H.E JOHN MAHAMA NEEDED THE 3 SEATS LOST IN SAVANNAH REGION TO BE PRESIDENT IN 2020.

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

When H.E John Mahama lost in 2016, most of us were pained, disappointed and saw it as unfair…little did we know that his lost was a blessing in disguise. Although, some of us still maintained that the 2020 election was stolen by the NPP, the current happenings in Ghana show how blessed John Mahama was for that stolen verdict. They would have hanged the hollow economy on his head and crucify him for no wrong done. Even with this, I Still think that H.E John Mahama needed to win the election, maybe things would have been better. 

The Parliamentary results of 2020 is a clear testament that John Mahama and the NDC indeed, won the elections. For a party to move from 106 seats in 2016 to over 140 in 2020 is not a child’s play. 

The above revealed that the cheating wasn’t done with only padding and manipulating nominal presidential figures in the strong room, but largely done with the Parliamentary seats. The mistake of having to announce that the NDC had won 140 seats without waiting for same to be declared and concluded gave the NPP the opportunity to reset the system, used their parallel forces to maim innocent Ghanaians in the process of snatching seats like Techima South, Ayawaso Central, Essikado-Ketan and others to make up the current numbers they have in Parliament. 

Given the dynamics in Savannah region and the North at large, the NPP would not dare pull a gun in a constituency like Daboya-Mankarigu in an attempt to snatch the seat like they did in Techima South. So, if the NDC had won the Daboya-Mankarigu seat, no matter how small the margin will be, it was going to be sealed and nothing could have been done by the NPP. Same applies to Damongo and Salaga North. Except in a case where the NDC itself was ready to give the seats to the NPP like we indeed did. Be minded that in 2020, the issues in the strong room was no more about aggregate figures but number of seats. Any wonder, Jean Mensah waited until the issue of number of seats won by Nana Addo to get him a Parliamentary majority was settled before she hurried out with her different shades of contradictory results? 

If the 2020 elections did not teach all the NDC stakeholders in Savannah region including H.E John Mahama a lesson, it taught us that, the Parliamentary seats are as important as the Presidential outcome. To all NDC members in Savannah region: former appointees, regional executives, constituency and branch executives, financiers, council of elders, committee members, ordinary foot soldiers, if you want to show real-undiluted-love for H.E John Mahama and the NDC, let that love reflect in your quests and actions aimed at winning your seat for the NDC. You can offload all your investments to the party up there, if it doesn’t reflect in you winning your seat,  you may be able to recoup your investments after winning power, but you would have lost your political hold, weight and relevance in the Savannah region and your constituency in particular. Note: Everybody’s weight in politics largely lies in his/her branch, constituency and region. 

Is it not disheartening and shameful that in 2020, while regions like the Upper East and the Upper West Regions were able to put their houses together to redeem their image by improving on the number of seats, actors in Savannah Region were seriously fighting to lose more seats to the NPP? 

Check this out! In 2016 in the Upper East Region, H.E John Mahama and the NDC had 60.3% with 12 seats, while Nana Addo and the NPP had 3 seats with 35%. Fast forward in 2020, with hard work and unity, the NDC stakeholders in the Upper East Region, snatched 2 seats back to make it 14 seats as against 1 seat for the NPP. Also, in Upper West, the NDC dwindled  from 10 seats to zero for the NPP in 2012 to 6 seats against 5 for the NPP in 2016. They managed to put their house together and redeemed their image by increasing their seats from 6 to 8 with the NPP declining from 5 to 3. A whopping 67.42% for John Mahama while Nana Addo went home with just 29.89%. 

Painfully, at this same time these two upper regions were fighting hard to increase John Mahama’s chances in 2020, his own backyard key stakeholders were engaged in opened fighting and jostling each other for non-existent space. While doing so, some of them for whatever reason, created loops for the NPP to maximize their gains. This resulted in H.E John Mahama losing 3 seats in Savannah to the NPP out of 7 seats; lost in his mother’s home constituency, Damongo and lost the aggregate votes in the Daboya-Mankarigu Constituency after losing the seat. The painful part is that, it was under John Mahama that the Daboya-Mankarigu Constituency was created; he gave Daboya a public senior high school (ie the E-block); he started a road project linking Daboya to Busunu; he built both the Tachali and the Mognori bridges to link the North Gonja District to the West Gonja District. We sat on all these achievements and still went and lost not only that seat, but the aggregate Presidential votes. Isn’t that shameful? 

