their microphones to people to justify the dastardly acts acts of a few selfish individuals.

The question of where our loyalty lies came up recently in Parliament. The First Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, is, of course, normally expected to be impartial. But he proved on that occasion that he does not think that he must forfeit his integrity and close his eyes to social evils that are plaguing the constituents who elected him.

So, when an Opposition MP tried to condemn the seizure and burning of equipment seized by Operation Vanguard from galamseyers. Mr Osei-Owusu was having none of it. He said:

“Mr Speaker”, (he began) ” I hope I can keep my cool because I often get emotional when I’m discussing the damage we have done to our environment and in particular, our water-bodies. I live in an area where one river passes through my entire constituency. I get calls practically every day from farmers, and their complaint is simple: 'We can no longer farm because the mining activities in the river body are affecting our crops. If we use the water to water our crops, the crops die!'

“The last one I had was about two weeks ago. He said: 'Lawyer, I borrowed money to start farming when the water started clearing up. But now everything I have is gone; it's been in vain; not worth it.” That is the damage that those few people who want to make money from gold are doing to entire communities.

“Mr Speaker, I want us, in discussing this matter, to determine where our loyalties lie. We are Members of Parliament; we represent the entire community. We can count, in any community, ten or twenty people involved in mining on water-bodies.

Those twenty or ten people affect the lives of the entire community because they want gold from the source of life to the community. That is the nature of the challenge we are dealing with.

Mr Speaker, some members here can attest to the fact that when the Committee of Roads and Transport went for an inspection tour in the Central Region, we just stopped by River Ofin (which is no longer a river because no water can be seen in it but mud!) and we saw water-craft on the water-body. But as soon as our vehicle stopped, the illegal miners jumped into the water and disappeared! Now, if I had gone on an operation and this had happened, would I leave the equipment there for them to come back to continue to use?

“Mr Speaker, extreme behaviour must be met with an extreme response! We are dealing with people who are determined, at every cost, to make their money, not-withstanding the damage they do to the environment.

Now, I was going on a community visit when I met an old lady who said: 'They have widened the river and I can’t go to my farm any longer!' Mr Speaker, the width of the river has been expanded from – take the wall of this chamber as an example – to the other wall! It used to be a small stream on which trees could be used to make a bridge for crossing. Today, the old lady can’t cross over! She is denied access to her own farm! That is the kind of thing that is happening; that we are encouraging.

“Honourable Members, we should be careful not to appear to be loyal to the same people who are destroying our water-bodies; destroying farms and making sure of affecting the livelihood of our rural folks.

“None of our water-bodies can now be fished in. They are dead! There are no live marine fishes in any of those waters! My friend from Ofinso can bear testimony to that. River Oda too has none! Actual life is gone because a few people want to make money. If these people were willing to obey the laws of the land, we wouldn’t need to send soldiers after them. But here are people who are determined that, notwithstanding the law; notwithstanding the dangers they know they pose to the entire country,they want money so the rest of us should die!

“Honourable Members, where is our loyalty? The other part of it is, if you go into it, of the people mining in these water- bodies, about 90% are foreigners – largely Chinese, Togolese, and Burkinabes! Is our loyalty to our Ghanaian people, or is our loyalty to those who make money?

Regrettably I don’t have the authority; but if I had, I would have made it the law thatif you find people on the water-body, shoot them! That is how we can get these people out.