Attempted Prophecies: A rock and a hard place

By Yao Afra YAO

(Where bad leadership leaves us)

Prologue

Hello good people, it’s October all over again. And whenever we get to this glorious tenth month of the year, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Say it with me: L.I. 2431!

Something completely different popped into your mind with this introductory paragraph, didn’t it? Apologies. But in all fairness, this pink matter—i.e., the matter of the human breast—according to scientists, may just be related to this issue… “Mercury is known to have oestrogen-stimulating properties, as well as the potential to cause genetic mutations, and epigenetic changes; and mercury can promote the proliferation of breast cancer cells…” So says the National Institute of Health (NIH), USA.

An Oath to Self

Coming from a national history steeped in colonialism, and having caused ourselves to suffer three rocky republics, we, the Ghanaian people finally settled peacefully on this Fourth Republic, promising ourselves, with the enactment of our fifth constitution, the 1992 Constitution, true republican status, true freedom—true political, social, and economic freedoms.

No longer were we, as a people—our natural and human resources in general—to be taken at whim and used by others for their good, to our disadvantage. The Ghanaian was to be made the true owner of this land called Ghana. Overtly or covertly, you just couldn’t steal this land from under our nose.

“Every mineral in its natural state in, under or upon any land in Ghana, rivers, streams, water courses throughout Ghana, the exclusive economic zone and any area covered by the territorial sea or continental shelf is the property of the Republic of Ghana and shall be vested in the President on behalf of, and in trust for the people of Ghana.” Article 257(6) of the 1992 Constitution brags.

Such powerful words. Ah, what a time it is to be Ghanaian!

To lay even more emphasis to this ‘ownership’ position, the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) was enacted. Its very opening paragraph, section 1, repeats these words verbatim: “Every mineral in its natural state in, under or upon [any] land in Ghana, rivers, streams, water courses throughout the country, the exclusive economic zone and an area covered by the territorial sea or continental shelf is the property of the Republic and is vested in the President in trust for the people of Ghana.”

But almost 30 years since the enactment of this Constitution, and almost 15 years since that of the Minerals and Mining Act, our nation was to find this defining object of these enactments not fully achieved. Why? Because you take the mining sector, and this is what you find: the vast majority of ownership—across all fronts, large-scale mining especially—not being held by Ghanaians, as planned, but by multinational companies from countries like the US, Australia, Canada, China, etc.

Needless to say, the West was still the larger owner and beneficiary of our minerals, not the Ghanaian. They were (and still are) at the helm of affairs, atop the natural resource exploitation food chain, while fellow Ghanaians were left to scrape the bottom—in their very own country! Sixty-seven whole years after our independence, the Ghanaian still had the vast majority of its large-scale mining, especially still held by foreigners. We were still left to feast on the crumbs that fell from the table; we had no true seat at the table.

The Minerals Commission, for instance, reports some 16 large-scale companies engaged in mining in the country. A large number of these companies are foreign-owned.  The Africa Mining IQ agency reports an approximate 90 mining projects underway in Ghana.

These mining projects are owned by some 30 mining companies—and a disproportionate number of these companies are international corporations. It also reports that the highest capital value mining projects occurring in the country are owned by four major companies—and all these are largely foreign-owned. Americans, Australian, and Canadian corporations. The usual names.

Things are almost too glaringly neocolonialistic.

So, during the fateful year of 2020, in the month of October, a new law was enacted, aiming to solve this problem… It had no time to beat around the bush—this law. Its mission was stated right there in its name: the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431)—with the Minerals Commission given the mandate to see to its enforcement.

Paragraph 1 goes on to state the purpose of the Regulation and by extension, the Commission on this matter… Among others, it was to cause an increase in job creation for the benefit of the Ghanaian in the mining sector; it was to help make our local businesses within the sector internationally competitive, develop local capacities and encourage the Ghanaian to enter into the mining and mineral-related support industry; and very tellingly, it was also to ‘supervise, coordinate, implement and monitor local content in the mining sector.’

And these gains were not only to be limited to a particular segment within the mining sector. No! The Ghanaian was to experience these benefits along the entire mining value chain—from small-scale mining to large-scale mining, from exploration/reconnaissance, discovery, development, production, all the way through to reclamation…

Essentially, what the Regulation, very strategically, sets out to do is to first, ensure the active and gainful employment of the Ghanaian in the sector. Secondly, ensure the empowerment and training of the Ghanaian to take over the ownership of the nation’s minerals—along its entire value chain.

