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An Open Letter To Hon. Barbara Oteng-Gyasie - Ghana's Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources

Feature Article Hon. Barbara Oteng-Gyasie
APR 16, 2018 LISTEN
Hon. Barbara Oteng-Gyasie

Dear Hon. Barbara Oteng-Gyasie,
I shall go straight to the point. The auditing of all concessions given out to small-scale gold miners must be transparent and the results made public asap. Above all, small-scale gold mining in Ghana must be artisanal in nature - and done without the use of excavators and other heavy earthmoving equipment. Simply put, the use of excavators and other heavy earthmoving equipment by small-scale gold miners must be banned. Permanently. Full stop. Haaba.

For your information, in the view of the vast majority of ordinary people in Ghana concerned about the poisoning of soils, streams, rivers and groundwater sources across vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside, by gold miners, any politician pandering to the small-scale gold mining lobby is in effect betraying President Akufo-Addo - whom, uniquely amongst our nation's mostly selfish and hard-of-hearing political class understands clearly, the importance, in an era of global warming, of protecting what is left of our nation's natural heritage: so that at the very least future generations of our people will also be able to enjoy some of the many benefits of the bounties of Mother Nature, presently enjoyed by today's generation of Ghanaians.

Hon. Barbara Oteng-Gyasie, just as by definition there is no such thing as a virtuous and honest prostitute; by definition there is also no such thing as an honest small-scale gold miner in this country. We are also told by bush-telegraph sources that armed robbery is apparently a very lucrative business for those who engage in it. However, as you are doubtless aware, society rightly frowns on it: and applauds when the police arrest armed robbers terrorising law-abiding citizens.

Yet, the plain truth is that the crimes of armed robbers pale into insignificance, when compared to the many crimes against humanity committed by Ghana's small-scale gold miners (both legally registered ones and the galamsayers they routinely use by stealth to escape paying for the reclamation of their exhausted concessions).

The fact of the matter is that errant small-scale gold miners and the galasayers their unpardonable irresponsibility spawns, are literally robbing future generations of our people, of their right to enjoy the manifold benefits of the UN SDGs too, when the time comes for them to inherit their birthright: the landmass and continental shelf off our shoreline that make up the soverign territory of the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state.

Hon. Barbara Oteng-Gyasie, has it never occured to a highly-intelligent person such as your good self that at a time when global climate change is impacting this country so negatively, Mother Ghana will be doomed - as sure as day follows night - and have no future at all, if obtuse politicians in President Akufo-Addo's Ghana continue to fail to recognise that we are better off leaving the gold in forest reserves and other ecologically sensitive areas untouched, in the ground? Ebeeii.

It simply does not make sense to allow the remainder of our country's forests to be destroyed, and streams, rivers, groundwater sources and soils poisoned too, just so that a few wealthy, ruthless, greedy and politically well-connected entrepreneurs (who clearly are so selfish they do not care one jot about the effect of their actions on their fellow humans and on the natural environment), can grow even wealthier and send their net worth into stratospheric heights.

You apparently appealed to small-scale gold miners recently, whiles feting widows and other vulnerable people at Aboso, in your Huni-Valley residence, to be patient because they will soon be allowed to resume their mining operations, once audits of their concessions are conducted - presumably by the selfsame mostly-compromised officials of the regulatory bodies who have been in the deep pockets of gold miners for decades: enabling them thwart attempts by committed environmentalists across Ghana to get them to obey all the rules and regulations governing gold mining in this country.

Since Parliament has never once ratified any gold mining agreements/licences before in the entire history of the 4th Republic, some of us are prepared to sue shortsighted politicians (in their personal capacity) who allow our forest reserves to be sacrificed on the alter of greed in the law courts - for personally (through their actions and egregious inactions) endangering the well-being of future generations in a nation committed to the attainment of all the UN SDGs by 2030: and led by a wise and honest president prepared to even sacrifice his presidency if that is what it takes to protect what is left of Ghana's natural heritage.

So don't joke with your position in his regime. Be wise. Finally, the question is: Can we not anchor our tourism industry on the remainder of our natural heritage, and, like Thailand, earn trillions of Ghana cedis annually - creating wealth that stays in Ghana and jobs galore for millions of our young people nationwide? It is called sustainable development. Food for thought for you and your colleague ministers - for that is the surest way to create a just and all-inclusive society in the Ghana beyond aid that we all seek and want to bring about. Please note that as a people we will never get to the Ghana beyond aid we seek if we allow a powerful few with greedy ambitions (to paraphrase the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah) to destroy our forests. That is for sure.

Yours in the service of Mother Ghana,
Kofi.

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