To The Banks Of River Pra With Senseless And Vile Propaganda

A good friend once advised me to ignore the balderdash of Sammy Gyamfi, the National 'Miscommunication' Director of the NDC, and rather concentrate on thought-provoking articles which will educate the good people of Ghana because the boy is a vexation to the spirit. I decided to ignore his advice because the Akans say if somebody kicks you and you fail to kick him back, he may think you have shorter legs.

Now that we are alive and kicking, we must continue to set the records straight instead of leaving things into the infantile hands of this boy called Sammy Gyamfi, who was born too late to understand what is happening today. The younger generation deserves to know better in order to make an informed choice and understand where we came from. Looking and listening to Sammy Gyamfi when he was addressing the media by the banks of River Pra, I did not pity him but the older men who stood sheepishly behind the guy knowing very well that he was spewing out nothing but rot. The boy wanted to portray to Ghanaians that it was during the three year-rule of the NPP that the River Pra started to be polluted.

Stand up, Sammy and let me educate you about the genesis of galamsey in Ghana because undoubtedly, you were not born in the early seventies when the menace started. Here in Ghana, all the gold mining companies which used to operate in all the gold mining areas were doing deep pit mining. The rocks and sand were carried on conveyor belts to where they were refined. It all started at Obuase in the Ashanti Region, near Tutuka, where one of the conveyor belts passed towards the refinery centre.

The youth of Obuse decided to carry the fallen rocks and sand under the conveyor belt, carry them home, pound them and used mercury to extract the gold. When businessmen who dealt in gold realised that the boys were getting enough gold, they decided to visit their homes to buy the precious mineral. In no time, it became fashionable to wake up in the morning, carry your pan to the site and carry away rocks to extract gold. The process became popularly known as 'gather them and sell'. Galamsey is a corrupted version of the 'gather them and sell'. Sammy Gyamfi might not have seen mercury during his senior high school days because all the mercury were stolen by students from the science laboratories and sold to these illegal miners.

As we trudged on, we came face to face with surface mining during the (P) NDC era where experts warned that if care was not taken our river bodies and the environment as a whole could be damaged. We did not heed this warning and gave licences to foreign companies to engage in surface mining. That was the biggest mistake the nation ever did. I was living by the banks of River Birim with my late uncle who was engaged in cocoa farming and I saw things for myself. The river was pure and clean, and the people of Akyem were proud to refer to themselves as 'Akyemkwaa a onom Biremu'. In fact, we used to go fishing during weekends and crabs, shrimps, etc, were in abundance in the Birim River.

When the Birim River started changing colour, it did not occur to us that it was as a result of the activities of illegal miners. In no time, the river changed colour to brown and all the fishes, shrimps, crabs, etc, died. The expression 'Akyemkwaa a onom Biremu' changed to 'Akyemkwaa a onom pure water' because the Birim River was not good for drinking and even farmers bought sachet water to the farms. What turned Sammy Gyamfi to a laughing stock was that because of his ignorance, he did not know that all governments in the Fourth Republic tried to fight the canker but to no avail because the galamseyers metamorphosed to mafia whose main aim is to make money damn the consequences. They do not care a hoot about the environment, not to talk of our river bodies so far as they could make cheap money, so be it.

Today, rivers like Ankobra, Pra, Tano, Offin, Birim, etc, are all dying due to the activities of galamseyers. President Akufo-Addo told Ghanaians that he would never sit down unconcerned for a few individuals to destroy our environments and river bodies. Out of anger, he said he was ready to put his presidency on the line to fight the menace. What he meant was that if even galamsey operators decide to vote against him come December simply because he was fighting against the menace, so be it. You see, history is made from such bold statements and I sincerely doff my hat for the president for taking such a bold initiative.

Like an inveterate disease, fighting a canker like galamsey which has taken deep roots takes time. Battles are fought before a war is won. We are dealing with human institution and so we should expect some of those charged with the onerous task of fighting galamsey to go wayward. That doesn't mean we should throw our hands into the air and say we have lost the fight. When a general loses a battle, he retreats to plan the next strategy. Those who do not wish the president well in his attempt to save our river bodies are nation wreckers and Ghanaians should treat them as such. If their aim is to gain cheap political advantage, Ghanaians should pay them back in their own coin. Thankfully, chiefs, students, farmers, journalists and a cross-section of the populace are moving in sympathy with the president, and surely, victory will come one day.

What desperate John Mahama and the leadership of the NDC fail to understand is that those at the forefront of these demonstrations are trying to cash in and get their share of the booty that they grabbed when the party was in power. Someone like Bernard Mornah, the so-called chairman of the PNC, is one of such persons whose main aim is to make the best out of every demonstration that the NDC organises. Just look at how he subtly edged out Edward Mahama from the PNC. For now, it has become abundantly clear that the guy has sold the PNC to the NDC. I wonder what the ghost of Dr. Hilla Limann is doing at Gwolu, were he was buried. Asem beba dabi!!!

From Eric Bawah