The truth of the matter is that, Ghana is currently depended on political interest. Almost everything decided in the country is looked at in the lense of politics. Greater part of the people and even institutions are impacted by this interest.
For the time being, the attention is on illegal mining. The battle against this danger has been very tough since partisan politics has creeped into pretty much every space in Ghana, especially in various establishments who matter in this battle.
For at some point now, illegal mining prevalently referred to in the local parlance as ‘Galamsey’ has been a huge issue. The problem has been engaged by the two major political parties in the nation — NPP and NDC to date.
The activity has step by step annihilated practically all the waterway bodies and destroyed the environment in the country, birthing many sicknesses.
As a result, a section of the Ghanaian populace including various groups went on strike and demonstrated to bring attention to the government of Ghana for them to know the seriousness of the issue.
During the demonstration, several of these demonstrators were arrested by the police for unfortunate behavior, and were denied bail until after 48 hours — a move which is illegal by law.
Indeed, even after a few demonstrations and strikes against the illegal mining activities, authorities depended on to stop them have all turned a dead ear to the issue. As a matter of fact, organizations who are responsible to deal with this issue have been quiet, all for the sake of political interest.
The battle against Galamsey is a big weight on the citizenry, despite the fact that some of them are partly to be blamed. The “franticness” of partisanship has been a significant catastrophe for the battle.
In all these commotion, where are the institutional responsibilities? For instance, the Minerals Commission who have such a lot of power to diffuse every one of these uproar in the nation now.
Their administrative capabilities are exceptionally expansive that, they have all the power with support from government to rapidly step in to stop everybody engaging in these Galamsey activities.
Yes, the government is now being considered answerable for this neckdeep issue even after restricting Galamsey for quite some time. But on one hand, the people have forgotten about the Minerals Commission who have been extremely quiet on the issue right from the start of the grumbles all around the country.
Interestingly, the boss of Minerals Commission is arguing that, as an action to stop these activities of the unlawful excavators, they had to give licenses to these miners. If not, it won’t ever stop.
Meanwhile, this same Commission has over the years, issued such countless licenses to people to operate, yet Galamsey hasn’t been halted in any capacity. It is even more worse off than previously, as a matter of fact.
There are no checking strategies by the Commission to chase out these illegal miners — who out of guts, are unhesitatingly annihilating the water bodies. There’s no essential monitoring of these licensed miners.
After the Commission issue the license, what else? The greater obligation of the Minerals Commission as a team with big powers is to be on the field, and police the ones given the permit.
This is to direct them not to go pass their mining limits. The level of supervision has been exceptionally low.
For what reason would they say they (the Minerals Commission) are not up and doing? Is it a political strategy, fear or they just can’t function?. In reality, the Minerals Commission and practically all state institutions are not taking up their obligations well.
People can no longer depend on these State institutions to persistently and honestly accomplish their duties. Obviously, Ghana is a failed state with regards to Galamsey, yet the Minerals Commission has horrendously flopped in this battle as well.
In 2012, the Commission has given more than 2,400 licenses to date, but illegal mining has still deteriorated. All because, some of these people applying for the licenses are sympathisers of the two big political parties (NPP and NDC).
This raises the question of whether or not political appointments have been worth it. The populace could have depended on these institutions for restitution after the government has failed to address the Galamsey ‘infection’, but what do we see?
Chief Justice Responds to the Appeal Of The A-G About The Big Setbacks In The Fight Against Galamsey
Concerned Chiefs, Men of God, pharmaceutical companies, citizens, students, traditional leaders, and numerous other groups and institutions have all called for a quick reaction to the issue but everybody is quiet.
Ghana’s cocoa beans is now being questioned by Europe because of Galamsey. The country’s yields and food varieties that are exported are said to have weighty metals in them, making them not tasteful enough to be eaten.
Drinking waters are at this point, not spotless as they use to be. Ghana is kneeling down for a hero in these difficult times, particularly at a time the country is going into its general elections.
Sadly, everything done here in Ghana has a political interest behind it, and that is the biggest issue. There is absence of responsibility by the current government and the opposition NDC to this battle issue.
Both are pretending to be battling Galamsey, but they rather have a huge commitment to win power as against the health of the people. That’s it!
