Tuesday 15 October 2019

President Akufo-Addo Must Stop The Planned Destruction Of The Atewa Forest Reserve - And Turn It Into A National Park Instead.

When Ghana's President Akufo-Addo was sworn into office in January 2017, he admonished Ghanaians to be active citizens, not passive citizens - so as to hold their elected leaders to account by implication. The time has come for Akyems who care about their natural heritage,  to be active citizens -  and condemn in no uncertain  terms, Hon.Yaw Osafo Marfo, the Senior Minister, and Vice President Bawumia, who went to China to sell the birthright of Akyems,  without our permission. They sods.

Those two geniuses then returned home  to tout that egregious betrayal, as a new public-sector funding model, to be used  to finance the  expansion and modernisation of Ghana's infrastructure - to save face for a forked-tongued-ruling-party that when in the political wilderness, and campaigning to win power again, constantly criticised the then President Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration,  for borrowing heavily.

Yet, as we all know, during the campaign for the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections,  the New Patriotic Party  (NPP), gave Ghanaians the distinct  impression that if voted into office, unlike the then ruling NDC regime of former  President Mahama , if voted into power, a New Patriotic Party  (NPP) administration would not add to Ghana's massive debt stock under any circumstances. Many voted for the NPP for that key implied assurance alone.

That is why younger generation Ghanaians must rise up against the Sino-Hydro deal that sacrifices the all-important and priceless Atewa Forest Reserve, for a paltry U.S.$2.5 billion loan agreement, with the state-owned Chinese company,  SinoHydro.

The sensible thing a wise government would do, to spare the Atewa Forest Reserve, at a time when global warming is impacting the Ghanaian countryside so negatively,  would be to plan instead for a West African integrated aluminium industry that sources it's bauxite supplies from  Guinea,  Liberia and Sierra Leone, to be processed  and smeltered by VALCO, at Tema.

Ghana's younger generations must demand that the Sino-Hydro deal is cancelled immediately  - because in the climate change era, it is the height of stupidity and foolishness  to destroy a unique and biodiversity-rich upland evergreen rainforest,  which is the watershed for the three major river systems that the populations of most of the southern half of Ghana's towns and cities'  treated water supply, is sourced  from. 

The time has now come for Ghana's younger generations to draw inspiration from their counterparts across the world, who, as we speak, are now staging regular public street demonstrations to demand action from governments worldwide, to halt global warming from reaching the tipping point. The active citizens of an African democracy, whose leader is the co-chairperson of the Eminent Persons appointed by the UN Secretary General to oversee the worldwide implementation of the UN SDGs,  must ask President Akufo-Addo to the  stop the planned destruction of the Atewa Forest Reserve,  and demand  that it is turned into a national park instead. Yooooo. Hmmmm.  Haaba.


Sent from Samsung tablet.

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