History will always remember President Rawlings for leaving three major legacies for Ghana and the NDC:

1.He stopped the sporadic coup d’etats in Ghana after the 1979 uprising.

2. He ushered Ghana into the most stable 4th Republic 

3. He left a United Volta Region as a stronghold for the NDC forever. 

Ask yourself, what legacy do you as a stakeholder in Savannah Region want John Mahama to leave beyond the infrastructure developments? 

I remember vividly in 2016 when Joy FM got some misinformation that the NDC had lost Sawla-Tuna-Kalba constituency, they started the twisting and historical analysis of the constituency. They tried to tell the story of how it was one constituency with the current Bole-Bamboi and how related Sawla-Tuna-Kalba was with Bole-Bamboi. They did so to spite at John Mahama and make him look worthless in his own backyard. After the 2020 elections, Nana Addo came to Damongo and at the instance of the Yagbonwura, he thanked all Gonjas for giving him 3 seats and particularly the Damongo seat, the traditional capital of the Gonja Kingdom. What this means is that, no matter how small we are, the strength of John Mahama in his own Savannah Region should matter to all those who claim to love John Mahama. 

Do your mathematics and see if the NDC and John Mahama can ever win the Manhyia seat, where the Manhyia palace resides or Abuakwa South or North seats where Akyem Abuakwa is. Do you think Okyeman will step on the grave of Nana Adeline Yeboakua Ofori Atta, Akufo-Addo’s Mother, and disgrace her like we did to Mame Nniba in Busunu? Think about it, this isn’t tribal politics but common sense. 

Well, they say in politics nothing happen by chance, whatever happened was designed to happen. Isn’t it curious that today, while Okyehene is insulting all Ghanaians for criticizing President Akufo-Addo, some of our chiefs choose to either become Electoral Commissioners and declaring the NPP winners, some becoming pollsters and predicting unbelievable results for the NPP against their son, John Mahama, while others have opened their palaces and adopting children from other kingdoms while throwing their own and the bath away? Do you blame the chiefs and opinion leaders in Gonjaland for this? Absolutely no, because, the NDC political class and key stakeholders refused to give leadership, direction and sense of purpose and to use that to whip all others in line. Although, by default, we and our chiefs are expected to support our own, but politics has been diluted to exhude and assume a different character, so that one has to stage-craft everything. 

Look at the NPP in Savannah today. Although, they are not any better, but when there is a problem in the region, Garba Kpangriwura Adam Zakaria, the member of council of state, a respected chief and a well collected politician, will step in as first aid to call for calm. And I don’t think there is anybody in the NPP in the region who doesn’t respect and will not listen to him. Is there anything like that in the NDC in Savannah region. We seem not to have leadership, and even if we do, we don’t seem to respect them and the party structures seem not to be responsive to their intervention. The ongoing free fall in Salaga South, which is silent though, but it serves as a threat to the seat. So, when the NPP Abu Jinapor says that Savannah Region will be the battle ground for the NDC and NPP in 2024, and that they will win majority seats, I don’t see that as either bragging or scare-crowing, they mean business and they know how to execute same. 

The time for the NDC in the region to wake up is now. No need for complacency, no need for empty boxing, no need for struggling for relevance even before we win 2024, all what we need is unity and the commitment to deliver Savannah for John Mahama in 2024. Let John Mahama leave a living legacy of an NDC stronghold in Savannah Region. Anything less than this, is like a story of a warrior who returns from war without his gun. 

I come in peace.

A HUMBLE CALL ON DR. ABU SAKARA TO REFLEX OVER

 By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

22/10/2022

I have been longing to sketch a call of a sort that will tickle the conscience of Dr Abu Sakara Foster to reflect over his posture and opened political commentary that suggest a silent antagonism between he and his brother, President John Mahama. I think after watching his show, “The Key Points” on TV 3 this morning, I am inclined to come forward with this call this way. 

Dr. Abu Sakara is one of Ghana’s finest academic, politician and above all, a career technocrat in Agriculture, who has seen and perhaps experienced all the stages of life at 64. Perhaps, one thing that the internet might not capture is the fact that he’s a pure Gonja royal from both the Kpembe traditional area (maternal) and the Bole traditional area (paternal).

