Yesterday, in 2024, a circuit court in Accra granted the wishes of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, remanding into police and prison custody innocent Ghanaians for demonstrating in support of calls to stop galamsey.
This is an abuse of the human rights of these Ghanaians for simply expressing themselves through a demonstration against the devastating impact of galamsey.
One is not sure why the many arrests, including an older woman and her granddaughter who joined the protestors with a bottle of water fetched from one of the contaminated river bodies.
Also arrested was activist Felicity Nelson, who, like many other bold and public-spirited young men and women, believes that the government must rise to its responsibilities to tackle the galamsey menace.
Without a doubt, many Ghanaians and the international community are aware of heavy official complicity in the devastating galamsey menace, with reports of many officials and supporters of the ruling NPP involved in illegal mining activities, including in forest zones and along the river bodies.
That is why the government will not act, and President Akufo-Addo and his Bawumia are not bothered and will set the police and the courts on innocent young Ghanaians.
Therefore, the court’s action and the police arrests are, sadly, to be expected. The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government does not want images of mass protests on the streets, especially as we are a few months before the polls.
They have seen the polls, they understand and see the anger, but they will continue like business as usual in the hope of hoodwinking the nation that they maintain some level of popular support.
Of course, they need this mirage to convince decision-makers, opinion-shapers, and the voting public to back them as their campaign struggles. But will Ghanaians, especially the youth they take so much for granted, forgive them for these acts?
They are afraid of the people. They fear the reaction of the angry and unemployed youth at the polls. The determination of young Ghanaian voters to express themselves at the poll remains their biggest threat. They want to silence us on the streets and silence our vote on December 7th. But that won’t work this time around.
We won’t be silenced. The good people of this country must redouble our efforts to ensure that a government that is scared of the people and works against its interests is not allowed another four years.
Our voices must be and will be heard on December 7th. We must come out in such large numbers that no amount of ‘dead voters’, missing names and stuffed ballot boxes will make a difference.
Ghana desperately needs a government that works for and with the people, not against it. Ghana needs a government that is not scared of the people’s voice but will listen to it and work with civil society to solve our nation’s challenges.
Rather than stop us from exercising our democratic rights, these anti-freedom actions by Akufo-Addo and Bawumia should convince you to look harder at their failures and break through the carefully curated public relations visage they have created.
They have failed miserably in almost every arena, and rather than listen to the voice of the people, they hide behind the police and the courts.
They will be remembered on December 7th for this alone. We will vote against the NPP, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia. We will vote for John Mahama.
Our nation cannot afford a government that is scared of its people.
Our voice and our vote still matter, and we will use them.
By Joyce Bawah Mogtari.
Private Legal Practitioner & Spokesperson, Mahama 2024 Campaign.
