The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, according to a story we have carried today, is calling on chiefs and Queens Mothers in the Western Region to lead the fight against illegal mining in the region. “I want to implore our traditional leaders to present a united front to help preserve our region as the shining star of Ghana”, he said.
Speaking to members of the Western Regional House of Chiefs (WRHC) in Sekondi yesterday, the minister said, “to put it bluntly, the fight against galamsey must be led by the chiefs and traditional authorities in every nook and cranny of this country.
“I will put it again, if we are to succeed in our fight against illegal mining, against the degradation of our forest and our water bodies, it must be supported and led by our chiefs and traditional authorities.
“As I have stated, the degradation of our forest and the water bodies that I have described, this will be the immediate issues to be addressed, and while we have outlined several initiatives such as the tree for life, re-afforestation agenda, the Blue Water operation and the introduction of Water Guards initiative amongst others, the utmost support of the house of chiefs will be crucial in this effort.
“We want to ensure that mining operations are not conducted in unapproved areas such as water bodies and areas that I have described. We will strengthen the capacity of the mining regulatory institutions to be able to do a quick turnaround time and to engage with stakeholders effectively”, our correspondent quoted him as saying.
The issue of galamsey, as we have stated severally in the past, is a threat to our national security. Unfortunately, despite the deployment of security agencies, including the military, to fight the menace, there has not been any breakthrough. Our water bodies are still being polluted whilst our forests are also being destroyed with careless abandon.
With the use of the police and the military failing to achieve the required results, the best option available now is our revered chiefs. Lands illegal miners are destroying belong to the traditional rulers – it is only the mineral wealth that is owned by the state. The chiefs, therefore, have the responsibility of ensuring that their lands are well protected.
It is upon the basis of this that we support the call being made to the chiefs in western region by the newly appointed minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Armah Kofi Buah, that they must support the fight against illegal mining and degradation of the environment. The illegal miners, in most of the cases, outwit the security agencies tasked to flush them out because they know the forest more than the personnel.
Unfortunately, the chiefs who know every nook and cranny of the forest did not support the government to stop the illegal miners. We assume this decision was taken because the government itself did not make the efforts to get them involved in the fight against the menace. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah is, therefore, taking the right decision to officially invite the chiefs to join the fight.
It is our hope that the chiefs in the Western region and in fact Ghana as a whole will accept the invitation being extended to them by the new minister to help deal with the galamsey issue in the interest of mother Ghana.
Looking at the overall instability in the West Africa sub region, we will be laughing at the wrong side of our mouths if we, as a country, fail to tackle head-on the illegal mining conundrum, especially looking at the sophisticated weapons some of the operators are wielding, which enable them to even engage the security forces in fierce gun battles. In our view, the power to end galamsey lies with our revered chiefs and they dare not fail the nation.
