As June trudged into July 2026 like a drunkard walking in a quagmire, past painful memories were evoked, as new pains also made their entries.Language Resources
On Monday, June 29, the heavens opened and rain fell like it had never since 1995, with the fury of Jehu riding his horse.
Accra was submerged, with 13 dead and seven unaccounted for, as the president said on July 3, 2026. Earlier, Samreboi was also submerged, the direct result of the Tano River being blocked by “galamseyers,” according to a government official.
On Tuesday, June 30, 2026, a Thanksgiving Service was held to commemorate the 44th anniversary of the gruesome murders of three High Court judges and a retired Army officer, the “Martyrs of the Rule of Law,” as they have become known.
The three judges were Justice F.P. Sarkodee, Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Justice K.A. Agyapong. Maj Sam Acquah was the retired Army Officer.
Their charred bodies were found at the Bundase Military Range, 40 kms east of Accra on the Accra-Aflao road.
On a positive note, between June 30 and July 2, 2026, the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College celebrated its 50th anniversary, beginning life in 1976. A Republic Day Lecture held on July 1 had the CDS Lt Gen William Agyapong as the guest of honour, Chairing the function, on the topic “From the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea – Violent Extremism to Maritime Insecurity” was Ambassador Josephine Nkrumah, former Chair of the NCCE and ECOWAS Resident Representative of the President of ECOWAS Commission to Liberia. The discussants were Professor Kwasi Aning and Vice Admiral Issah Yakubu, with Samson Lardy Anyenini as the moderator.Ghana political commentary
Goal Rush – Compu Ghana
Apart from Ghanaian alumni, international alumni from Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia also graced the anniversary.
Lamentations all over the country from the floods with the resulting insanitary conditions, “galamsey,” and our negative attitudinal input, sent me to my September 2024 article titled
“Self-destruct button pressed?” partly quoted below. I also asked, what we have learnt in almost seventy years after independenceExecutive Branch
QUOTE
To say September 2024 hit the ground running might be an understatement. Indeed, the first week was eventful.
1. Galamsey took centre-stage, with news/harrowing pictures from all over Ghana. The latest galamsey entrants are women at Talensi, Upper-East Region.
2. In Parliament, an MP told his opponents, “you polluted the water more than us.” This reminded me of the Nigerian author, Nkem Nwankwo, whose 1975 novel was titled “My Mercedes-Benz is bigger than yours.” Here, your destruction of our water-bodies is “bigger” than ours, so we have done no wrong!
3. A Joy FM report on September 5, 2025 said, a galamseyer incredibly approached a chief and told him to sell him part of River Ankobra.
In my December 2021 article titled “Digging our own graves,” I stated as follows.
QUOTE
Digging our own graves
In his opening address at the UN Climate Conference COP-26 in Glasgow, Scotland on November 1, 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had very strong words for the 197 nations, particularly the developed/industrialised world.
COP, informally the “Earth Summit,” stands for “Conference of the Parties,” where “Parties” refer to the nations that agreed to a new environment pact, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at a meeting in 1992. COP-1 was in Berlin in 1995.
The UN Secretary-General stated that, “The six years since the Paris Climate Agreement (COP-25) has been the hottest on record.
Our addiction to fossil-fuels is pushing humanity to the brink.
We face a stark choice – either we stop it, or it stops us.
Enough of brutalizing biodiversity, killing ourselves with carbon, treating nature like a toilet, burning, drilling and mining our earth deeper.
WE ARE DIGGING OUR OWN GRAVES!”
In Ghana, “galamsey” has degraded our forests/lands, polluted rivers and poisoned underground water with chemicals like cyanide.
Children have dropped out of school to do illegal mining, with drug-usage and prostitution resulting.
In recent times, environmentalists have sounded alarm-bells about destroying Nature’s biologically diverse ecosystem of the Atiwa Forest, a veritable source of drinking-water for Ghana, just to allow foreigners to mine manganese.
Are we deliberately pressing the self-destruct button for our current gain at the expense of future generations who have to import drinking-water?
Are we proving UNSG Antonio Guterres right that, “we are digging our own graves?”
Antonio Guterres’ words “we are digging our own graves “may have been directed at the world’s leading polluters, the developed world.
In Ghana however, “galamsey” and its attendant cross-cutting evils like depleting our forests, poisoning of both surface and underground water, and children dropping out of school into armed-robbery and prostitution, amount to “digging our own graves.” Ghana political commentary
If we allow it as DRC has, foreigners will help us “dig our own graves.” Therefore, let us fix Ghana and live home as respected citizens, not as disrespected second-rate immigrants/citizens elsewhere.
UNQUOTE
Discussion
On Tuesday, Sep 3, 2024, TV showed the stabbed 18-year old student of O’Reilly SHS being carried to LEKMA Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Why would an unnecessary and intellectually bankrupt argument over whose father is richer, instead of concentrating on the SSCE examinations they were writing, degenerate into a stabbing incident leading to death?
Sadly, it points at our loss of values/societal decadence, where money is all that matters, irrespective of the source.
That same night on TV, an MP fired at his opponents saying, “you have polluted the water more than us!” Telling the MPs they knew those involved in galamsey, the Speaker stated, “Desist from galamsey!” But, is that all?
Commenting on the damage to our environment, Founding Director of the Environmental-and-Sanitations-Studies of the University of Ghana, Professor Chris Gordon said, the damage done to the environment cannot be restored in his lifetime. He added that, we have mortgaged the future of our children.
On his part, Professor Kwasi Aning of the KAIPTC stated that, galamsey has assumed trans-national proportions with Chinese, Nigeriens, Burkinabes, Nigerians, Malians and their oversea-backers all actively destroying Ghana’s environment.
During the week, the 2019 clip of the Chinese Ambassador’s questions was played many times. He asked
1. Who gives Chinese visas to come to Ghana?
2. When they arrive at the Accra International Airport, how do they get to the galamsey sites?
3. How come Chinese do not go to South Africa which has more gold than Ghana to do galamsey?
Answering it himself, he said it is because SA citizens will not allow it.
We embrace it!
Additionally, how does the heavy equipment move from the port to the mining areas?
I concluded my recent article titled “Legacy! Legacy! Legacy! saying,
QUOTE
On August 31, 2024, Ghana Water Company Limited attributed the current water crisis in the Central Region, particularly Cape Coast, Elmina and their environs to galamsey, resulting from inadequate water at the Sekyere-Hemang Water-Treatment-Plant! “Treated-mud” only produces water loaded with heavy-metals.
In the words of anti-galamsey-crusader-journalist Erastus Asare Donkor, galamsey is the result of failed leadership. “Galamsey” is a national disgrace! Galamsey is a dishonourable legacy!
UNQUOTE
Has the self-destruct button been pressed? Remember UN Secretary-General Guterres’ warning on environmental-degradation saying, “we are digging our own graves! Either we stop it, or it stops us!”
Discussion
Anyenini’s question “what is wrong with us Ghanaians?” on Newsfile on July 4, 2026 has been asked many times by many Ghanaians.
We know the problems and how to solve them.
With “galamsey” for instance, we have been told in high places they know the financiers, and yet it is villagers arrested!
Just like Erastus Asare Donkor describes “galamsey,” Anyenini describes our recent floods and resulting insanitary conditions as “a Monumental Leadership failure!” Need I say more?
Leadership, lead by Example/Humility/Integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!