In Kpembe, Dr. Abu Sakara is partly from Kanyase where his mother’s father takes his appellation from and maternally from Sungbun. In fact, his mother share same parents with the late Hajia Fati Jawula, former Ambassador to Denmark under John Mahama’s administration. The late Yagbonwura Doshie from the Sungbun gate is a maternal grandfather of Dr. Abu Sakara. This is what makes him a pure royal from Kpembe. His father, S.S Sakara was from Kakulase in Mankuma, a pure traditional community in the Bole traditional area where Gonjas lay their Kings (Yagbonwuras) to rest. Coincidentally, John Mahama is a grandson of Gbenfuwura Adama. So, when you see the fine academic making cogent arguments, just know that he’s doing so partly as a Gonja royal. 

Dr. Sakara, you made this comment when addressing students in UDS in November, 18, 2015, when you called out Martin Amidu at a time he was at usual height of his agenda to pull John Mahama and Northerners down. “I urge all of you to avoid stereotyping; you should never stereotype because it is the basis of prejudice that will later be applied to you and that is why I was saddened to hear the statement that has been made to suggest that because of some reasons, there will never be another northern president in the next thirty years. I think that is the most unfortunate statement.” In fact, I was proud to be associated with you as a tribesman, although, that pride is being watered down by the day, with your posture and public commentary in recent times.

In 2008, what inspired most of us from the Gonja Kingdom to get active in politics was the fact that, on that panel for the Vice Presidential debate, you sounded brilliant and convincing just like your brother, President John Dramani Mahama. Luck shined on us again in 2012 when both of you were up again as Presidential candidates on same platform. A Gonja couldn’t be any proud at the time, seeing two Presidential aspirants coming from their stock at that crucial period in our political history. It indeed played back the memories of the days of J.A Braimah from the far Eastern bloc of Gonja and E.A Mahama from the Western bloc, staging a fine political opposition in Ghana’s first republic. 

In fact, most of us were expecting you to be a principal part of the John Mahama’s administration, especially in the Agric sub-sector, not just a minister but, even as a policy advisor. It didn’t happen anyway, but in politics, we know the bulk of the work is mostly done behind the scenes. So, I, particularly thought you were doing something behind the scenes for your brother, John Mahama’s government to succeed. In the end your critical commentary and conversations about his regime, and the fact that many people saw you as one of the agents of regime change was quite disturbing. Well, anything was possible in 2016, because the NPP succeeded in brainwashing, indoctrinating and cajoling many fine stakeholders and critical voices to believe that John Mahama was indeed the devil himself. 

Doc., I had cause one time to comment on your post on Facebook when you took on John Mahama on an issue. I don’t think we as youngsters from the Gonja Kingdom are asking much from you. We are not asking you to change your party like what Edward Mahama did for the sake of Dr Bawumia; we are not asking you to run after John Mahama without your conscience simply because he’s a Gonja brother; neither are we asking you to float about with outright lies and falsehoods like what Prof Martey did to support Akufo-Addo in 2016. What we the younger ones from the Kingdom are asking you to do is to also behave just like Prof Stephen Adei and his ilk. How they played an ostensible middle class and a senior citizen role in support of Akufo-Addo. Although, we all know they were conspicuously biased and most part utterly unreasonable. At worse, just don’t openly dangle your body to suggest you are shifting your weight away from John Mahama, your brother. 

I watched you danced gleefully to the Damba tune on that day, 12th February, 2019, at the instance of President Akufo-Addo, at the Flag Staff House, when he, the President, signed the LI, creating the Savannah Region. Prior to that, we all saw your active involvement in the creation of the region and the unwavering support you gave to the government at the time. That was commendable, but I want to know, after 3 years of its creation, are you so proud of the Savannah region beyond it’s name and administrative structures? Don’t you think you should be leading the charge to call Akufo-Addo out for creating an election winning vehicle other than a development platform out of Gonjaland? Is lamentation in low tone and periodic grumbling enough to get what we deserve? 

Don’t you think it is about time you came out boldly to lead the charge for us to follow? It will be justified even if you come out boldly to support John Mahama now as things stand. After all, he was accused of packing his government with his kinsmen, which has become the pivot of this government instead. Who doesn’t know that John Mahama is the savior in waiting? I still see you once in a while, try to lump John Mahama and Akufo-Addo together as though they were one and same. Are you fair to your brother, John Mahama?