Ghanaians, with this law, are not only to be gainfully and largely employed in the mining sector, but they are also projected to move up the value chain—to the position of majority owners. And what better way to do this than to start small—i.e., from ownership in small-scale mining, and then eventually move up to ownership in large-scale mining?

After the Ghanaian has been given an opportunity to be legal holders of mining licences in the small-scale sector, and after so conducting their businesses legally and ethically, in a way that secure for the entire country not only development, but sustainable development, the sky was set to be the only limit for the country! Very soon what would we find? Springing up from here and there,

Ghanaians who have the financial capacity, expertise, and experience to own licences to operate large-scale mining. And slowly but surely what would ensue? Ah! The Ghanaian would not only be the owner of “every mineral in its natural state in, under, or upon any land in Ghana, rivers, streams, water courses throughout Ghana…” just on paper, but in actuality.

The word was out. Ghana was on a whole different level—we were to be the very epitome of national finesse itself. A country where ownership of major economic activities contained therein is held and owned by citizenry themselves? Chai! You just couldn’t touch us even if you tried!

Someone managed to make a fool of us all

But alas, true to form, we have managed to turn what was supposed to be a tale of heroism into a tragedy instead. We have managed to make a fool out of ourselves, it seems…

With Galamsey ruthlessly roaming freely, we seemed to have only managed to make fools and failures out of our own selves.

That is what Galamsey does, it makes a failure out of us all. The physical failures proceeding from this illegality, are, of course, inescapable. Any attempt to shroud them in politics fails, because its physical manifestations, they are mighty inescapable.

The sheer environmental destructions being caused; the health challenges it’s spawning and will continue to spawn if not quickly and very drastically dealt with; the negative social impact suffered by communities within which these activities are endemic and the offshoots of these repercussions as suffered by us all citizens interspersed nationwide; the adverse impact it has on education and the development of the next generation, especially within these communities; the economic damage it is causing and will continue to cause to our entire nation; the endless, cancerous chain of negative effects it is spawning on every aspect of our nationhood…

With this bane called Galamsey, we are on the trajectory to becoming a nation where kidney and lung diseases, cancers, respiratory problems, brain diseases, etc., are endemic. With this calamity that is Galamsey, our nation is on the track to becoming a fallen black star, an economic failure—the tragic tale of the promising rise followed by a sharply contrasting steep fall.

With this atrocity called Galamsey, this nation of ours, a shining star of political stability on the continent of Africa, is set to become a nation characterised with political unrests, a nation where weak and ineffectual leadership is the normal—leadership that comes in, not to solve, but like the thief in the night, like the colonial devils of the not-so-distant past, only to steal, kill, and destroy.

Tragic.

The Many Failures

1. The First Failure: After Painstakingly Fighting for Independence…

This is tragic because we, as a people, have a whole lot to prove. We have a lot to prove, first, to our own selves, and then the world at large.

Because there was this matter of our very apt fight for our independence. “…From now on, today, we must change our attitudes and our minds. We must realise that from now on we are no longer a colonial but a free and independent people. But, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work.

That the new Africa is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all the Black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our foundation – our own African personality.” Nkrumah had every reason to be this braggadocious on our Independence Day. He even went so far as to include the entire Black race in this wager: “…the Black man is capable of managing his own affairs.” He proclaimed.

But after this bragging, what has actually ensued for our country? A tale of mediocrity and arguably outright underperformances—particularly when it comes to the attainment of the very prized economic liberation and consequent economic development.

We, very rightly, yanked political power out of the hands of the imperial devils—the devils who came only to steal, kill, and destroy—only for us to turn around and commit similar atrocities upon our own selves. Indeed, many a time, Ghanaian political leadership has sought to replicate the strategies of the past imperial overlords—especially when it comes to the ‘stealing’ and ‘destroying’ part.

This grand failure is one we are presently still left to contend with… Each individual and nationalistic strides we have made has been (or ought to be) towards the reversal of this failure/underperformance.

But as you and I are sitting here in this country, minding our business, finding ways of navigating this first failure, what do we see? Our leaders seem to, very consciously, be creating a whole new failure for us to contend with.

1. The Second Failure: After Painstakingly Fighting for Our Mineral Rights…

Here we are, having taken the very right steps of granting the Ghanaian ownership of our mineral wealth, so as to help steer the overall sustainable economic development of the nation at large… Here we are, having taken this apt step of very slowly but surely, yanking economic power from the hands of the foreigner, by correcting this present injustice where they own the majority stake in our own minerals…

But after painstakingly taking this very crucial national step, what do we see ensuing? Fellow Ghanaian has chosen to allow this era of Ghanaian ownership to be rife with illegalities and greed… We have chosen to allow this era of Ghanaian ownership to suffer little to no supervision and accountability. The Ghanaian is behaving like a colonial devil and an unconcerned foreigner… Fellow Ghanaians are doing to their own land as they please.

