“… You have to help us to build a better Ghana… Indeed, today I came to express my disgust and revulsion at the way some of you are helping to erode the benefits… to our people.”
Angry President Atta Mills at Tema Port:
(February 4, 2011)
The Europeans who came to Ghana as colonisers, right from Portuguese Don Diego d’ Azambuja and Italian Christopher Colombus (Cristoforo Colombo) (1482) through the Danes, the Dutch, the British… could have been right in naming this country, the Gold Coast (Sikaman). God, in his infinite wisdom, had endowed this beautiful land of ours with large deposits of minerals (gold, diamond, bauxite, oil …). Do we have to blame God for being so magnanimous to us?
Without laws, we could not even have built our houses, because beneath the soil of our houses, you could find minerals, as evidenced by the inhabitants of Elubo in the Juaboso District of the Western North Region. Here, as shown on UTV, huge craters have been created close to houses, a phenomenon that led to the drowning of a child! You may call this “domesticated galamsey”. Historians may recall the Gold Rush in California when in 1948, James Marshal discovered gold there, leading to an influx of Americans, Latin Americans, Australians, Chinese, Europeans decimating the 200 native Californians through attacks, diseases and new laws were made to regulate the activities of the “forty niners” later….
Or the “Zama-zama of the Witwatersrand of Gauteng Province of South Africa – the constant feuding between rivals, the attack on police and other security personnel, although the artisanal mining produces 30% of the South African gold, amounting to some $8 million per annum.
You might not have believed; but the water from Offin, Oda, Ankobra… rivers displayed on GTV could pass for coffee or cocoa drink – a far cry from the clean water we used to cup our hands, or leaves to collect and drink from rivers along the village paths to school – and our teachers taught us “Hygiene”: “the scientific formula for water is H2O; pure drinking water is colourless, tasteless and odourless. Fishes would swim in the rivers and children would be advised: “Nsuo wei, yennwe mu nam…” but ahead of that people would organise “ahwee” and pick them, keeping in mind the edict not to collect water from the river on particular days.
It is water turned brownish by a mixture of mud and chemicals. The galamseyers know that in artisanal mining, gold is extracted from alluvial deposits in waterways; the gold bearing ore is crushed and ground. Gold is extracted from the concentrate by adding water, mixed with mercury, turning it into methyl mercury after undergoing various transformations. The methylmercury is consumed by living organisms including fish, for human consumption. Humans exposed to mercury suffer kidney problems, arthritis, memory loss, miscarriages (women), respiratory failure, and neurological damage… deaths.
Incredible, unbelievable: a 62-year-old cocoa farmer at Kunsu declares in front of a TV: “I have been in cocoa farming for over 20 years and I have nothing to show for it. After selling a portion of my cocoa farm to galamseyers, I have had enough money to build a two-bedroom house. It is my own land…” (paraphrased). The contents of the Minerals Act 2006 (Act 703) mean nothing to him, despite a section which states that minerals in their natural state are vested in “the President in trust for the people of Ghana.”
And Nana Kwasi Poku, in cocoa farming for 40 years, laments not having GHȼ4,000 to his credit, a la Onwomtofo Nana Kwame Ampadu. Look at the earnings of COCOBOD-fat salaries for the officials, bungalows, cars, ex-gratia… cocoa sold on international market for around GHȼ2500 per 50 kilos with farmers being paid GHȼ600 per 60kg… no wonder, our fathers used to go for 2 for 3, that is, take a loan of GHȼ2 during the off-season and repay GHȼ3 during the buying season, who is internalising: “when the last tree dies, the last man dies”?
Otumfuo, the Asantehene, Nana Osei Tutu II, made a historically elucidating statement in May 2021 at the Ashanti Regional Dialogue on small-scale mining at KNUST, Kumasi: “On my part, I have already warned my chiefs and elders against participation in such illegalities and will not hesitate to strongly sanction such infraction … As a chief. if you give out your lands to be used for galamsey, then what kind of chief are you … if we don’t speak the truth, we will keep deceiving ourselves with countless dialogues to no avail … when we divide the audience in this room into ten, 30 per cent of them will know those involved in galamsey. If you are not truthful, we will keep deceiving ourselves and be organising conferences such as this.” We thought Kwasi Addai (Odike) might have heard this, and yet went ahead to spew unprintable diatribes against the potentate.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, who had put his Presidency on the line in 2017, lamented when he met the chiefs at the National Houses of Chiefs in October 2022. “We have tried many initiatives, including that of the community mining scheme and the establishment of a new legal regime for dealing with the perpetrators of this phenomenon which has imposed severe sanctions on those Ghanaians and foreigners convicted of illegal mining. Still, we have not won the fight” Ei! Ei! Eiish! Was the President angry enough? Treating galamseyers with kids’ gloves? And thinking about “breaking the eight” while touting a non-political approach? Anyone remembers Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union who would remove his shoe and bang his table at an international conference – to stress a point?
As for Aisha Huang, the least said about her, the better. We allow non-descript persons to leave their countries to come to Ghana and we take them to mining places, including forest reserves to engage in illegal mining…
And Akonta mining said to be held by Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) and Charles Bissue, they will be before the Office of the Special Prosecutor which has “commenced investigation into suspected corruption and corruption – related offences in respect of illegal small scale mining… targets some officials of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Forestry Commission … the dissolved Inter Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCM) especially in respect of seizure and management of excavators, machinery, road vehicles, and gold nuggets… some Municipal and District Chief Executives and political party officials.”
The agony of NPP, losing vital votes in galamsey areas should be the delight of NDC, because John Dramani Mahama addresses them: “Eye zu, se yeba a, wonom a wo akye won galamsey ho no, yebema won amnesty… (when we come – to power – those arrested for galamsey, we will grant them amnesty…). Indeed, sika ye mogya (money is blood). Double speak or not, George Orwell’s “1984” came and went.
Africanus Owusu Ansah
africanusowusu1234@gmail.com