Editorial

Anti-development acts must be ended!

A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, has expressed concern about why Ghanaians cannot unite as people of one voice to fight ‘evils’ that threaten the future of the country.

 He has made a particular reference to galamsey, stressing that it is very sad to see the rate of land degradation in this country due to that illegal activity.
He expresses wonder concerning how future generations would survive in the country and calls for something to be done urgently to curb the unbridled destruction of lands and the treasured environment.

He adds that Ghana would remain the ultimate loser if the citizenry did not come together to defeat perpetrators of conducts that are not in the interest of national development.

He expresses the wish to see the whole nation giving President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the fullest support to put an end to galamsey.

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In fact, Prof. Owusu is reiterating sentiments or concerns of other good and worried Ghanaians.

The talk about galamsey and other evils being perpetrated and perpetuated in the country must not be entertained till the needful is done and sanity is experienced.

It has become somewhat mundane and boring, so others think such a conversation is a waste of time because it appears those who should act have refused to do so.

The question is who are those to act? Government, security agencies, other state institutions and some particular individuals or groups only?

Anyone within the walls of the country is not exempt from the war on the anti-progress activities in the country because everyone witnesses one evil or another.           Just giving information about such evils to the security agencies or even community leaders is enough contribution to the war.

But, of course, there are some institutions, state officials, and certain personalities like chiefs who must accept that they have greater responsibility in the war on illegalities in the country.

The refusal of these institutions and personalities of clout to live up to such responsibility renders others powerless and unmotivated to join the war and this is a recipe for perpetuity of these evils benefiting only a few people.

Is it not sad that chiefs on whose land galamsey is taking place do not want to be associated with the illegality?

Incidents like the missing of chanfangs and complicity of state officials and security personnel in it; bribery involving members of the task force deployed to fight galamsey; other issues like who permitted who to do galamsey and the seeming refusal of the state to go to the bottom of such incidents are examples of acts against efforts to uproot evil from the country.

Another problem is when some people step in to prevent justice or prosecution by way of pleading for evildoers to be let off the hook.

What about the situation where some politicians undermine the good intentions of their opponents by inciting the citizenry against certain state orders?

The conversation about the evils in the country must be sustained because it can cause some change one day.

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