Public anger will clear galamsey operators

Former president Jerry John Rawlings has commended the media for collectively standing up against illegal mining or galamsey to get the authorities to act to end the menace in the country.

“l am glad you are doing a good campaign against this galamsey,” the former President said, and went on to urge the media to stand up against the indiscriminate felling of trees, siting of billboards, littering, invasion of pedestrian walkways by traders and open defecation at the beaches.

Our inability to say no to ourselves is costing the country its very future. It is as though there is no longer due care in anything we do. The environment can be likened to a machine — if well serviced, it will serve the user well, while the reverse holds true.

We have looked on as our forest cover is depleted, and now, divided along partisan lines, we sit and allow the indiscriminate excavation of the ground in the name of mining.

And when a section of society rises up against galamsey,  the Member of Parliament for Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amankwah, wades into the fray, urging caution on the part of the government in dealing with the illegal mining menace.

For the MP, clamping down on illegal miners would lead to a higher level of unemployment. This call is bizarre because if our forefathers who bequeathed the resources to us had treated them this way, perhaps this new generation wouldn’t be alive to see today. That is the essence of sustainable development.

The Daily Graphic wants to remind Mr Amankwa that the fact that some people cultivate, process and sell illicit drugs such as Indian hemp and cocaine does not make the practice legal or give grounds to foster the practice. Galamsey requires all the ruthlessness required and the full coercive power of the state to stem the tide.

Don’t forget a line in our National Anthem that urges all to be ‘bold to defend forever the cause of freedom and of right...’

We believe it is outbursts such as that by the MP for Manhyia North that embolden groups like Delta Force, a political vigilante group, to go on the rampage.

The Daily Graphic thinks that the MP’s call for caution is the bane of our present level of development. For various reasons,including political affiliations, governments are unable to take action against people perceived to belong to the ruling party.

Already, some leading lights of the ruling party are making ugly noises against the campaign to stop galamsey.

For God’s sake, everybody should join hands with the media to expose those bent on destroying our environment and water bodies.

We expect the government to take a cue from the public outcry against illegal mining and use the state machinery to put an end to the menace.

It cannot be emphasised enough that the time has come for us to be disciplined as a people in every segment of society. Cheating one another, the penchant to get rich quickly, damn any consequences, running Ponzi financial schemes for one to get rich quickly at the expense of others, uncleanliness, pollution of water bodies and rampant cheating during examinations and in relationships are all acts of indiscipline which should be weeded out of the Ghanaian society, starting now. We have no more time to waste, else the canker festers some more.

Let us all be guided by the words of author Jim Collins: “Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.”