Galamsey: Is This How You Swore to Defend Ghana?; Manasseh Azure to Mahama
Investigative journalist Manasseh Awuni Azure has questioned President John Dramani Mahama’s government’s commitment to defending the country, particularly against the destruction of its natural resources by foreign illegal miners.
“Mr. President is this how you swore to defend this country?” he quizzed in a Facebook post reacting to the government’s decision not to prosecute but deport foreign nationals found engaged in the menace.”
The journalist recalled how data he requested from the Ghana Prisons Service in 2021 revealed that only one Chinese national was in the country’s prisons despite the hundreds of Chinese who were arrested for illegal mining years and months preceding the request.
Meanwhile, the data showed several African nationals in Ghanaian prisons, he said.
“At the same time, hundreds of Ghanaians, Nigerians, Burkinabes, and other Africans were serving jail terms for illegal mining. In one instance reported in the news, the judge ordered that after serving their jail terms for illegal mining, the Nigerians jailed 20 years each should be deported.”
From this experience, he concluded that “foreigners” as used by the government meant Chinese and other Western nationals.
“The Minister of Interior recently said 107 foreigners had been “repatriated” for engaging in illegal miners and fraudulent activities. The government has also confirmed that instead of prosecuting the foreigners, they would be repatriated.
“Even though the government uses the term foreigners, Nigerians who commit crimes in Ghana are often arrested and prosecuted. But the Chinese who engaged in the destruction of our forests and water bodies and flout our laws are allowed to go back home and enjoy the wealth they make here.”
Manasseh calls this act by the government racism.
“If this happened elsewhere, we would call it racism, but this is happening in Ghana. If you jail a Nigerian for 20 years for illegal mining and ask his Chinese counterpart to go home in peace, what should we call that?”
He firmly believes that Ghanaians who commit the same crime in China face harsher punishment and deportation, unlike Ghana.
“If Ghanaians did this in China, would they get away with it, especially when the government has confirmed that illegal mining is a threat to our national security?”
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
