TALKING DRUM: One Reason Amewu Will Fail Fighting Galamsey

Some miners busily searching for gold in muddied waters

It is one news item that has succeeded securing a spot on almost every aspect of Ghana’s news media. Ordinarily, topical issues in my country take at most a week to be talked about in the media then we find it a ‘resting’ place.

However, like the dreaded disease called Ebola, illegal mining popularly referred to as ‘Galamsey’ in the Ghanaian parlance has had the young and the old chatting around it with a great concern.

Pressure group, Occupy Ghana in its own way has waged war on the illicit activity that has seen many of our water bodies extremely polluted. According to the group, Ghanaians are urged to wear red apparels on every Friday in April, 2017. Hence, christening it the Red April Campaign.

It has subsequently charged government to “stop, prevent and then regulate all currently unlicensed and unregulated mining, and support mass education on the galamsey menace particularly through local civil society. And be mindful of the potential national security threat that galamsey poses,” reports Graphic Online.

Occupy Ghana is not alone in this fight. The 2016 flagbearer of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom among many Ghanaians have pledged their support to campaign against galamsey. 

On April 1. 2017, the man nicknamed Adwuma Wura made good use of his media conglomerate across the country in speaking about the menace of galamsey. Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom’s galamsey talk themed “Galamsey: Our land, our future,” had thousands of viewers and listeners interacting with him on his Facebook page.

One thing ran through the viewers and listeners’ comments. They want galamsey to be cracked down by government. 

Indeed, massive pressure is on government to ensure galamsey becomes a thing of the past so people do not rely on sachet water to survive in areas badly affected by the act. More so, while people in these galamsey zones strive for daily survival, business owners are not left out of the struggle-to-exist syndrome.

Telecommunication mogul, MTN says it has been hard hit by the activities of people digging everywhere in search of gold. The Galamseyers end up cutting MTN’s laid fibres.

According to a story on Citifmonline dated and titled April 2, 2017, “Galamsey impeding quality of our service delivery– MTN,” respectively, the telecommunication network says it recorded about 1, 200 times of fibre cut in 2016.

“The phenomenon which accounts for congestion and call drops and network outages is taking a new dimension besides road construction. Within the corridors of Damang, Huni Valley, Ateiku, Wassa Dadieso and Wassa Akropong where we have our infrastructure laid.

“You see that galamsey operators have encroached on the right of way that MTN has rightly secured from either Urban Roads Department or Ghana Highway Authority. What they do is that, once they come closer to the cable, they physically cut them off interrupting or totally shutting down the network,” said Western Regional Technical Manager of MTN, Teddy Hayford Acquah.

It’s sad. Isn’t it?

The good news, however, is that our government is not sleeping on this request to end galamsey. It is up on its feet making frantic efforts to curb the menace. My little worry, here, is the approach adopted by Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu.

Mr. John Peter Amewu, Minister for Lands & Natural Resources

If not for anything, I have heard and read two of Mr. Amewu’s approaches to tackling galamsey. The first being the use of drones to fish out the illegal miners and second, the ‘begging’ approach- where he is reported to have begged Chinese Ambassador to Ghana to advise his nationals desist from the act. 

Both of these approaches are commendable. The drones will certainly travel far and zoom in on the illegal miners for onward arrest. Similarly, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Sun Baohong may succeed getting to stop some of her nationals from trading in the illegal mining activity here in Ghana.

Nonetheless, I strongly believe that even when we go for Aljazeera to mount its cameras on these illegal miners it will not intimidate them from mudding the waters for cash. Moreover, illegal mining will not stop even when we contract Japan to hang in the skies a sign telling the world leaders to inform their nationals not to engage in such a trade in Ghana.

   

Why? 

The answer is simple and straight forward but it appears to Mr. Peter Amewu so hard to find as one searching for snow in hell. Simply, tackle the source. If men are chasing one’s wife who do not do so putting the woman under duress, does he go about begging these men to stop?

Sadly, this is Peter Amewu’s approach. He leaves the ‘wife’ home and diplomatically engages in talks with his ‘rivals.’

I thought that when Ghanaians voted for change, it meant we seeing real change. Perhaps it may come but it seems, to me, the New Patriotic Party is somehow copying answers the National Democratic Congress wrote and failed.

After the country’s 2014 cholera outbreak, the then government instituted the National Sanitation Day (NSD). For them, it was a means to get Ghanaians do away with sanitation related diseases. When I heard about the NSD for the first time, I realised that it had no vision. Yes. We tell people to make all the filth and on the first Saturday of every month we gather and sweep the gutters and the streets. And the cycle continues. 

The National Sanitation Day was and is one of the greatest jokes of the NDC government as class one pupils could have suggested a more suitable way of doing away with filth.

Here, we have Peter Amewu likely to fail because of this obvious one reason; ignoring to tackle the source of our problems. Mr. Minister, it is empirical evidence that many of us cannot produce but you would admit the issue of galamsey has to do with some chiefs and politicians being behind it.