Fellow Ghanaian has forgotten that unlike the colonial devil of yesteryear and the foreigner of today, they have no true escaping point. Let the frustrations of our Diasporan kinsfolk in the Caucasian-dense nations of the West and East be a lesson to fellow Ghanaian that indeed, unlike the colonial devils of yesteryear and foreigners of today, fellow Ghanaian really has no escaping point.

The “Wrong People” Are Protesting (This is Sarcasm)

Ah! I, for one, say the wrong people are leading these Galamsey protests. Looking at the thinking behind laws such as Act 703 and L.I. 2431, and the institution of bodies and offices such as the Presidency, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Minerals Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), etc.—these institutions whose collective aim is to see, among others, to the fulfilment of Article 257(6), these institutions whose ultimate aim is to see to the sustainable development of this country of ours through the sustainable deployment of our resources—I, for one, say that the wrong people are organising these Galamsey protests.

Very first on these Ghanaian streets must be the Presidency itself (the President has a rich history and experience when it comes to this). Joining him must be the Minerals Commission and its mother institution, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

This is because Galamsey defeats the very purpose of their existence. The EPA (‘the leading public body for protecting and improving the environment’) must have its offices closed and working from the streets in endless protests; its mother institution, the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) must not leave them lonely on these streets. They must join their baby.

Essentially, the President and these stakeholding institutions and agencies must be the organisers of these protests. Because Galamsey, I reiterate, defeats the very purpose of their existence, and Article 257(6) of the Constitution and all such offshoot legislations enacted to see to its fruition—laws like the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431).

But if these powerful institutions are so busy that they are unable to oblige, if the President is so busy that he is unable to organise such a fight or protest—to undertake this very necessary step of lifting his voice up against this glaring greed and cancer called Galamsey…Then kindly permit that the citizens do so on your behalf, Mr. President and related agencies.

You Put Us in a Tight Place

Bad and greedy leadership is presently putting the Ghanaian in a rock and a hard place. I’ll tell you why.

First, we have established the fact that this regime of empowering small-scale mining was intended to help cause the fulfilment of the Ghanaian aspiration as contained under Article 257(6) of the Constitution—i.e., the shifting of our natural resource wealth from the undeserving hands of foreigners into the hands of Ghanaians.

And then, we have conceded the fact that the lines between small-scale mining and Galamsey are increasingly growing blurry due to the lack of good leadership on this front.

So, now that leadership has allowed this cancer that is Galamsey to roam free, how does it look when the frustrated Ghanaian—livid with the sheer horror occasioned by Galamsey—takes to the streets, to social media, lift their voices, use the various platforms allowed them, owing to their professions or positions, etc., to protest and demand not only an end to Galamsey, but, out of apt frustration, to small-scale mining in general? By marching against Galamsey (and small-scale mining) is the frustrated Ghanaian indirectly marching in favour of large-scale mining—particularly continuous foreign mineral ownership?

You see, this is exactly what bad leadership does! It manages to make a fool out of us all! Bad leadership has the sheer capacity of putting citizens right in between a rock and a hard place.

No Ghanaian, in their right minds, will take to the street to march against Ghanaian ownership in the exploitation and use of our natural resources—in favour of foreign ownership. None of these Ghanaians, fervently speaking against Galamsey (or small-scale mining to boot) are speaking (or intending to speak) against Ghanaian ownership of our minerals. Au contraire.

It is not the fault of the Ghanaian that leadership has allowed to ensue, a close linkage between small-scale mining and illegalities, and the blurring of the lines between small-scale mining and Galamsey.

The failure has been on the part of leadership, i.e., the Presidency and all these stakeholder agencies and institutions, to put in place and enforce the right mechanisms—supervisory, accountability, and punitive mechanisms to ensure that sanity ensues in this sub-sector called small-scale mining—a sanity that will not only equal, but even exceed that which is prevailing in the large-scale mining sub-sector.

After aptly legitimising small-scale mining in the Ghanaian economy, it fell on leadership to undertake unflinching steps to ensure that this crucial sub-sector (and the nation at large) is wiped free off this cancer called Galamsey. Yet, as we witness as the gold in our flag undergoes a semantic shift of a sort—moving from representing our golden minerals, to our golden waterbodies, one cannot escape the fact that leadership has failed on this front. Yet, it is never too late to do the right thing, is it?

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The writer is a writer. And this sentence is circular

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