Ostriches in Galamsey Fight (1)

Oliver Baker-Vormawor

Election years spawn all kinds of shadowy groups that pose as civil society organizations with the aim of holding public office holders accountable.

In most cases, these groups look like cow dung, with a good appearance but with a terrible smell underneath, if not poisonous and cancerous.

With only about two months until this year’s elections, these civil society groups are engaged in a kind of “finish hard” race to push the ruling government to make decisions that could impact Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

We are strong supporters of civil liberties, and during the culture of silence and in the era when the PNDC introduced the newspaper licensing law, we used a sports newspaper to mobilize citizens against the military dictatorship.

Where we come from, we will be the last to stop an individual or group of individuals from taking to the streets to show their disapproval of certain government actions.

Democracy guarantees all kinds of freedoms, such as freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom of religion and freedom of the press. But these rights are not absolute, as these rights are guaranteed on the condition that others have the opportunity to enjoy their freedoms.

It is against this background that we condemn the Democracy Hub led by Oliver Baker-Vormawor, who last Monday led a group to obstruct the rights of other road users in the name of a series of demonstrations around the 37 Military Hospital, with the aim of of other road users. access to Jubilee House, the seat of government.

We are told that this group, backed by various gangs, even blocked the movement of vehicles, including ambulances carrying seriously ill persons, to the 37 Military Hospital, defying the civilized standards required in a demonstration.

The lawless Barker-Vormawor, idolized in NDC circles and among civil society groups demanding an end to the galamsey, even had the audacity to remove the keys from a police vehicle.

That day, these thugs should have tasted the brutal power of state power.

Gradually but steadily, national security issues are being taken for granted, allowing criminal gangs and gangsters to violate the peace and security of the country in the name of democratic governance and its rights.

Although every house in the mining areas is involved in illegal mining, the picture is being painted by the anti-Galamsey groups as if it is President Akufo-Addo and his men and women who are polluting our water bodies and forests.

Every now and then the name on the lips of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey is Akonta Mining, owned by the garrulous Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Chairman Wontumi; Whether he has a license to operate does not matter to these groups; to the extent that this may portray President Akufo-Addo in a bad light, this should be pursued.

We know that Franklin Cudjoe and his Imani family would quickly debunk our position and claim to be fighting a national cause.

We know that galamsey has become a threat and we need all hands on deck to prevent illegal miners from posing an existential threat to our future.

Nevertheless, we believe that these groups are behaving like ostriches, burying their heads in the sand and have refused to see the bottlenecks that their presidential candidate John Mahama and his NDC have put in the way of the fight against Galamsey.

When John Mahama boldly told the chiefs and people of Adum Banso that if he came to power, he would release all illegal miners from prisons for having converted, Ken Ashigbey and his Media Coalition Against Galamsey behaved like the proverbial monkey by putting a cork in jail. their ears so that ‘they will not hear anything’, so that they are not forced to say anything contrary to the position of their dear NDC flag bearer.

These groups are part of John Mahama’s mantra to “reset” the country and that is also why the commentary of Ken Ashigbey and his group does not include Kwaku Boahen’s reckless statement during the 2020 elections.

It is on record that Kwaku Boahen has asked the illegal miners to vote for John Mahama so that in the event of his victory he will allow the galamseyers to return to harm the environment.

Kwaku Boahen pointed to Tony Aubyn who was with him and told the miners that if John Mahama won, Tony Aubyn would be reappointed as Chief Executive of the Mineral Commission as an incentive to their evil ways.

These reckless and unpatriotic words and actions of John Mahama are yet to catch the attention of the anti-galamsey activists led by the Media Coalition Against Galamsey.

We believe that if our people stop playing the ostrich and, in a joint effort, confront the galamseyers, we can drive them out of our forests.