Manasseh Azure Awuni: An open letter to Organize Labour

Dear Organised Labour,

I write to first thank you for waking up from your sleep after so many years of allowing the politicians to have their way. Your recent campaign against the sale of SSNIT hotels shows that your failure to act when it matters makes you accomplices of the political crimes Ghanaians have been subjected to over the years.

I am writing to you about your recent threat to strike on October 10 if the government doesn’t stop the illegal mining activities. These are my observations and humble request:

1. This is a political season, and the government does not want to touch the issue of illegal mining for fear of losing votes to the opposition NDC. The government values the votes of illegal miners more than the lives they are destroying by polluting water bodies, depleting forest reserves and erasing farmlands from the surface of the earth.
2. I am not that old but I’ve lived long enough to remember when Akufo-Addo had hair on his head. I also lived through the Mahama era as a journalist. I can say that the NDC does not deserve any political advantage from the “galamsey” fight. In the Mahama era, the government failed to fight galamsey. In fact, when the fight was gaining momentum, the government withdrew the security personnel and it went from bad to worse. That’s why Akufo-Addo was confronted with the menace as soon as he took power in 2017. Galamsey didn’t start in 2017.
3. If the NDC government under Mahama failed to fight illegal mining, Akufo-Addo’s administration legalised it. In addition to the law that allowed politicians and cronies of the Akufo-Addo administration to mine in forest reserves, the government indiscriminately issued licenses to dubious persons and companies to undertake so-called small-scale mining, which is galamsey in reality.
4. These licensed small-scale miners are not different from the galamsey operators. In some cases, they are worse because they have the resources to buy heavy equipment, and their scale of destruction has been massive. The institutions of state that are supposed to supervise and ensure that they comply with best practices have turned away and allowed the politicians to have their way with our forests and water bodies.
5. I have seen many politicians in the governing party say that the government will not heed your call to tackle the issue of illegal mining. Some have annoyingly said that banning or suspending mining will not solve the problem. Others have also attributed your fight to instigation by the opposition NDC as if you are dimwits who cannot reason for yourself, who cannot see the photos and videos of polluted rivers and destroyed farmlands. The latest I have heard is a plea from the president that you reconsider your intention to strike.
6. My humble appeal to you is this: you will be letting those of us who have started to believe in you down if you fail to act on galamsey. Ours is not a democracy. We only queue to elect some people and empower them to do whatever they want without consequences. If, for the first time, you have the power to call the politicians to order and you fail, history will not remember you kindly. Some are even alleging that your ranks have been compromised. Don’t let your nation down.
7. I have said that the NDC does not deserve the political advantage of your strike or the government’s actions on galamsey at this crucial moment, but political considerations should not stop you from acting decisively to save our nation and its water bodies. Politics should not stop you from doing what is right. Besides, labour agitations have always benefitted one political party or the other. When your agitations caused sitting President Mahama to declare himself a “dead goat,” it became the NPP’s slogan in the next election.
8. The most essential point to consider if you’re worried about the political implications of your action should be this: the illegal mining menace did not begin in the election year of 2024. There were agitations as far back as 2017 from the Media Coalition Against Illegal Mining. If the government has refused or failed to resolve the problem, then you should not care about the political effect of your actions on that governing party. If Akufo-Addo had resolved the problem, his people would not have been here talking about the political risks of acting now. We should not allow the government to prioritise votes over our survival as a nation.
9. The government does not want to touch the illegal miners because it fears losing the next election. Yours is to show the government that if hospitals, schools and key sectors of the economy stop working from now until December 7, the government cannot win the election. So Akufo-Addo should choose between solving galamsey and risking the election or allowing your strike and risking the election.
10. The promise to revoke the LI that allowed mining in forest reserves is not good enough. The forest reserves have already been defiled, and some have been depleted. And the legal process will drag on until after the election. YOU MUST STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS STILL HOT. They won’t listen to you after December 7.
11. Insist on the suspension of all mining activities, except the large-scale miners like Newmont, and AngloGold, which are complying with international best practices and not polluting the waters, farmlands and forests. If you have evidence that a large-scale mining company is involved in a galamsey-like operation, it must be added to your list.
12. Your fight should not stop after the election. Some of us have very little trust in the opposition NDC’s resolve to fight the menace. Some of their members are patiently waiting for their turn to get the licenses and go into the forests to cause the havoc we face now. Demand commitments from all the candidates going into the election and hold the balls of whoever wins on December 7 to address this deadly problem.

Finally, I want to congratulate your leadership and let you know that Ghanaians are watching keenly. You have a unique opportunity to bring some semblance of sanity back to a nation ruined by greed and stupidity. They have resorted to targeting protestors and silencing voices of descent. You are our last resort in this quagmire of hopelessness.

Do not fail us, TUC.

Yours sincerely,
Manasseh Azure Awuni.

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM