Albert Kwabena Dwumfour
Contrary to traditional norms of wisdom, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) President launched a blistering attack on his host, the President of the Republic, for failing the fight against galamsey.
He then gave President Akufo-Addo the marching orders to fix the illegal mining menace before he exits office in about two months, release the demonstrators incarcerated for two weeks by a competent court of jurisdiction, and declare a state of emergency immediately.
These are not pieces of advice from the GJA President to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces but an order, and failure to act has dire consequences.
By our tradition, no one invites a friend to table and turns round to mock at him for his big “akple kor”. That simply amounts to an insult, and the consequences could include a walkout by your guest.
That was what Albert Kwabena Dwumfour did to the President of the Republic last Saturday at the Accra International Conference Centre, with a very partisan media entourage applauding him for showing disrespect towards President Akufo-Addo.
If the guest speaker, the Vice Chancellor of a university in Nigeria and a communications guru was scoring the GJA President, he would have marked him zero for playing to the gallery to score cheap political points.
President Akufo-Addo, an otherwise loud voice on galamsey and a legal colossus, decided not to honour the GJA President’s partisan and ugly noises with a response.
Perhaps, the President of the Republic, as an elderly man decided to take the wise counsel of our elders that, “if a mad man runs away with your towel while you are in the bathroom, you don’t run after him naked”. Like the Gas say, maybe the spirit of “Gbeshi” got hold of the GJA President and dictated to him to depart from the noble theme for the celebration and deviate into the realm of politics to align with the very partisan fight against galamsey by some civil society groups.
Those who hail from mining areas cannot like Pontius Pilate, wash their hands off the galamsey fight and leave it for President Akufo-Addo alone. After all, those who come from Obuasi, Tarkwa, Akwatia, Prestea, Bolga and Bole as well as other mining areas cannot claim that their hands are clean because their relatives, friends and classmates may be involved in illegal mining.
Hence, the fight is a collective one to educate everybody to recognise the need to protect our vegetation and water sources even as they eke their livelihoods.