It is high time; we as a nation assess the involvement of Chinese nationals in Illegal mining, known as galamsey and not pretend the issue will go away, as suddenly as it has come.
Our people were doing small scale mining, before the Chinese nationals came into the country and introduced them into industrial galamsey, with the use sophisticated equipments.
A picture making the rounds on social media, showing Yam produced in China and exported to the United Kingdom, should prick the conscience of our leaders, as well as the lead.
Not too long ago, there was another report of China, producing cocoa, a commodity which is the number export earner for this country.
The Information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, recently warned that, Ghana might soon not be able to export cocoa or coffee to some international markets.
According to Oppong Nkrumah, the ban might happen because of a new legislation in Europe.
Explaining further, in a post he shared on facebook , he stated that “In Europe, there is a new legislation that could soon make Ghanaian cocoa and coffee unexportable to many international markets.
“The Ghana Embassy in Belgium under the leadership of Ambassador Sena Boateng has moved swiftly to bring this to the attention of the Government of Ghana. It has also commenced work on realigning Ghanaian and European interests in cocoa and coffee”.
They is a deliberate effort by China, through its citizens with local collaborators to destroy our water bodies and forest through the activities of galamsey, so we can add our local delicacies to the items we import from that country.
Already, Ghana is criminally dependent on import from China, to add yam to the list will be tantamount to suicide.
The effect of the country’s food reserves is being felt now more than ever by the populace as a result of escalating food prices.
It is more of a domino effect that is traceable to galamsey and Coronavirus pandemic and now worsened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ghana, must treat this issue serious, if it is found out that, China has started producing yam.
This newspaper is persuaded by this dire situation to appeal to the government to treat the issue of galamsey seriously, so that the country can avoid famine. It is time for the nation to be proactive and take timely measures to avert what seems an impending cataclysm.
