A dent in a pyramid’s wall is unfelt until its pinnacle is hit.

Our Egyptian ancestors built pyramids of stone to bury their kings

Sikaman builds a pyramid of bodies to keep Sikakokoo

Little did she know until bigger bodies crumbled.

A black Wednesday indeed.

Many of such days have gone unnoticed,

The nation has not been shaken so much by illegal mining.

Beneath our eight men are thousands,

Also killed by illegal mining/galamsey.

Condolences poured in from all over.

Why will I not offer a holy Mass for these state functionaries?

Pain wrenches my heart:

Only sons, husbands, bread-winners, nation-builders!

A catastrophic perish without the slightest glimpse.

Nevertheless, I feel guilty of ignored requiems:

School children perished in galamsey pits,

Policemen drowned in galamsey pits,

Military men lynched in galamsey mission;

Noble women collapsed for dispossessed land,

Gallant youth buried alive in galamsey caves.

Yet, euphoric people are over-carried by emotion;

Reality must be faced;

Are we angry enough at this nation-wrecker?

Call it galamsey, illegal mining, cooperative mining;

The value is the same!

Masking the Devil doesn’t change its nature.

Permutating the numbers does not change the numerals;

Dressing the monkey does not take of its tail.

Important are content, intention, and interest.

Good reasons are not always the real reason.

Galamsey is a homicider, ecocider, a criminal against mother earth!

Would the world hear the cry of fauna and flora galamsey devours;

Unparalleled unemployment it causes;

The rural poor despoiled and left poorer;

Fruit bearing cocoa trees cut and uprooted.

No more fresh river water,

No more arable lands,

No more school going for the youth.

Yet, more kidney diseases and malformed babies.

Open pits to swallow more lives.

The world will bemoan Ghana more if they knew;

Yes, the list of galamsey genocide in Ghana;

Yes, the scale of devastated forest;

Yes, the number of birds and animals dead and gone waste.

We only need to be angry enough at galamsey:

Amassing gold at the peril of a nation!

Till now we seem not to grasp the immensity of the problem.

Hence, we keep on masking it:

New acronyms, new slogans.

Albeit, same contents and intentions;

Pretending to tame a lion with our bare hands.

Yet we have the best legislation;

Let them be implemented to the last letter.

And we will not kill our nation builders;

No more dying of unknown heroes;

No more virtual killing of Presidents and Party Chairpersons.

By the way, could any of our consolers have shed crocodile tears?

Who will not ridicule such logic?

For gold, they poison their waters;

For gold, they destroy their farmlands;

For gold, they decimate the ecosystem;

What a Midas touch! And wisdom indeed!