President John Mahama is your brother and he’s seeking a second coming. You are likely not to run in the next election, given that you are now leading the National Interest Movement, which is more of a movement than a political party. You are an Nkrumaist just like John Mahama. You and your brother share almost everything in common. What he expects from you in these trying times is to amplify your voice in support of his dream to come and change the very structure of the economy you envisaged. Alternatively, we expect you to stand with the masses in genuinely criticizing the current regime and seeking for a regime change just like it were in 2016.

Interestingly, one of the central point of your call over this period is constitutional amendments or a total change of the 1992 constitution. On top of John Mahama’s agenda in his second coming is to amend or change the constitution as you are currently fighting for. Don’t you think this is the moment for you to come under one shelve as brothers to work out something workable for this country? Is there something you are not telling us? 

I saw how uncomfortable you were in your body language when Lawyer Martin Kpebu went bold and raw on President Akufo-Addo on that show today. Your submission thereof sounded more of a lecture than calling out on Akufo-Addo which I think you should be doing by now. At the most part, you were engaged in blame-sharing and attempting to water down the fact that the current problem is the government’s  creation than a structural defect. You were lamenting other than criticizing. You were generalizing other than narrowing your arguments to the government. In fact, you almost fell for the exogenous factors arguments being advanced by the NPP in the wake of this economic mess we find ourselves. 

Ironically, under John Mahama, when not too close like this economic mess happened, you all watched or participated in making everything looked like it was a government problem. In fact, they made it like a John Mahama creation and not structural defects. At the time, exogenous factors were never part of any economic module. How come today, you want to justify the current self-inflicted economic hardships with an existing structural defects? The youth are watching and we are gradually picking out those who stand by us in these trying times and those who stand against us. There is no middle line in these times of tyrannical maneuvers engaged in by Akufo-Addo. Anybody who attempt to stand in the middle is against us, and that must be sounded clear and straight. 

I am not attempting to regularize or justify tribal politics, but if others did it and it’s become a fresh but acceptable convention, I think you coming home to support John Mahama cannot be described in same parenthesis and make it sound like a novel. You have to come home and support your brother. The ancestors of Gonjaland and the soul of Ndewura Jakpa will be proud to see a Gonja pulled another from a ditch and not to further his woes in that ditch. 

I grew up knowing Gonjas are bold and brave but today, you allowed Lawyer Martin Kpebu to steal the Gonja out of you on that show. You saw nothing wrong with the government and especially Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia’s style of leadership. At a point you attempted to posit that even if we changed the NPP, nothing was going to change. By extension, you don’t think John Mahama will be any alternative to Akufo-Addo and Bawumia. Was that a fair position to hand to your brother, John Mahama? 

It is time for Gonjas to accept one of their own before others will take us serious. It is becoming too heavy to bear the tag that Gonjas don’t like their own. We don’t have to show our hate against ourselves outside. We can pull the daggers in our chambers, but support each other in public. Please, come home, Dr. Abu Sakara Foster.

A HUMBLE WELCOME TO DR. BAWUMIA AS HE CAMPAIGNS IN GONJALAND.

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

8/10/20222

Good day to you, Your Excellency, Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia and your team. I wish to welcome you to Gonjaland as you craftily design a campaign in a veil of an official visit. 

Your Excellency, this message is but a reminder and largely a rehash of your FAILED PROMISES and empty sod-cutting ceremonies you and President Akufo-Addo conducted in Gonjaland (Savannah Region) since you took over the reigns of government in January 2017.

Your Excellency, I know how tough it is for you in these hard times as Ghanaians are wallowing in real economic hardships. I genuinely empathize with you, given the case that you have run down the economy with your unrealistic policies, recklessness and conspicuous incompetence, coupled with the fact that the Alan camp is using that as a scorecard to foil your Presidential ambition. In times like this, one should expect and appreciate your current posture. So, it is understood that you want to prove a point and to be seen working. Your lamentations in Northern Region is a clear testament of how frustrated you are in these times.

Mr. Vice President, I want to remind you and President Akufo-Addo of the outstanding arrears of promises and projects in Savannah Region you either cut sod for or openly promised of their timely execution amidst loud applause from our people. 

Right before the skins of the King of Gonjaland, Yagbonwura Tuntumba Boresa 1, in 2018, you, Dr Bawumia, promised that the Damongo water project was going to start that same year with a seeming unequivocal disclosure that your government had secured the funding for it. 

