It is obvious that the majority of Ghanaians are very fixated about the 2025 budget. In my life, I’ve never seen an opposition party that just left power so fixated on finding the slightest means to fault a new government that’s barely two months in office.
And for the supporters of the NDC, they looked forward to most of the promises that the party made, especially on tax reforms, while in opposition being materialized in last week’s budget.
It is obvious that the public sentiment that greeted the budget was one of hope but that isn’t my interest in this piece – maybe some other time.
Last week, I watched a conversation on the monster of illegal mining, which had the Minister of Environment Science and Technology, Hon. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed and the convenor for the Media Coalition against Illegal Mining, Ing. Dr Ken Ashigbey.
Believe me, there’s no shred of doubt that for the past two months, we’ve seen some significant or commendable effort from the side of the new government in its bid to combat the monster of illegal mining.
And this morning, when I started writing about why the new government must be decisive to tame the monster of illegal mining, a lot of things came to mind.
One that’s obvious is that President John Damani Mahama’s administration must not fail in the fight against illegal mining. We must all do everything to make sure that this government succeeds in its fight against the monster of the galamsey.
It’s without a shred of doubt that illegal mining (galamsey) has become one of Ghana’s most pressing national crises, destroying ecosystems, undermining public health, and eroding opportunities in agriculture and other land-based economic sectors.
Ghana’s Economic Pillars Declining
The impacts of galamsey extend deeply into everyday life, communities suffer elevated health risks from polluted water and air, water sources are increasingly being contaminated while scarcity looms, and cocoa production which is one of Ghana’s economic pillars is declining.
Again, once protected lush forests are now scarred with abandoned pits, rivers are poisoned with mercury and cyanide, and agricultural lands lie barren, leading to reduced yields for both staple and cash crops.
A Rocha Ghana, an environmental and sustainability advocacy group posited that the devastating impacts of galamsey on water, agriculture, health, and the environment, threaten the core of Ghana’s development and the well-being of its citizens.
This revelation is not new as evidence of the destruction of illegal mining is evident in our daily lives –we virtually see them every day; from the pollution of our water bodies including the Pra, Ankobra, Offin etc. to the destruction of our forest reserves, we either take action or risk dying of this menace.
Hon. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in a recent address to Parliament, disclosed that nine out of Ghana’s 44 forest reserves have been completely taken over by heavily armed illegal miners, rendering them beyond state control.
Despite subsequent efforts by the new government to recover two of these forests in the Ashanti region, the blatant destruction of Ghana’s natural resources calls for action.
#StopGlamsey Protest Legacies
As someone who participated in the #StopGalamsey Protest in November last year, I will have no problem calling this government out if it fails to tame the monstrous canker that is killing this country – galamsey is inarguable Ghana’s biggest bane.
When all is said and done, President Mahama will be assessed on three or four critical issues. one is his ability to stabilize the Ghanaian economy, which, obviously, everyone is looking up to.
Secondly, President Mahama’s legacy would be assessed based on his ability to root out public sector corruption and to stop the waste in our public sector – that would also include his ability to cut down SOEs’ unreasonable remunerations and compensation habits. While the President has demonstrated good signs thus far, much more is expected to achieve the ultimate result.
More so, the President must also do well to fix the albatross on Ghana’s neck – the power crisis but I’m more concerned about the President dealing ruthlessly with the activities of illegal mining.
As, Professor H. Kwesi Premepeh correctly pointed out, if we don’t tame the monster of galamsey, we will be nursing and growing a cartel of galamsey operators and financiers that would be powerful if not more than the drug cartels in South America.
While the reality looks daunting and scary, I have so much hope in this fight particularly when the man leading the fight has earlier indicated he has nothing to lose.
President Mahama has demonstrated this over the past years and in his bid for reelection, he told Ghanaians that he has nothing to lose in the fight against galamsey and that the people he has put in charge are of promising repute!
The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah is one of the most distinguished public servants I have seen – I mean, he was a Minister for Energy for four years and throughout his tenure, there could barely be any sort of corruption attributed to him. Erastus Asare Donkoh, Ghana’s foremost anti-galamsey advocate has affirmed this fact.
A man equally of his sort is Dr Edward Omane Boamah, a man I so much admire – His ability and diligence to build a system that led to the NDC’s resounding victory in the just-ended elections is worthy to note.
As a Minister of Defense he would coordinate the new government operation in terms of rooting out these criminal cartels destroying our water bodies and forest reserves, I trust he does a good job because he is one of the few public servants that any Ghanaian will ever underestimate his ability to get the job done – and I have no doubt he’ll do well!
Galamsey Accomplices Must Go
While we may blame former President Akuffo-Addo, and the former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor for their role in the dissipation of our natural resources, we can’t excuse the role of the Minerals Commission Chief Executive Officer Martin Kwaku Ayisi in the same regard.
It is the main reason I have difficulty appreciating his continuous stay in office. I don’t believe that the CEO of Ghana’s Minerals Commission has any business still being at post.
He supervised the most reckless issuance of mining leases under the previous administration and such a person does not deserve to keep his job in a regime that’s keen on fighting galamsey.
President Mahama and his new Lands Minister must do whatever it takes to get rid of him – he is a cancer and his continuous stay in office is very untenable, and somehow insulting to the intelligence of Ghanaians.
Dear President Mahama, if you would build confidence in your fight against galamsey, then your first action is to get rid of the Minerals Commission CEO – His hands are too tainted, and he’s unfit for the office he occupies!
Mr President, after all is said and done you have a legacy to build, and a legacy to be proud of and the CEO of the Minerals Commission Martin Kwaku Ayisi can’t be part of it!
The Writer: Evans Junior Owu, is a seasoned Policy Activist and the Head of the Political Desk at The Vaultz News
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