Indiscipline without doubt has hit a zenith in this country. So bad is the situation that a man said to be a pastor has dared the Greater Accra Regional Minister to demolish an illegal structure, on a preserved land “and see something.”
This is a man whose structure is sitting on land internationally recognised as a wetland its role in controlling floods and as a sanctuary for an assortment of migratory fauna scientifically acknowledged.
This notwithstanding, the man said he is waiting for law enforcers to bring bulldozers on his “property.”
Protecting nature as the Greater Accra Regional Minister seeks to do, is an act of Godliness, anything to the contrary being iniquitous. You cannot destroy the habitat of God’s creatures and claim to love the Omnipotent and Omniscient.
The global ecosystem has never been so disturbed and for that matter disarrayed, the consequences of which anomalies are now being noticed in the form of extremes of weather conditions globally.
We are creating conditions which are triggering the fury of nature.
Intertwined as the ecosystem is, an act of irresponsibility in one part of the world will spurn consequences in another.
Turtles which come to selected wetlands to lay eggs and return to the sea would suffer a population decline and even extinction if we continue to encroach upon wetlands, their God-endowed habitats.
The complex world is God’s piece of jigsaw each part being there for a purpose. We cannot therefore fold our arms and allow acts of lawlessness such as being displayed by the so-called pastor and others to disturb nature’s ways.
We are with the regional minister in his bid to carry out his mandate of overseeing the smooth operation of all departments including the protection of the Ramsar under his jurisdiction, and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. Let him continue to dialogue with other stakeholders towards an eventual demolition of structures put up on the wetland.
The Ramsar Site at Sakumono, many years before the avariciousness of mankind, drove them to the wetland, which was pristine with nature in full flight. No more, so as estate developers and others lock their sights on the location some having already descended upon it.
When the floods visit the city of Accra, the reason for the fury of nature are attributable to the reckless relationship between residents and nature as evidenced in what some are doing to the Ramsar Site.
If the regional minister and other relevant agencies do not move to stop the encroachment on the Ramsar Site, the authorities would lose the war and the pastor would have paved the way for a full-fledged scramble and partitioning of the place.
We can only support the regional minister and the authorities when we desist from passing comments which do not encourage them to protect the wetland for posterity, and as our country’s contribution to the efforts to preserve the world’s ecosystem for humanity, as a whole.
There are prescribed sanctions for those who breach the laws of the land. These must be applied on those who encroach upon lands which are specifically preserved.