The dialectics of social issues

Earlier this year, what appeared to be another national disaster drew the usual attention and sensation from the general public including civil society groups, with the avalanche of galamsey operation and the threats it apparently poses on lives and the environment as a whole. Without question, the pollution of the rivers was not done in a day, the deforestations did not take place overnight, and the land degradations were also not a one day affair.

What many thought that if we had had the clue of the devastating effect of galamsey, we might have been turbulent enough and called for immediate end to illegal small scale mining by whichever means practicable, has yet to see the light of the day. Somehow, this suggests that the reactionary syndrome is inherent in our approach to problems emanating from society.

We seem to bask so much in the plenum of the effect of a problem without an extensive look at the cause. Following the Principle of Sufficient Reason, if a cause is ignored, then the effect of the cause becomes a cause of its own cause. What this means is that the effect of a cause can be considered as a raw material for a universal repetitive event of ad infinitum in cycle of times.

Going down in memory lane, May 9 2001 marked the day a stadium disaster took 127 lives. Since then, there have been several violent acts instigated by some football club officials and supporters that resulted in certain forms of confusion and in some cases people losing their lives. Example in February, 2009 some fans lost their lives in Kumasi in a game between Kotoko and Hearts of Oak.

Also, the June 3 2015 rainfall disaster which took place overnight brought the nation to its knees with a reported death of over 150 people. Prior to that woeful event, there was veiled warnings inkling the disaster, which however, have not been outrightly avoided. The perennial flooding resulting from poor sanitation and drainage system has continuously rendered people in those areas at the mercy of another disaster during the rainy season.

What lesson have we learnt so far?

We have learnt a lot; but it has been said that the only lesson man learns from history is that man does not learn from history. The political will from government and society to underpin the practical step to make these threats imaginary have been obsolete. Even with the availabilities of rules, regulations and resources, the proactive intent to prevent these potential disasters and to pre-empt new ones have been a stalemate.

An example is the galamsey or artisanal mining which has been ongoing since antiquity before mining companies emerged in the country. The illegal mining operations, which has almost always been narrowed to small scale mining or galamsey, excluding the mining companies, is a major issue of concern to most Ghanaians, if not all. The nation is somehow yet to overcome with the grief of the dastard murder of the late Major Maxwell Mahama.

Although not mass killing, but the goring scene of the brutal murder cast an atmosphere of a national disaster. And there could be no plausible evidence to deny galamsey as a cause of the lynch mob.

And for some reason, the sensitivity of the issue of galamsey has been quelled, enjoying entropy, upon the death of Major Mahama. Surely, in avoiding the cause and dealing with the effect, we are avoiding the essence of the problem.

What is the cause of the illegal small scale mining?

Obviously, the cause of galamsey or illegal small scale mining is as a result of the violation of the Mineral and Mining 2015, amendment of (Act 703). The law prohibits mining without licensing, mining along river banks, bans foreigners from engaging in small scale mining and forbids Ghanaians from engaging or employing foreigners in small scale mining. Perhaps, what would cause the violation of these rule and regulation if not the weakness on the part of institutions? Attributing the cause of galamsey to institutional weakness would only boil down to the dent of corruption in the institutions.

And most often than not, we hear statements like, “Fight against corruption has to be won”, “I will stop corruption – by President Nana Addo”, etc. with some civil society organizations leading the charge against corruption in Ghana. Honestly, why are we bent on finding cure for the symptoms of the disease but not the cause of the disease?

Again, we are always being told by a renowned Ghanaian academic that, “leadership is the cause, and everything is an effect”, in addressing to issues of corruption. The truth is that, leaders are not born but they are made. Leaders are products of the raw materials of society. For this reason, the cause of corruption can be found in the structures of society. When institutions or structures of society are weak, corruption is inevitable.

In analysing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents as the issues brought forth, we would get to conclude that the legacy of colonialism is the root cause of the problem of our society inhibiting its progressive development. The bequeathed structures of colonial rule leftover for the administration of the country have not been replaced.

There is a breakdown of institutions in Ghana as a result of the breakdown of weak old the structures. We can’t change a society for good with these same old institution or structures. There is a need for a fundamental social change - which must affect the structures of society - not the change of political Party which constitutes change of presidential power without necessarily changing the paradigm.