Who gives these lands to the Chinese to mine? Are we saying as the Chinese get down from the airplanes they navigate their ways to the Eastern, Western and Brong Ahafo regions among others to set up their machines and dig for gold? Certainly, no. We must deal with the very people behind the act.

Our elders were right when they said that when the cockroach wants to rule over the chicken it hides the fox as its bodyguard. Indeed, until we have something scary enough to cripple our source of fear, then we are not fighting enough.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his opinion and not that of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

      

TALKING DRUM: A Stupid Move in Banda Ahenkro!

Policemen enforcing law and order in  Banda Ahenkro

One could not have had a better understanding of the Nigerian proverb which says that ‘stupidity is the lover of ignorance’ than the crass foolhardiness exhibited by a group in Banda Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo region.
 

The group, Concerned Members of Banda Ahenkro, had pasted on the walls of schools and other buildings demanding that non-indigenes leave their district with immediate effect. Failure to leave would mean anything atrocious could happen to such stubborn non-indigenes.

The aggrieved, unknown, and coward Banda Ahenkro thugs claim the non-indigenes have taken over their jobs. Hence, their call for them to leave their area. Subsequently, the ‘strangers’ escaping for safety left the schools and the hospitals among others for the embittered residents to take over.

Indeed, this can only happen in Ghana. Here, we see all the good things out there but we end up copying only the wrong. “If you do not leave this district [Banda Ahenkro] then we cannot guarantee your safety here. What is happening to strangers in South Africa will happen to you,” reads a portion of the aggrieved members’ letter.

You live in Banda Ahenkro and by God’s grace, you have access to electricity and internet and you watch and read happenings in South Africa. That’s fine. So, you did not see the beauty of South Africa? You did not see why many people across Africa troop to make a living in South Africa but saw the stupidity of some few people terrorising innocent persons?

This is the plain truth we must tell those cowards threating lives in Banda Ahenkro. They had access to a computer to type their warning letter but they could not reason enough to similarly write letters to apply for jobs. 

When I completed the then Junior Secondary School in 2003, my Father told me I could go to his village and teach. That, he would speak to the headmaster of a government basic school there to give me the opportunity. The village by name Daadom in the Brong Ahafo region had its school lacking teachers.

In the morning, I would say goodbye to my parents as I headed to the classroom while they also prepared for the farm. As well, in 2006, after I completed Sunyani Secondary School, I wrote a basket full of application letters to basic schools in the Sunyani municipality seeking a humble position as a teacher.

God being so good, I had the chance to teach at the Wesley Preparatory and Junior High School. These two pupil-teaching aside, I have once sold chewing sticks and worked as a cobbler [shoemaker] together with my childhood friend, Lawrence Duah, who has now sought academic asylum in the United States. This is how we have struggled our path through where we find ourselves now. Not long ago, a lady friend asked whether I had been to the farm before. I laughed.

Solomon has extensively worked tilling the soil with his parents and sisters in planting cocoa and foodstuffs. In all these, no one hatched the idea of threatening the lives of non-indigenes of Sunyani for ‘taking over our jobs.’ Whether it was pupil-teaching, farming, selling of chewing sticks or roving up and down as a cobbler, it was a way of life. A way to survive the demands of life and push forward for a better tomorrow. 

Are the Concerned Members of Banda Ahenkro saying they cannot farm in their district because non-indigenes have taken over their lands? Is it the case that none of these people cannot be cobblers? They cannot be electricians, plumbers, tailors, hairdressers and barbers? They cannot be shopkeepers or sales persons? Indeed, what they have exhibited to the whole of Ghana affirms that common sense is the most expensive commodity to some Ghanaians. 

If the people of the Greater Accra Region are to launch a similar threats of attack on non-indigenes here because we have taken over their jobs, not even our president would be spared. Certainly, we would have to relocate the Flagstaff House to the Eastern Region.

The chiefs of Banda Ahenkro have distanced themselves from being part of the aggrieved members. They are, therefore, calling on the police and other security operatives to hunt these nefarious people from their hideouts and make them face the law. Impressive!

However, I am more thrilled with a section of the Banda Ahenkro youth who came out not to only distance themselves of the threats but gave ultimatum for the thugs to come out and confess. Failure of it, they say they will cause the wrath of their gods on these lawbreakers. 

If our securities services are unable to arrest anyone in connection with the Banda Ahenkro threats, then, I will support the call for the gods’ intervention. Ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas was not far from the truth when he opined that extreme diseases call for extreme remedies. 

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his and not that of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Of Marwako & a Ghanaian Supervisor called Ali

The Abelenkpe branch of Marwako Fast Foods

Like the Onaapo Singer whose hit song did not secure him nomination(s) at the 2016 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, I will be totally shocked if all the headlines Marwako Fast Foods recently made it does not find itself on the list of top ten news at the end of the year, 2017.

