I couldn’t help literally guffawing until I fell off my chair and nearly cracked the screen of my laptop. It well appears that having been caught, literally, with his pants down, hung and all, in what has globally infamously become known as the “Agradaa Dollar-Splurging Affair,” the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod, so-called), Mr. Samuel “Sammy” Gyamfi, and his kleptocratic gang of the state-capturing leadership of the John “The Brazil Embraer Caper” Dramani Mahama-led 2.0 regime have strategically and suavely decided that throwing dust into the eye of Ghanaians who may not be politically sophisticated enough to readily read between the proverbial lines, is the best way to draw some of the unwanted negative publicity from the 38-year-old recent graduate of the Makola-based Ghana Law School, by cheaply and bogusly hoodwinking Ghanaian citizens and taxpayers into believing that, indeed, their beloved mineral-rich country is off to a brilliant and an auspicious start to thoroughly weaning itself of the vampiric apron strings of the much-maligned Bretton-Woods establishments of The World Bank (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development – IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Recently, at a so-called Mining-In-Motion Summit held in Ghana’s capital of Accra, the former National Propaganda Officer of Ghana’s ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), presently redesignated as the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, had the chutzpah and to tell the nation that just within the four-month period frown February to the end of May this year alone, the so-called Mahama-constituted Ghana Gold Board earned the humongous sum of $4 billion (USD) in fiscal reserves for the nation’s Central Treasury, the Bank of Ghana (See “GoldBod’s $4bn Breakthrough Validates Mahama’s Vision for Mining Sector – Sammy Gyamfi” GhanaWebbers.com 6/3/25).
Now, we know this to be a whole cloth of mendacity because this patently bogus “proclamation” comes at about the same time that the National Democratic Congress-dominated Ghana’s Parliament has voted to raise the price of fuel or gasoline by GH¢1 (One Ghana Cedi), under the pretext of facilitating the significant reduction in massive debts owed and inherited from the previous Akufo-Addo Administration by the Mahama 2.0 government to energy producers and suppliers in the country,
As of this writing, an official announcement had been issued by the Minister of Energy, Mr. John Abu Jinapor, to the predictable and the long-anticipated effect that with the scandalous return of the twice nonconsecutively elected President John “Ford Expedition Payola” Dramani Mahama to the helm of the country’s affairs, the catastrophic blight and canker of “Dumsor” – that is, the perennially erratic supply of energy or electricity – was back in full force and with unprecedented vengeance. As well, as of this writing, at least some four or five of the country’s 16 administrative regions were experiencing a total or periodically scheduled alternating blackouts of the kind that became standard fare during the eight-year two consecutive tenures of the late President Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings. So, it absolutely goes without saying that it is anybody’s good guess whether, indeed, the Sammy Gyamfi declared $4billion (USD) exponential increment in Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves was making any significant difference in the quality of the lives of the overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian people.
Then also, in the skeptical opinion of environmental activists and scholars, balanced against the massive and the untold havoc that small-scale artisanal mining is fast and steadily wreaking on the water-bodies and the forestry and other natural resources of the country, the Sammy Gyamfi-alleged $4billion (USD) foreign exchange reserves added to the collective wealth of the country is absolutely nothing worth proverbially writing or speaking about. This observation is further accentuated and afforded credence by the fact that just recently, President Mahama was heard on multicast media channels and forums and platforms seriously warning Ghanaians against any politically and strategically unwise attempt to drastically put the kibosh on the environmentally predatory and the existentially genocidal activities of the Galamsey industry.
What is even more damning is the fact that even fanatical and diehard National Democratic Congress’ hacks and stalwarts like Mr. Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the Oxbridge-educated co-founder and lead convener of the NDC-sponsored FixTheCountry Movement, has gone on public record as bitterly complaining that President Mahama does not seem to be half-serious about stemming the unspeakably destructive tide of Galamsey ravaging the country. The Bole-Bamboi native, from the Akufo-Addo-created Savannah Region, has himself inflamed matters and passions by nonchalantly suggesting that any attempt to stanch or put an end to the deadly and the predatory activities of the Galamsey industry is highly likely to cause a seismic disaffection for his government.
Which, simply put, eerily means that Mr. Mahama would rather have his countrymen and women literally commit mass suicide than have himself and his associates and cronies among the vanguard ranks of the leadership of the National Democratic Congress lose their desperate grips on power. This is where matters presently stand in the country, Dear Reader. In short, it is inescapably between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]
