I had to laugh when a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) recently asked me if I was now in the happy position, which the NPP’s many praise-singers in the media were, when their party was ruling Ghana.
I made it plain to the gentleman concerned that I was not writing critical articles about the NPP regime during its tenure, because I was being paid to do so, by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
One did so simply because one happens to be a patriot. I am a nationalist, a pan-Africanist, and an Nkrumaist – who believes in the enterprise Ghana.
I also told him that I was of the opinion that his party was now showing the same degree of ruthlessness that made its political forebears engage in the bomb-throwing and other acts of terrorism it engaged in, in order to destabilize the regime of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), after Ghana gained its independence in 1957.
The endless negativity of many of the NPP members and sympathizers who take part in current affairs discussion programmes, which are broadcast by Ghana’s many FM radio stations, is that party’s modern-day substitute for the bomb-throwing of its political antecedents in the Akan tribal-supremacist National Liberation Movement (NLM).
That, and the many acts of quiet-sabotage now being carried out daily, by its sympathizers and members in the public sector, is at the heart of the NPP’s grand-strategy for regaining power.
If the Mills regime is to succeed in its aim of creating a better Ghana for all Ghanaians, the president needs to make it plain, in the new year, that his administration expects all the NPP’s sympathizers and members, whom the new government decided not to remove from their positions in the public sector, when it assumed office in January 2009, to reciprocate that gesture by continuing to remain loyal to the government of the day.
If the Mills regime wants to succeed, it needs to be creative in dealing with those disloyal public servants, who so regret the defeat of the NPP in the December 2008 elections that they are prepared to help the NPP return to power in 2012, by sabotaging the present administration.
Perhaps employing creativity in dealing with a number of businesses owned by certain powerful and wealthy individuals in some of the sectors in the Ghanaian economy, which are defying the authority of the Ghanaian nation-state, and have refused to halt their operations, in spite of the fact that they have been ordered to do so by the relevant state organs, will give the Mills administration the opportunity to effectively deal with NPP saboteurs in the Minerals Commission; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Forestry Division of the Forestry Commission of Ghana.
The question, dear reader, is: At a time of global climate change, when we need to protect Ghana’s natural heritage, how come that an illegal surface gold mining operation is being carried out at Akyem Juaso, despite attempts by a deputy minister of environment, science, and technology, to halt that outrage?
If action is not taken by the Mills administration in this particular instance, they will wake up to discover that irreparable damage has been caused to part of Ghana’s natural heritage: that provides valuable ecosystem services to our nation, by the illegal actions of certain wealthy individuals, who were untouchable during the Kufuor era, because they were politically well-connected.
The president must get the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to investigate the actions of Sola Mining, the surface gold mining company currently operating illegally in Akyem Juaso without a valid EPA mining permit, and using the concession of Kibi Goldfields as legal cover.
In so doing, the government will be able to use a creative method to kill two birds with one stone – and enable it to remove those recalcitrant individuals in the Forestry Division of the Forestry Commission; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and the Minerals Commission, whose continuing perfidy is allowing the illegal surface gold mining and massive illegal logging being carried out in that part of the Atiwa Range upland evergreen rain forest to go on - which enables a few wealthy individuals who acquired their vast fortunes simply because they were politically well-connected during the Kufour era, to continue defying the laws of Ghana and damaging the well-being of our country and its people.
A similar investigation by the BNI to discover how come that at a time of global climate change, the fragile ecology of the three northern regions was ignored, when a wealthy and ruthless individual (who so clearly does not care one jot, about the effects of her actions on the natural environment, or on the quality of life of the inhabitants of the three northern regions!), was given the sole right to fell trees in a part of our country, which is suffering the most from the effects of global climate change, will also enable the Mills administration to make the necessary changes in the management of the Forestry Division of the Forestry Commission.
Incredibly - just as is the case in the illegal surface gold mining going on at Akyem Juaso - even though the sector minister is aware of her defiance, the said individual (who was “allocated” the sole right to fell trees in the three northern regions in the dying days of the Kufuor regime!), is carrying on regardless: although all timber firms have apparently been asked to cease felling logs temporarily whiles a review of timber permits is undertaken.
If the government heeds the advice to get the BNI to investigate the actions of this arrogant and ruthless lady in the three northern regions, it will enable it to remove the NPP saboteurs still lurking in the Forestry Division of the Forestry Commission.
Finally, I suggest that the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, contacts his counterpart in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – and review the investigation of the infamous case in which a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer was asked to assist the police as a result of an allegation of the illegal production of cocaine, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
He will find such collaboration very fruitful indeed – as it will provide the Ghana Police Service with institutional knowledge that will enable it deal effectively with the overseas drug barons who are rumoured to be using entities in the Ghanaian pharmaceutical manufacturing sector to hide the production of illegal synthetic drugs in Ghana.
The Mills regime needs to use creativity in dealing with the NPP saboteurs in various sectors of Ghana’s public sector as it enters its second year in office – and enable our nation to finally rid the public sector of the unpatriotic public servants who are impeding our country’s forward march. President Mills will not achieve his goals if his regime does not remove such individuals from the public sector. A word to the wise…
Tel (powered by Tigo – Ghana’s most reliable mobile phone network!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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