When I stood at the New Polo Ground in Accra as midnight struck on March 5, 1957, I was there as a junior reporter. And, as luck would have it, I was within earshot of our Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as he whispered to one of his lieutenants, Mr. Krobo Edusei, in Twi: “Bepae ma me!” (Come and do the opening salutation for me!)

And I next heard Krobo Edusei (who had a strong voice) yell with all the delight and vigour at his command: “CHOOOOOBOI!”... “CHOOOOOBOI!”.

The intoxication had begun! The crowd of hundreds of thousands responded to Mr. Edusei’s greeting by shouting back, "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!.....…../EEEEEEEEEI!"

It was as if one million voices had transmogrified into one voice. So euphoric was everyone at the Polo Ground that, although I had a press pass around my neck, no one bothered to look at it to see whether it was authentic. All I needed to tell the police officers near the special dais on which Dr. Nkrumah and the other CPP leaders stood was, “Reporter!” They parted ways to give me immediate access.

For they were intelligent enough to realise that something had changed within Ghanaians and that no one would think of hurting another Ghanaian, especially our "heroic" independence leaders, on that unique night of freedom.

In those days, Ghana was a country where people really understood issues. The police were there to prevent harm being done to our leaders, not to bully anyone and show them “where power lies.”. When I see journalists in independent Ghana at work, I remember that night. Why have they become so meek?

On March 6, 1957, those of us at the place would demand to be allowed to do our duty of reporting what we witnessed, no matter who tried to stand in our way. Society respected us. And we, in turn, respected society. We were prepared to serve our fellow citizens by telling them the truth with all our skills and all our strength.

We realised what media power was: after all, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was a journalist—the first founding editor of The Accra Evening News! Would there ever have been a “Ghana” had The Accra Evening News not existed? Had Dr. Nkrumah not been imprisoned for writing the truth about colonial rule? Everyone who knew Ghana’s history at the time knew the answer to that question. The British, who were about to relinquish power to us, also knew the answer! You should have seen how they fawned on "The Prison Graduates" of the CPP that night!

I would not have believed, seeing that crowd exuding the power they knew they wielded, that their chiefs, whose predecessors had competently and courageously organized their people to resist foreign invasion after foreign invasion—in a solid resistance against superior weapons, sometimes led in warfare by their women! (who can forget the name of Yaa Asantewaa?)

This society of honour and valour has today become a collection centre for unearned wealth and false values. Who would have thought that Ghanaians would sit down and expect a "Central Government" to be the body to try and beat off the gangs of local and Chinese ‘galamsey’ gold-digger fortune-seekers, to use ‘toh-toh-toh-toh” machines, bulldozers, and excavators to dig for gold in the riverbeds, from which comes the water that their fellow human beings need to drink in order to survive?

Did not our forefathers dig so much gold that our country was renamed the “Gold Coast" by the European marauders?

Did those ancestors destroy a single river or stream that enabled them to exist while digging up the gold that made "the Gold Coast" rich in those days? Today, we are at existential risk, exchanging the water that gives us life for "Dubai Blink"!

Only 67 years from March 6, 1957, and we've come to this?

What on earth has happened so that today we are in the hands of people who flagrantly flourish paper qualifications, but who don’t care a fig about the survival of their fellow citizens and the offspring they are busily breeding? Is it to be more of the same? Make money by destroying Ghana's forests (including “forest reserves!) and waterbodies, and then use the money obtained from gold to seek political power. And then recycle that obnoxious policy all over again?

We watch them do it. Our ancestors would have killed them BY MERELY SHAMING THEM IN PUBLIC!

But modern power brokers take the share of the clean-shaven shareholders, rope in the proceeds of corruption, and then march to church to thank the Almighty for His bounty! No shame! There is no reckoning with climate change. Kill the rivers and give the future to God!

They confidently look away when confronted with their genetic crimes.

Is this the country whose people used ancient “Kyirem” [Asafo]?

formations to prevent their cocoa trees from being cut down, even for such a “good purpose” as to fight against ”swollen shoot” disease?

Is this the nation in which the sounding of the gong-gong and the drum used to alert men and get them to flock into the bush to look for women who had disappeared (believed to have been raped and killed by highwaymen)?

Where are the men who used to organise night-time patrols to deter burglars from attempting to rob their towns and villages?

What has happened to the spirit that once reigned at "Aboabo" in Kumase?

Where are the Amantuor-Mmiensa of Akyem Abuakwa?

Where are the "Kyirem Asafo"—with their picturesque flags—that taught valour and native wisdom to the young men of the Western and Central Regions and inspired them to go and look for leopards to catch alive in the bush? And failing that, to catch deer alive—again, with their bare hands—and bring them to their chief in Winneba town?

No, I would never have believed that our people would all be sitting down and watching these rivers die. Birem, Densu, Offin, Ankobra Prah, Tanoh, Twafuor, Supong, and many others.

They are all at risk of dying completely. One brilliant TV journalist who made a film about the galamsey/water destruction tragedy wrote in heartbreaking terms about the lack of concern in the country over the tragic situation:

Quote: “After our documentary [ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6qaiPSbZsQ] was aired, some big men visited some of the areas where we had shown illegal mining activity to be on the rise... But galamsey is still taking place in various areas, including Twifo Praso, Bempong Agya, Appiah Nkwanta, Kyekyewere, Diaso, Bawdie, and Dunkwa-on-Offin.” – UNQUOTE

(See more: http://newafricanmagazine.com/ghana-murky-world-galamsey/#sthash.cR4X48KE.dpuf )

NO! On March 6, 1957, I would never have believed it if anyone had told me that Ghanaians wouldn't be able to preserve their own people's lives and property. When foreign rule ended, that colonial rule left our rivers alone while we were killing them!

And I cry.

And I cry.

And I cry.