Following closely to this, your boss himself, President Akufo-Addo, upon a visit to the Jakpa Palace somewhere 2019, disclosed that some $49m had been secured from the UK Export Finance and Deutsche Bank AG, for the purposes of constructing a water supply system for Damongo and its environs. He ended by promising that a month after his visit, contractors will start work on 10 mechanized boreholes as a stop-gap measure while we wait for the main water project. As I write this, not even a single hand-pump borehole has been drilled to that effect. Even the existing boreholes are begging for maintenance. 

As a way of giving the people of Damongo some false hopes in order to get their votes in 2020, President Akufo-Addo who was ably supported by Hon Abu Jinapor, came to cut sod for the supposed commencement of works on the Damongo Water Project on 29th July, 2020. This program was staged at the Damongo Town Park and not the project site as it is the standard practice. And they did so without any contractor on site and no machinery to showcase as a commitment. We were told the project will take 24 months to be complete—it’s been well over 26 months without a single pipe on the ground to show for the President’s pledge. As for the subsequent fake promises made by Hon. Samuel Jinapor and his Bible quotations to back his deceit, we have lost count. 

Mr. Vice President, as a way of reminder, exactly two months after the sod-cutting for the Damongo Water project, precisely on the 24th September 2020, you came to stage another deceit of a sod-cutting for the commencement of work on the so called Savannah Regional House of Chiefs Office Complex. As I write this message, not even a single block has been laid for the said project. While cutting the sod, you indicated that your government within three years of being in office, had initiated 785 projects for Savannah Region alone and had at the time completed 630 of them. Was that supposed to be a joke or you people as usual added 12 unit KVIPs as monumental projects? 

Another disturbing deceit was staged at the 45th Gonjaland Youth Congress in Bole, specifically on the 6th of April, 2021. Mr Vice President, you looked in the faces of the chiefs and people of Gonjaland and solemnly promised that the Daboya bridge project was going to commence in August 2021. Could that be the reason you dodged the annual Gonjaland Youth Congress in Daboya, this year, 2022?

Mr Vice President, I should believe that the MP for Daboya/Mankarigu Constituency who also doubles as the Deputy Minister of Health and the DCE for the North Gonja District, will be part of your entourage to the Jakpa Palace as you campaign. I wish they will be able to tell you the truth, but in case they would not, may I beg to speak on their behalf and on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Wasipe? 

The road linking Busunu to Daboya has been partly wiped off by heavy rains and flooding from the Tachali river. In case you don’t know or forgotten, that road project was started by HE John Dramani Mahama. Your government abandoned it for almost 6 years now, leaving the people to suffer in its current state. The livelihoods of thousands of our people especially women, within that enclave have been cut at the throat without any hope in sight. 

Again, on the 3rd of February 2020, President Akufo-Addo at an event in Kpalbe, promised the good people of the East and North-East Gonja that the 138km Tamale-Salaga-Mankango road was going to be completed in 18 months beginning February 2020. If I can still remember my 2/4 maths well, it’s been 32 months now and there is no show. In fact, that road is still one of the worse roads during rainy days. Still, at the same event in Kpalbe, the President promised the people of North-East Gonja the following:

1. A District Hospital at Kpalbe in the North-East District.

2. A Senior High Scool in the North-East District.

3. A small town water project in the same District.  

Indeed, after 32 months since these specific promises were made, nothing is there to show for same. 

Note that, in the midst of these deceptions, most projects that H.E John Mahama initiated have either been abandoned or executed in a slow pace. Take note of the following projects: The 60 bed Salaga Hospital; the teacher training college in Bole; the Busunu-Daboya road project; the E-block at KPalbe in the North-East District; the Mpaha-Debre road and a host of others, have either been abandoned outright or been executed sluggishly. 

The final choking reality I wish to convey to you, Your Excellency, is the fact that the $10m Buipe Sheanut Factory with about 40,000 capacity, which was built by HE John Dramani Mahama, to add value to our Sheanuts and to give sustainable jobs to our youth, has been grounded for more than two years today without hope of revival. The irony is that, this happened at the same time that your government is trumpeting yet another directionless slogan of 1D1F. Could it be deliberate to deny the youth of Gonjaland and the North at large decent but sustainable jobs while at the same time denying our mothers who painfully pick these sheanuts, their livelihoods? 

So, Your Excellency, keep these valuable reminders in mind while you engage in your Flag bearer race campaigns. Maybe God will touch your heart to at least show some concern, although we know you are engrossed in your campaign than in governance. 

Try and visit the Vatican City of the Gonja Kingdom, Laribanga, where your masters reside before you leave. 😆. You are most welcome sir.

