The issue is joined. All those who have been excusing galamsey on the grounds of one rationalisation or the other – for instance, that the perpetrators of the wanton national destruction taking place in our country, is providing “work” for the unemployed, especially the youth – have been brought face to face with a sad reality: the barbaric murder of Captain Maxwell Mahama at Denkyera Obuase on 31 May 2017, is not altogether unconnected with galamsey.
When I saw the video of the lynching, I could not believe my eyes. Ghana 2017?
The atrocity was committed in broad daylight.
It took place in an atmosphere of calculated callousness, with the rock throwers being cheered on.
It was as if some agents provocateurs had incited the atrocity deliberately to send a defiant message to the government of President Akufo-Addo.
For certain questions arise: who was it who videod the atrocity?
How was he/she able to get it on to the internet so fast?
And what was the motive in posting it?
To merely inform the public, or to trigger a reaction against the elected government?
I don’t buy the rationalisation offered at first, that the murderers mistook the lone figure they saw on the road, for an “armed robber”. An “armed robber” who carries out his business on foot? How would this lone “armed robber” cart away his “spoils” unaided?
The more likely story is that someone deliberately targeted Captain Maxwell Mahama. And that person wanted to convey a message to the government, namely: “You think you can bring the army to stop us? Tweaaaa! We can’t be stopped! Da!” If you bring in the army, we shall show you the stuff we are made of.”
Yes, the galamseyers have tasted “easy gold”. And they love the taste. Like a drug, it has taken hold of their minds, and they won’t “go cold turkey” on it, even if they wanted to.
Now, such a situation can create a whole series of unexpected consequences. One is that it may seem to those charged with containing the situation in terms of law and order – whether they be the military or the police – like a “little local difficulty” which can be easily coaxed back to normality.
For instance – in hindsight, and I repeat in hindsight – if a proper appreciation of the true situation at Denkyera Oboase and its environs had been made before the soldiers were sent there, the tragedy might have been evaded.
In my view – and I am the first to admit that I am no military expert – if it had been determined that the situation there posed a threat amounting, potentially, to insurgency proportions, intelligence officers (whether from Defence Intelligence or the Bureau of National Investigations) would have gone there to “case the joint” or “recce” the place before the main body of the detachment was sent.
Had research by intelligence established that there were pockets of pro-galamsey elements that were capable of causing a riot or disturbance to obstruct legitimate military operations, a warning could have gone out to the detachment to beware of possible ambushes.
But the anti-galamsey operations have not yet been put on a “war-footing”. Yet the reaction they seem to be evoking is similar to that to be expected in a properly-defined “counter-insurgency” theatre.
I think the galamseyers are taking their opposition to government efforts to contain their devastation of the land and its water sources, very very seriously.
They believe they can see the government vacillating, if not pussy-footing with regard to its announced anti-galamsey programme (which has taken too long to draw out!) But the galamseyers, on the other hand, are fully prepared to show the government a thing or two. They, in fact, appear to have been professional enough, in the psychological warfare arena, to pick on an individual for assassination, whose murder would capture the attention of the whole nation, and probably cause embarrassment to the government.
Embarrassment? Yes, what was Asiedu Nketia’s inane statement, calling for President Akufo-Addo’s resignation, in aid of? Was it not political embarrassment?
So his alleged boss, ex-President John Mahama, later urged people not to politicise the murder. Great idea. Very statesman-like. But is it a plausible proposition that Asiedu Nketia did NOT consult the ex-president before diving into the stinking waters that spread the odour of seeking to politically benefit from the utter misery of a family that has endured such an unexpected and gruesome loss?
Asiedu Nketia’s behaviour is characteristic of the no-holds-barred mentality of indecency that has stricken Ghana in recent years. A man is alleged to have stolen a mere mobile phone in Kumasi. And he is lynched without much ceremony. The newspapers, of course, gladly participate in the lynching – vicariously – by pruriently displaying a photograph of the dead man in their pages. Have they heard of the dictum that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competence?
“Witches” are regularly burnt alive. When a case involving such a burning – like that of the late Madam Amma Hemma that occurred some years ago – goes to court, we hear nothing of it, even though some journalists continually call on the police to tell the nation what has happened to the alleged murderers.
A man who calls himself a prophet kicks a pregnant woman in the stomach to take out an “evil spirit” that he claims is inhabiting the body of the unborn baby. A video of the incident goes viral. But no-one does anything to the prophet. So he publicly whips two youngsters for “having had sex with each other”.
Meanwhile, millions of Ghanaians flock to churches every Sunday to show the world what a Christian society Ghana’s is.
I am sorry but we must now accept that we live in a fool’s paradise. We are, in fact, largely a wicked, greedy, self-centred lot.
And our hypocrisy has grown at such an exponential rate that we have brought it from the private to the national arena.
Politicians elected to serve the public interest do galamsey on the quiet, to make money. So do local “leaders”.
Mining inspectors, environmental officers and law enforcement agent charged with protecting our forests, food farms and water-bodies, rather facilitate the operations of the galamsey bastards.
The Mining Commission established to regulate mining operations, does not know the law in its own field and closes its eyes to galamsey, believing that it is legal “small-scale mining”. Whereas it is in the law, in black and white, that no mining licence is legal unless parliament has ratified it.
The decent citizens among us cry foul and beg their negligent fellow citizens to cease and desist from such acts of self-destruction. But their cries fall on deaf ears.
Which only goes to show that we are – indeed – a nation divided against itself.
The next step, unless we are very careful and wise, will be utter national wretchedness.
By Cameron Duodu