We Can’t Wait To Die Of Thirst Before Burning Excavators
By Eric Bawah
Let me be blunt and snobbish today by telling those who are vociferously ranting against the burning of excavators at illegal mining (galamsey) sites to also go and burn the Atlantic Ocean or go to hell if they so wish. Nobody in Ghana today can say that enough warnings have not been given to these criminals to stop their nefarious activities which threaten the very survival of all of us but whatever we say fall on deaf ears.
Not even the several warnings given by the Executive President of Ghana was heeded. I wonder whether people who kicked against the burning of excavators do think about the future generation. Scientists have warned that if the country fails to fight galamsey and the menace continues the way it is now, in about ten year’s time, Ghana will start importing water from neighboring countries.
Anytime I see video clips of how our water bodies have been destroyed by these nation-wreckers, my heart bleeds and I weep for generations yet unborn. If we fail to ruthlessly fight against this menace, it will be suicidal.
Seizing excavators only for them to vanish into thin air is not self-defense but foolish. Do not tell me they can be used for other purposes when examples are abound to show us that previous governments which also seized excavators, could not control the movement of the machines and they eventually found their ways in our reserved forests and galamsey sites. No wonder the sages say ‘once bitten twice shy’.
Anyone who has been following this column will remember very well that when surface mining was introduced in Ghana, I wrote extensively against it. I referred to countries that have suffered because of surface mining and also wrote about the possibility of our river bodies and environment being at risk. Nobody listened to me because I was acting like a lone messenger shouting in the desert. From time immemorial, our ancestors have been mining gold in this country.
That is why you see our chiefs always wearing gold bracelets, necklaces and bangles. Gold, to every Ghanaian and the world at large, is synonymous to wealth. Our colonial masters did not name this country Gold Coast for nothing. And we were proud to be called so because we have gold in abundance. The richness of King Solomon was measured in terms of the gold he had and Queen Sheba of Ethiopia was acclaimed the richest queen in Africa because of her gold. Similarly Mansa Musa, the great king of Mali travelled to Mecca with camels loaded with gold to portray to the world that he was rich.
Nobody is saying one should not mine gold in this country. We are talking of irresponsible mining that is destroying our water bodies and environment as a whole.
The last time I drove past river Pra in the Central Region, I cursed the day I was born in this country called Ghana. The military officers who have been charged to deal with galamseyers should not only burn excavators and destroy “shanfan” machines but they should plan to arrest those engaged in galamsey, give them military drills and make them drink the polluted water till they develop protruding stomachs before handing them over to the police for prosecution.
Don’t talk of abuse of human rights here because in other jurisdictions, water is a human right issue. Any galamseyer who tries to run away should be shot. Oh, yes, if that is the language they understand, the soldiers should speak that language to them. After all, how many are they for us to allow them to destroy our future? Are they saying no one can survive in Ghana without engaging in galamsey?
I can imagine the type of insults I am getting from these unpatriotic citizens whose goal is to make money and leave the rest of us thirsty. The situation has become so serious that cocoa, the main foreign exchange earner of this country is at also risk. People are selling their cocoa farms to these criminals for them to cut the cocoa trees down in order to have access to the land to be able to mine for gold.
A few years ago, the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, warned that he would never allow anyone to enter the Atiwa Forest Reserve to prospect for gold. He said many years after the prospecting of gold in Ghana, areas where these gold were found in abundance have seen little development and as such it would be better for the gold in the Atiwa Forest to be reserved for future generations.
These criminals also defied the great Okyenhene and entered the forest reserve to dig for gold. As I write this piece, the Atiwa Forest Reserve which is supposed to be one of the UN protected sites, is under siege and only God knows what will happen to the Forest Reserve if something is not done immediately to stop the threat.
And you say we should not burn excavators? Burn, we will continue to burn them no matter whose ox is gored. The burning of excavators and bulldozers belonging to the company linked to Madam Kate Gyamfuah, the NPP National Women Organizer should teach those engaged in galamsey a lesson. If you think you belong to the ruling party and so you can defy the order of the President, you do so at your own peril. When soldiers are on the prowl they do not know any party bigwig. And the soldiers are not so stupid to go about burning excavators wherever they find them. Theirs is to accomplish a mission and come back home to defend the territorial boarders of the nation. If yours is to destroy our river bodies and the environment that is your problem. I farm and I do not dig for gold on my piece of land so I have no problem with any soldier. If I see soldiers approaching my farmland, I welcome them with open arms because I know they have no evil intention against a poor farmer who is contributing his quota to the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, a flagship programe of the President. As for the chiefs in galamsey operating areas who have sold their consciences by getting involved in the mess, they should go for crush helmets when I turn my trenchant pen on them. They will run and leave their sandals behind!
Someone should tell them that, actually the land does not belong to them. They hold the lands in trust for the people they rule. For now, I will not even refer to them as chiefs but thieves.
Physicians have warned that, cigarettes smoking is dangerous to your health but they did not warn that cigar smoking is dangerous to your health, so here I go again, polluting the air with a stick of Monticristo White. Cover your nostrils to avoid contracting catarrh!!!