Mother Ghana Deserves Better: Think Green For A Change, Mr. Vice President - An Open Letter To Ghana's Vice President

Mr. Vice President,

If you had given the slightest inkling to voters - during the campaign for the December 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections - that you would be mortgaging Akyem Abuakwa's future by giving out the biodiversity-rich Atewa Range to foreigners to mine bauxite in, precious few discerning individuals resident there, would have voted for your party. No question.

Sir, there is nothing "innovative" (to quote you referring to that infernal Chinese loan in exchange for the right to mine bauxite in Atewa given to Chinese miners), about condemning future generations of our people to a life of empoverishment and utter misery - which is precisely what the very foolish idea of mining an area of rainforest that if turned into a national park, could earn Ghana hundreds of billions of dollars and create jobs galore, over the same sodden period that Chinese mining companies will tear it down and destroy a priceless upland evergreen rainforest, which, to make matters worse, also most probably contains trillions of cedis in yet-to-be-discovered medicinal plants. Unpardonable. Unspeakable. And monstrous. Full stop.

Surprising though it might be to the greed-filled philistines amongst our ruling elites (who know the price of everything under the African sun but can't see the value hidden in Mother Nature: the bountiful queen who nutures life in humankind's one biosphere, which serves as the one human race's common home), the truly innovative thinking in this whole shameful and abominable matter, is recognising that it is Guinea's superior quality bauxite, which ought to be the raw material for an integrated West African (as opposed to a solely Ghanaian) aluminium industry - not Atewa's rather poor quality bauxite. Haaba.

The question is: What right do feckless and boneheaded politicians have, to mortgage the future of our grandchildren, and that of their offspring's children's children? At a time when global climate change is impacting our nation so negatively (please note the frequency of destructive flash floods and prolonged drought periods nationwide that no one can do anything about, if truth be told), smug bean-counting politicians enamoured of statistics, must understand clearly that what actually constitute Ghana's GDP growth rate figures, on the ground, in the real world, matter enormously. Undoubtedly. Period.

Furthermore, if it hasn't occurred to you yet, no politician today, no matter how powerful he or she might be, can influence the judgement of history. Posterity can't be bribed with 'restrictive' public procurement contracts, alas, thank goodness. If your regime does not rescind this daft idea of an integrated aluminium industry in Ghana using bauxite from Atewa - amongst other areas of our country - for which we are going to destroy the priceless Atewa upland evergreen rainforest, it will be roundly condemned by posterity as a short-sighted government that failed coming generations, because it did not take into account the apocalyptic impact the destruction of Atewa would have on them.

Surely, President Akufo-Addo, who has showm by deeds, not words, that he actually cares about protecting what is left of our nation's natural heritage, does not deserve such a fate? For his determined fight to protect what is left of our natural heritage, alone, President Akufo-Addo, whose regime this is, after all - it is neither yours, nor Ken Ofori-Atta's, let us be clear - deserves to be in the Pantheon of the 21st century's greatest world leaders. Don't ruin his chances with yours and Ken Ofori-Atta's shameful disregard for the locked value in Ghana's natural capital - on which we could anchor a thriving ecotourism sector earning billions of dollars annually (wealth that will stay in Ghana, incidentally), and jobs galore for our younger generations, nationwide. Mother Ghana deserves better. Think green for a change, Mr. Vice President. Haaba. Hmmm, Oman Ghana - eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa. We rest our case.

Yours in the service of Mother Ghana,

Kofi.