I do not believe that we have a credible CSO community in Ghana. They have time to comment and make a case on the KIA name change at a time that we are all confronted with existential threat of GALAMSEY.

I know they will say they have made enough noise on GALAMSEY. Nope! It’s been empty noise full of political patronage.

An active CSO intervention achieves results; not press conferences. They push and say truth to power and not bow to gimmicks in the name of GALAMSEY fight. Where is the evidence of any success in the fight? Yet our CSOs are busy touting contributions to the change of the name of the airport.

Where are the Peace Council, National House of Chiefs, National Development Planning Commission, Pastors, Imams and our Independent CSOs???

Whenever I listen to Erastus Asare Donkor, who is perhaps the only credible voice left in the GALAMSEY discussions, I cringe.

How can we be toying with our present and future and our leaders are focused on how much Gold we exported and the revenues that accrued to the country last year? What will increased Gold revenues do if half of the population is threatened with heightened chronic and acute diseases resulting from the extraction of Gold? Will the growth in Dollars raise the DEAD?

We must put our hands to the plough and raise our voices to the obvious dangers of GALAMSEY without ceasing. And here, I commend the Managers of The Multimedia Group for the demonstration of leadership in developmental journalism.

Politicians are good at coining jargons that achieve next to nothing:

1. Operation Vanguard
2. Ministerial Ad-Committee on Illegal mining
3. IGPs Special Anti-Illegal Mining Task Force
4. Regional Anti-Illegal Mining Taskforce
5. Blue Water Guards
6. Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM)
7. Operation Halt Galamsey
8. Galamstop Taskforce
9. National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS)
10. Western North Special Taskforce on GALAMSEY
11. Etc

I’m not sure there has been any national epidemic that has received this level of Complete Non-performance and a waste of the taxpayers' money like we have done on GALAMSEY.

How can we have this number of Taskforce to tackle one problem and fail woefully? Except to say that they were and continue to be Political creations to send a message of attention to the phenomenon without real intent to achieve any positive outcome.

My take!

#CitizensMustRiseAgainstGalamsey

#FreshNewDeals

---

The author, John Awuah, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB).