There is insecurity in the country and factors accounting for this situation is not far-fetched.
When non-state actors are able to act with impunity, have access to weapons among other unlawful deeds, indiscipline and its attendant drawbacks become visible.
The media on Monday and Tuesday reported how some thirty or so heavily armed men descended upon the offices of the Forestry Commission in Bekwai and ordering staffers to vacate the place.
It comes on the heels of the murder of students in the Upper and North West regions, a case related to the Bawku conflict.
The traumatised staffers of the Forestry Commission watched in awe as the strangers took over their office. Their mission was to stop the Forestry Commission from denying illegal miners from entering some protected forest reserves within the Bekwai area.
The armed men and those behind them have locked their sights on Bekwai and other reserves where they intend to prospect for gold. The prospecting will obviously lead to further degradation of the country’s forest cover. How sad!
This is another chapter in our sad chronicle about the further worsening of illegal mining or galamsey situation in the country.
Another revelation from this development is about how non-state actors have access to weapons, their ability to deploy outside the recognised law enforcement structures causing consternation.
A recent report about some missing ammunition could easily be linked to some of these unfolding anomalies.
All Ghanaians must be worried about the occurrence at the Forestry Commission office because it points out palpably to the fact that the so-called war against illegal mining is nothing but hot air, going nowhere.
The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, the man who shed crocodile tears when he was lamenting over the state of illegal mining in the country on television, has not reacted in a reassuring manner.
According to him, the incident was unfortunate, falling short of announcing what the state was going to do in response.
Equally disturbing is the disclosure by the National Security apparatus that those who partook in the Bekwai Forestry Commission office closure were not state actors but rather National Democratic Congress (NDC) foot soldiers. Interestingly, they were clad in a uniform of sort suggesting that they belonged to an organisation which drew authority from the state.
We should all be worried about how party foot soldiers can have access to weapons and brandish these openly as though they are entitled to wield these as they did.
This is how low governance has descended, and questions must be posed by those who cherish the blossoming of democracy and abhor such acts of indiscipline, especially from the ruling party.
We should not applaud the state of democracy of Ghana when party foot soldiers can with ease organise themselves and stop those appointed and entrusted with the task of protecting our forests from undertaking their legitimate duties.
One of the reserves which is dear to the country is a critical ecological zone whose encroachment will lead to painful outcomes in our efforts to preserve such locations. This is where the foot soldiers are heading for, the outcome would be a destroyed ecosystem, fauna and flora et al.