Where are the Nkrumahs, the Mugabes and Gadafis of our generation ? (The menace of galamsey in Ghana)

Sometimes I am tempted to believe the Israelites taken in captivity were Africans, or by living in Egypt, they became Africans.

No matter what you do for them, they are concerned about this moment, not before or after. As the Israelites did, after all the miracles and the assurances proved by their God, they always considered their survival at the moment.

Most Africans believe in themselves and their today since tomorrow will always think about itself, and tomorrow never comes. A former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, once said, “Ghanaians have a short memory”. This is his experience of their concern for today, not yesterday or tomorrow.

Our generation blames the Whites for the transatlantic slave trade and thinks that lack of education (illiteracy) made our forefathers engage in such barbaric acts. We see it as ignorance by our forefathers to sacrifice their own for short-term and immediate benefit, which had no future benefits to the generations unborn.

We saw them as selfish and insensitive, especially our leaders, who happened to be the chiefs at the time. To give your treasures and sacrifice your youth through slavery on the platform of wine, gunpowder, and canned foods was a nonstarter and the destruction of the future.

Today, what do we see?

In my country Ghana, as the Whites came into the Gold Coast with the motive of evangelism, so have they come today with the explanation of Aid and assistance, but the result of both generations are the same and even worse today, where we believe we have the needed education which was lacking during the era of the Gold Coast. Before now, we were an agrarian built economy in which Cocoa was our most exported commodity, as we were the second highest exporter of cocoa beans in the world market.

We plant what we consume; we fish from the waters and rear all the animals we need for food. Before now, bush meat was available on the street everywhere and in every region. Before now, neighbouring countries got their food support from Ghana, and before now, we were still Gold Coast and a forest zone with all kinds of trees (Their Rose Woods). Ghana was the Garden of Eden of Africa with all the natural resources, including oil.

Ignorance is Expensive, but education in the hands of an ignorant person (A person who has education but doesn’t know how and what to do with it) is death. Why will a person who wants to steal from you bring you education, and what intelligence will he give you? Will it not be to his benefit? Why will they not learn our language but seek to unite us on their platform of language? Why will they give you an education as its backbone, practical products that can make you competitive on the global market instead of theoretical aspects that can only train you to be a good labourer and a supporting workforce to do what you are told? We are faced with extinction today but see it as intelligence.

The missionaries came with Bibles, but beneath the Church were the dungeons, yet our fathers could not see. Today, I ask, how can you negotiate better with somebody in or speaking his language? Can you ever be more intelligent than the person who taught you how smartness is? No enslaved person is ever more significant than the master. We have now been thoroughly colonised by their language and occupied by their branded education.

As the Chiefs were whitewashed to take the little and hand over the lot, so have our few leaders. Branded in the culture of the colonial masters as politicians, they wholeheartedly take kickbacks and offer the valuables of the entire nation to foreigners. Now this is the order of the day as Africans are now branded as “Give them money and they will sell the Land and the people to you”, as compared to the former generation who were branded as “Give them Guns, and they will kill themselves, and you will have your way”, as leaders in Africa negotiate, not having in mind the interest of the majority of their people at heart, but what they stand to gain. With this mentality, our colonial masters spend little but have gained a lot in this era of excellent education.

I cry out today, where are the Moses’, where are the Nkrumahs, where are the Gadafis, where are the Mugabes?

‘Jesus Christ came to his own, but his own received him not’, so did these leaders come from among us, but we could not fathom their essence in leadership. Why should we be robbed before our very eyes? Why should we sit down unconcerned and helpless to watch our leaders sell us out for their selfish gains? Why should we be silenced while some few of us take us for ransom and make us into tools to serve them because of lack?

‘Galamsey’ (small-scale illegal Mining) has been the work of the people from Adam. Still, it had no considerable negative impact on the environment because it was done with primitive tools on a low scale. Another ‘missionary’ came to Ghana in a bilateral relationship seeking to support Ghana and hoping to seek similar support from Ghana. These missionaries are engaged in road construction (Sino Hydro Projects) in the country. But on the other hand, they have produced, imported and sold machines to the local people and engaged in mechanised galamsey with its accompanying chemical pollution.

We have been enslaved because of our selfish desires to think only about what we get today and the standard silencer of kickbacks that sum up to just a little of what they take from us
.
Today, the educated generation has silently handed over their right to their Eden to the missionaries’ friends and brothers Under their so-called assistance, dungeons are created by these same missionary teams.

Because of their education, our hands are tied with contracts, agreements and diplomacy. They have brainwashed us to be toothless and intelligently ignorant. Our rivers have become mud pools; our green lands gradually turn into deserts. Drinking water is now not a free commodity of nature as it must be dug and bottled or sachet, which is expensive and somebody’s business. Our Lands are polluted, our foods are not purely organic anymore, and very soon, the only air we breathe for free will be plagued.

Our pride, our Cocoa, is now being researched for traces of metal and our minerals are being mined and used as collaterals without recourse to tomorrow. Considering the menace of the galamsey, farmers are sacrificing their lands for illegal mining, which will erode the benefits of Cocoa farming in the long run. Conversely, the Chinese have now learnt how to grow cocoa. They are ensuring its extinction and now are exporting cocoa from China and claiming theirs are the best.

Where are the Nkrumahs who will say NO to this formal slavery? Where are the Gadafis who will stand up to these people and say enough is enough, and where are the Mugabes who will at least speak up?

Who benefits when there is no more potable water? Who helps when all the fishes and other species are extinct? Who benefits when there are no Tomatoes, Okro, Onion, Yam, and other food crops in the country? Who is the ultimate beneficiary when our Eden turns into the desert? How pathetic that Ghana imports food from Burkina Faso?

The intelligent fools may think they are the direct beneficiaries, as they will have the ability to import all that they destroyed locally into the country to amass wealth from their people but forget the fact that these missionaries are the producers and the exporters, thus the leading suppliers of the very things they came to take from us. You may be the highest importer of eggs in the country, and hence you may not want local poultry farmers to thrive.

You may be the highest importer of Fish and, therefore, would not wish as a government to support local fisheries. You may be the highest importer of tomatoes. You hence will not make farming tomatoes yield the desired price for farmers forcing them to shun tomato farming, among others, but remember that as you starve your people, you end up enriching other nationals, and posterity will judge you. People are quiet, technocrats are afraid to talk, and everyone fears ridicule, but we should all bear in mind that a day is fast approaching when these people will import water available everywhere for us to live on. Ghana Water is complaining, but for now, you have dugouts, but a day is coming when the mercury will catch up with you.

I cry again; where are the Nkrumahs who will say NO to this formal slavery? Where are the Gadafis who will stand up to these people and say enough is enough, and where are the Mugabes who will at least speak up?

What will posterity say about us? Will the generation after us come to see our Eden or merely read it in books? Will they blame the missionaries for enslaving us, running us dry, and wanting to seek compensation? Why don’t we speak up? Why don’t we cause a change? Why won’t you let our leaders hear us?

Are you the Next Nkrumah, Gaddafi or Mugabe? Let your voice be heard, and posterity will understand you did your part.