Indeed, it became one of the social media campaigns that quickly got many people talking about it as it advised prospective customers of the said restaurant to #BoycottMarwako.  

But, what was the story behind Marwako trending on social media? Reports had it that on Sunday, February 26 2017, a worker of the Marwako Fast Foods, a lady named Evelyn Boakye, had her face powdered with freshly blended pepper by her Lebanese supervisor. 

According to Evelyn, this was when her supervisor, Jihad Chaaban, confronted her over how she used a blender at the Abelenkpe branch of the restaurant. 

Evelyn says Chaaban appeared behind her and shouted at her for attempting to destroy the blender. Then, all of a sudden, Chaaban “poured the pepper I had blended on the table and grabbed by head and rubbed my face in it,” reports Graphic Online.

“I tried to free myself as the pepper went into my eyes and I couldn’t stand the burning sensation in my face; but he wouldn’t let me go,” says the traumatized lady. 

It was just after this alleged heartbreaking news hit the news media that it stung most Ghanaians as if bitten by a black ant. If I will not be (mis)taken for exaggeration, almost every post I saw on Facebook after the incident touched on Marwako. 

I have been to the Abelenkpe branch of Marwako Fast Foods twice with my colleagues, Grace Hammoah Asare and Solomon Agbozo. Our elders say that one must appreciate the duiker’s swiftness even if it remains one’s arch enemy. Indeed, Marwako’s foods are nice. 

So, when whoever that has once  patronized the place vehemently writes on social media campaigning for people to stop buying from Marwako, then, it tells you the extent to which Evelyn Boakye’s case has gone.

Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba and Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah among others have subsequently been to the Marwako Fast Foods vowing to get to the bottom of the matter.  

Jihad Chaaban is before the law court as I write this piece. On March 8, 2017, he was remanded into police custody to reappear before the court on March 16. This has somewhat been a ‘sleeping tablet’ for many Ghanaians who fumed of the incident. 

However, I think there is one most important person Ghanaians have let go of this Marwako saga. He is said to be a Ghanaian supervisor at the Abelenkpe branch of Marwako Fast Foods by name Ali.

Evelyn Boakye in an interview with Accra based Citi TV (a subsidiary of Citi FM), few days after her ordeal, mentions Ali in her narrations.  

When the Ghanaian supervisor heard of the incident, Ali approached Evelyn to ask her if indeed it was true. Having heard it was true, he tells Evelyn to wait for him while he goes to verify from the Lebanese supervisor.

Tearful Evelyn Boakye says in that Citi TV interview that Ali, after spending six good hours just to enquire from Jihad Chaaban about the incident, finally appears. He had a message for Evelyn.

“Ali came to tell me that I am not the first person that this thing has happened to me. So, do I know what we will do? And I said what?

“[He said that] I should take heart so we take money. Like take money from them [Lebanese supervisors],” she painfully says.

Evelyn Boakye says she was bold enough to have told Ali that she values her life and that she will not compromise.

But Ali, the Ghanaian who after his fact-finding mission from Jihad was perhaps told the truth, could not let the love of money pass by with its handcuffs. According to Evelyn, what came next from Ali’s mouth was so disastrous that if bottled could serve as pesticide to kill the mosquitoes in the Odaw River. 

“I told him [Ali] I need justice and he was like you need justice? What is justice … justice … justice?!”

When I first raised the issue that this man called Ali must be invited by the police for questioning, I was told I do not have evidence to warrant that. That, if Evelyn Boakye had said that of Ali, it remains a mere allegation. Fair enough!

My question now is, which one of Ghana’s media houses (be it print, online, broadcast or whatever) or a single individual has evidence to the lady’s claim that she was molested by Jihad Chaaban? Are we all not using the adjective “alleged”? So, if she is again alleging someone had wanted her to compromise her right to live peacefully in exchange for some notes of Cedis, must we not be worried about it too?

This is Ghana. Here, our solutions to problems, most often, are problems in itself. Verily, was it not in Ghana we proposed setting aside a day in every new month to clean our gutters as a means to ensuring a cleaner society? What happens after the day of the cleaning? We go back to fill the very gutters with filth. 

Similarly, our solution to the #BoycottMarwako that Jihad Chaaban be punished will be upside down if Ali is not brought for interrogations. The truth is that after Jihad has been punished, there will be many of Ali’s caliber to side with foreigners or even side with some Ghanaian bosses to terrorize their workers.    

Whereas I vehemently condemn Jihad Chaaban’s act, I equally condemn Ali’s alleged corrupt deal. 

To the #BoycottMarwako campaigners, America’s ace investigative journalist Amy Goodman teaches us to go to where the silence is and say something. We did say ‘something’ about Jihad Chaaban’s act. Now, can we equally say something about the silence on Ali’s factor?

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his opinion and not that of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba