During a recent stakeholder forum on the menace of illegal mining on Ghana’s ecosystem, discusants challenged the church (the collective body of Jesus Christ) to break its silence on the negative phenomenon.
The forum under the theme, “The impact of illegal mining on children and youth development in Ghana-The role of stakeholders”, was organized by Compassion International Ghana under its “Thriving Child Seminar Series.”
The discussants pointed out that the church of God has the largest social network in Ghana, for which the Church cannot afford to be quiet, while illegal miners are destroying the country’s forests and water bodies for their selfish gains.
The call for the Church to wake up from its slumber went to the Christian Council of Ghana, the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Baptist Convenstion, Ghana Charismatic and Pentecotal Council, National Peace Council, the Adventist Conference among others.
The members of these Christian Associations constitute 70 percent of Ghana’s population, according to the 2020 Population Census. Therefore, their support or opposition to any policy or issue in Ghana represents the will Ghana.
Children growing up at the pits
One of the discussants, Erasmus Asare Donkor, Ghana’s foremost environmental journalist and former Journalist of the Year, highlighted what appears to be an irredeemable situation at the mining sites across the country. According to him, during his investigations, he captured nursing mothers breastfeeding their children at the mining pits.
This sums up the feeling that these unfortunate babies will crawl and take their first steps at the galamsey sites, they will have their first experience of life at the sites and eventually grow up, marry and give birth to children at the illegal mining sites. This phenomenon represents a bleak future for our children and our country, largely due to the lack of political will to combat the menace.
Furthermore, the discussants revealed harrowing stories of children quitting primary and junior high school to work permanently as illegal miners. The reason is simple- for financial gain. On average illegal miners earn around GHS4000 a week.
Therefore, if the purpose of education is to lay a foundation for a better future, there could not be any better future than earning quick money at such tender ages. It makes common sense to the youth abandoning education, but here lies the bleak future of Mother Ghana. If the leaders of tomorrow start life as illegal miners, without any form of education, there is everything fundamentally wrong with our society. In fact, we are a sick society.
Physical deformities
The discussants further revealed that medical reports from several mining communities have depicted babies being born with rare physical and mental deformities. This is the results of the environmental and pathological effects of illegal mining. Other medical reports indicated that food crops like cassava, plantain, banana, pineapples, oranges and other vegetables are being contaminated with chemicals used in mining.
So, while you are enjoying your fufu produced from cassava and plantain, you might not be aware that you are consuming contaminated fufu. The ingestion of contaminated food has several hidden medical implications, including cancers, respiratory problems and children born with mysterious deformities among others.
Power of the church
Why is the focus on the church to mobilise against illegal mining? The key reason is that our Reverend Minitsters, pastors and evangelists know the members of their churches who are engaged in illegal mining and are destroying the environment.
The illegal miners bring their offerings and tithes to churches to thank God for helping them to plunder the environment in search for gold. For this economic reason many church leaders are unwilling to preach against illegal mining for fear of losing their members, offering and tithes. What society are we building? What legacy are we leaving for future generations?
Another reason the church needs to rise against illegal mining is that, the canker has political backing. Some party gurus and ordinary members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were deeply involved in illegal mining. Similarly, gurus and supporters of the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government are neck-deep in illegal mining, despite using it as a strategic campaign message and indeed reaped the fruits of the campaign against illegal mining.
Judging from the indifference of the two political on illegal mining, it is clear that we need an alternative force to raise the red flag over the canker. The Church needs to mobilize those of us caught in between the two political parties to take a common stance against illegal mining.
Power of the state
The state was instituted by God to restrain wrongdoing and to promote a just and fair social order. This is in one sense God’s response to the nature of people. Whereas man can adapt to many changes occurring around him, he cannot manage chaos as an individual. This is why civil governments have been instituted to set the boundaries for human behaviour.
That further justifies why the state has control over the military, the police and other institutions mandated to regulate human conduct. In this regard, it is only the government that has the resources and the mandate to stop illegal mining and rescue our ecosystem from the carnage of illegal mining. If we lose our environment, as is happening right now, we will lose our humanity and our future.
Social forces
But when the state fails or is failing to honour its social contract with the people, other social forces can be called to action. As indicated earlier, the church is the most potent institution ordained by God to address the spiritual and by extension the physical needs of society. The Church’s superior vision is to hold duty bearers accountable, when they failed or are failing.
Historically, church-state relationship dates to the times of Jesus Christ, who preached obedience to all authorities ordained by God, but He also gave equal powers to the Church and its members to speak against evil and inaction.
The notion is that the Church and state must be engaged in inevitable conflict, regarding what is morally wrong or right. History affirms that anytime the Church is not being persecuted, it is being corrupted. In a sinful world the struggle for power, which inevitably corrupts is unavoidable.
In Germany under Adolf Hitler, the Church remained the only institution that offered an enduring and meaningful resistance. It is worth noting that whenever, the church fails to hold the state accountable, evil and corruption triumphs.
Perpahs, that is what is unfolding in Ghana. The systemic failure to stop illegal mining with its ramifications for current and future generations is a development the church cannot gloss over.
Church underground
Some political analysts have argued that the Church in Ghana has been driven undergroung or made a puppet to past and current governments through political patronage or compromise.
If the Church cannot hold its members (which includes politicians) accountable to Biblical standards of honesty and preserving the environment, then what is the relevance of the church in Ghana? In fact, several Christian values that were upheld by the Church are disappearing in Ghana. Christians are failing to be the salt and light of society as Christ mandated us. What we see today is Christains rigorously pursuing modernization and the so-called “social gospel.”
Furthemore, the Church has allowed itself to be dangerously “politicised and privatized” to the extent that even critical national issues like illegal mining have assumed political dimensions. Hence, we now live in a society where all moral values have been devalued and there are no more standards by which we can boldly say “right is right” and “wrong is wrong.” A society that has no reference points could easily become a “contractual arrangement”, says Sociologist, Peter Berger. According to Berger, “unless people are prepared to die for values and standards, society cannot survive.”
Civil disobedience
With time, if the state and its agents fail to be accountable and responsible to the demands of Ghanaians, there might be the need for civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey government orders based on moral principles. Civil disobedience is often characterized by non-violent resistance that highlights the perceived injustices or that seeks social change.
In other words, civil disobedience is justified when governments fail to address critical issues affecting society, such as failure to maintain law and order and typically the loss of control over illegal mining and its effects on the environment. Civil disobedience is also justified when a government or state restricts peoples’ freedom of self-expression, association or conscience. Finally, and most importantly, civil disobedience is justified when the state flagrantly ignores its constitutional mandate to preserve lives and property.
Clarion call
As sated earlier, while in opposition the NDC led a clarion call for the past NPP government to declare a state of emergency in all mining communities. If we needed a state of emergency in 2024, then a statement of emergency is more pressing today, judging from the increased and uncontrollable activities of illegal miners across the country. Indeed, when a government becomes an instrument of what it preached against, civil disobedience is inevitable.
In conclusion, the Church is the strongest institution across the world, including Ghana. Therefore, it must use the pulpit to denounce illegal mining and caution its members to stop the act and look for alternative livelihoods.
If the Church fails to use the power of the pulpit to advocate for an end to illegal mining, it is shirking its God ordained mandate to stand against evil and crime, such as illegal mining. In fact, the Church will eventually lose its moral authority in the eyes of Ghanaians.
