The Time Has Come To Put The Nation First!
It is a great pleasure for me to observe the amazing consensus over the need to end galamsey immediately that has emerged from all manner of organisations in Ghana.
Those usually shy to be seen backing a “political position” have woken up to the fallacious idea of wishing the nation to be governed well but being unwilling to tell it how to carry out that function. Of course, since such participation in openly “political” discussions doesn’t happen often, a lot of confusion has accompanied the expression of consensus. That is nothing new and the bodies concerned should not be unalarmed. It is because general agreement is difficult – if not impossible – to achieve.
Let dissidence occur: if the organisations are worth listening to, they will patch up their internal differences. The very tardy manner in which the consensus emerged should strengthen those leaders of thought within the organisations who are currently showing or carrying the flag.
It is to be hoped that the political parties, instead of seeking to pounce on the organisations’ internal difficulties and create more confusion, will take a cue from them and find a way to reach a “truce” of some sort over the politicisation of the galamsey issue. For I tell them, the nation will punish them severely if they don’t work out an agreement that will safeguard the future of our rivers, streams and water bodies.
Too many WORDS have been uttered about galamsey and too few
concrete measures taken to ACTUALLY end it. The nation has detected the lies and the propaganda. And it doesn’t want to see any more of it. A conference should immediately be called to get the political parties to STOP using the galamsey issue as a topic at party rallies and meetings.
Meanwhile, the prosecuting authorities in the country should seek an agreement with the judiciary to stand down criminal proceedings in the courts for a stated, limited period (say two months) during which all the courts, other than the Supreme Court, would stand down “non-urgent” prosecutions and deal with galamsey cases instead. When the courts begin to dominate the media space by dispensing the harsh maximum sentences laid down in Act 995, the criminals will know that every society eventually protects itself against those who want to kill off that society. Those within our society who don’t see, or hear or speak any evil against galamsey, will only have themselves to blame.
The courts should take note of the fact that even if the criminals who are destroying our water are jailed, the water-bodies will not immediately return to their natural potable state. So, where the law provides for BOTH A FINE AND A JAIL SENTENCE, BOTH SHOULD BE HANDED. We need money for water purification, as well as rehabilitation of craters and gullies left on the island after galamsey operations.
Ghanaians should unite in supporting such actions, for we have been disgraced before the whole world for not being clever enough to distinguish between “earning a decent living” and destroying the drinking water of a living population and those who will come after the living.
By CAMERON DUODU
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