Psychology Expert, Professor Joseph Osafo, has waded into discussions over the galamsey menace in Ghana.
Currently in Ghana, there is a fierce war against illegal mining, also called galamsey, as a team of Military officers have been authorized to burn all galamsey equipment as well as remove all persons along river bodies in mining areas.
Over 200 changfang machines and excavators have been destroyed by the task force.
Recently, the National Women’s Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kate Gyamfua became a victim to the Military operation dubbed ”Operation Halt” as her excavators were set on fire causing her to weep bitterly in her defence that she wasn’t doing galamsey.
On the galamsey fight, whereas some people believe the government is using the right approach, there is a school of thought that disagrees.
Member of Parliament(MP) for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is a member of the school of thought that disagrees with the government’s approach.
To him, burning the excavators will yield no results unless “one galamsey overlord, one real architect, an actual financier is arrested and prosecuted”.
He has suggested that, to end galamsey, the kingpins must be arrested.
“How come not even one architect behind this galamsey operation has been arrested? To start a galamsey operation, you need millions of Ghana cedis and so the real perpetrators are not those small boys or the youth who are risking their lives…instead of arresting these guys, we should make them an offer for them to lead us to the real kingpins; if we follow the chain, it will lead us to the barons. Unless we get the real perpetrators, we will always come back to square one,” he said in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’.
Speaking on the same platform, Prof. Joseph Osafo also described the galamsey menace as a leadership crisis.
He noted that there is no way galamsey activity could be carried out in a community without the notice of a leader in the community.
To him, like Hon. Ablakwa suggested, the fight against galamsey will yield the required results only when the leaders become responsible.
“The galamsey issue is a leadership crisis. There’s no doubt. Every land is owned by somebody in Ghana . . . Every galamsey site is either in a town, a village or where people inhabits. So, who owns the place? Because wherever a person stays, there is a leader there. There is a Chief, an Abusuapanin, Assemblyman, DCE, Police Commander and so forth; so wherever this (galamsey) is happening, there is a leadership there,” he said.
