The anti-galamsey fight is a step in the right direction. But the question is: to what end will the series of agitation serve if it is directed at President Akufo-Addo?
The President has capitulated to some of the demands of Organised Labour, such as the repeal of the law that allows mining in the forest reserves.
The President has made a firm commitment to put the amendment before Parliament in due course. However, Organised Labour is not yielding grounds, still demanding the declaration of a state of emergency.
Organised Labour must have something underneath their sleeves by ignoring the plea by the President to make the fight against illegal mining more holistic by getting the two political parties and their candidates to table, to commit to the fight if elected to be President and form the next government next year.
From all indications, that appeal from the President sounds like a discord in the ears of Organised Labour, the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and other groups, whose intents align with the desperate attempt by the NDC to rise on the back of societal ills to regain power, but not borne out of the genuine concern to fight the galamsey menace to save our environment.
Declaring a strike action for seven days, is “absurd nonsense” and the leaders of Organised Labour must consider the effects on our ailing economy and livelihoods.
While this strike takes a toll on everyday lives, including loss of lives and our roads becoming empty because commercial vehicles will not operate, the galamsey operators will be at work devastating our environment.
It is our hope that workers will respond to their professional calling instead of a response to the political interests of Joshua Ansah, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), who earns a salary like an Emperor, Ken Ashigbey, convenor of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey and Ransford Gyampo, University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) President.
Today, these characters and others will swear fire and brimstone to be independent, but in the unlikely event of John Mahama’s victory at the polls, they will be frontrunners for positions in an NDC government.
That is why we ask all discerning Ghanaians to expose these naysayers by simply putting it to them: so to what end will the strike beginning from tomorrow serve the good people of Ghana?
Meanwhile, we hope that National Labour Commission is alive to its responsibilities to ensure that while the laws of the land recognises strike as a tool to express grievances, there are rules to be followed in order not to cause dislocations in the social, political and economic order.