JOHN MAHAMA’S PROPOSED POLICY ON ILLEGAL SMALL-SCALE MINING (GALAMSEY)

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

The year 2020 which closed the Akufo-Addo first term in office, actually ended with a huge disappointment from most Ghanaians who took the words of President Akufo-Addo serious when he promised to put his presidency on the line to fight the galamsey menace. Those who knew from the very beginning that the words of the President were as usual a charade meant to create a veil for his henchmen to instead engage in and profit from galamsey, only got vindicated. 

In the end, the stories that dominated the conversation around galamsey menace at the end of 2020 were: the missing 500 excavators; ministers of state and NPP party executives from National to constituency engaged in galamsey; presidential staffers caught on video tapes taking money (bribe) to clear the way for galamsey to thrive, among others. This came on the back of about GHC 3m of our taxes spent on purchasing drones with the supposed server and monitoring device installed at the office of the President to monitor our forest reserves and water bodies. Indeed, there was no political will from President Akufo-Addo, and if there was one, it was to promote the illegal mining by chasing out ordinary poor Ghanaians and taking over their mining sites. 

In the run up to the 2020 general elections, Former President Mahama went into the election with a blue-print, covering all sectors of the economy including a three-tier mechanism for the fight against galamsey, which was strategically designed to adopt a bottom-up approach in achieving the desired results.  These were on;

1. Regulation—using policy and legislation.

2. Job creation for the youth and involving mining communities in this process. 

3. Reclamation of lands and afforestation—clean mining activities. 

By regulation, President Mahama proposed in the People’s Manifesto, 2020, page 58, item 6.13.2.2, paragraph (i) to: establish a National Mining and Forestry Initiative to help tackle illegal logging and illegal mining (galamsey). Also, on page 59 of the People’s manifesto, specifically item 6.13.2.3 provides in paragraph (g) to: promote environmentally friendly small-scale and community mining operations. In paragraph (h) to: ensure that licensed small-scale mining companies operate strictly in accordance with improved operational procedures to minimize negative environmental impacts. Note that, President John Mahama in December 2015 caused for section 99 of the Minerals and Mining Act,  (Act 703) to be amended to attach punitive measures to illegal mining (galamsey) activities.  

On the issue of job creation, President Mahama’s people’s manifesto on item 6.13.2.3 with specific reference to paragraphs (b) and (d) provide respectively to;

(b) establish mini-processing plants in strategic mining locations to support and improve metallurgical recovery of mined ore, leading to increased revenue generation. This will ensure job creation through the value-chain. And paragraph (d) suggest; to promote legal and properly regulated and operated medium and small-scale mining to become attractive and well-paid business ventures, creating jobs for the youth.

The last of the three tier approach was to reclaim the lands and water bodies destroyed by the activities of small scale mining. On this, page 59, item (i) proposed to: “encourage chiefs in mining areas to take an interest in community mining processes to ensure that the environment is preserved, and local communities benefit from the revenue.” This bottom-up approach is effective to the extent that each stakeholder is given a responsibility to play insofar as the protection of the environment is concerned. 

Also, paragraph (m) on the page 59 of the 2020 manifesto, President Mahama proposed to review the structure of the Mineral Development Fund to ensure that mining

communities benefit from social responsibility practices. This will ensure the mining communities directly benefit from the proceeds of mining activities so as to ensure an all inclusive mechanism in the protection of the environment. This will motivate key stakeholders to get involved in clamping down all illegal mining activities since the proceeds of mining activities will ultimately benefit them. 

Suffice this to say that, President Mahama had and still has an all inclusive, bottom-up, practical strategy to tackle the galamsey menace while ensuring job creation and value-addition to our mineral resources. 

I was shocked to hear that a meeting was  organized today, 5th October, 2022, by President Akufo-Addo with the National House of Chiefs to create yet another opportunity to clear and absolve himself from blame while pushing responsibility on the chiefs and other stakeholders who have no social contract with the people of Ghana. As usual, he did so with alacrity and tact. 

Finally, I wish to state that the President has an ultimate responsibility to safeguard our environment. Also the President holds the mineral resources of Ghana in trust on our behalf. The 1992 constitution of Ghana in article 257(6) provides, “every mineral in its natural state in, under or upon any 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.” So, President Nana Akufo-Addo should for once accept responsibility for this mess created by his own hands and take measures to curb same. If not, he should give way for President Mahama who has the POLITICAL WILL to come and fix the mess.