The Manifesto Launch by the Ghana Union Movement presents a greater threat to major political parties in Ghana especially the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming general elections in December.

Africa News Arena.com’s deputy editor Muhammad Faisel Mustapha reports that the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) over the weekend exhibited a unique strategic opportunity to wrestle power from the ruling NPP in this years’ elections.

It is obvious that Ghanaians have had enough of both the NDC and NPP style of governance.

This came to light during the launch of the party’s manifesto held in Accra where most of the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) sympathizers expressed their readiness to voluntarily campaign and vote GUM into power.

The enthusiasm shown by the participating young men and women as well as the aged at the manifesto launch tells the story of how majority of Ghanaians are fed up with the two largest political parties.

The founder and leader of the GUM, Pastor Christian Kwabena Andrew also known as Osofuo Kyiri Abosom was hailed by the teaming sympathizers and other Ghanaians for his bid to restore the ideology of the country’s first President Osagyfo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Several Ghanaian voters believe he is the man to redeem the nation from the current poverty and starvation caused by the NDC and NPP.

Addressing the gathering, the founder reiterated his desire to revive all the factories built by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and also promised, the great ideology of Dr. Nkrumah will be his number one priority when voted into the highest office.

He again promised to create more jobs to curb the rapidly escalating unemployment situation, construct more roads, provide educational infrastructure, build hospitals, improve on security, agriculture, provide free electricity for all Ghanaians and among others.

With barely ten months to the general elections, several voters who once upon a time embraced the NDC or NPP are now hesitant and openly showing their support for GUM.

It is interesting to know that a cross section of Ghanaian voters are not looking up to the NPP and NDC rather looking elsewhere which is GUM.

The Ghana Union Movement, in my view, pose a greater threat to the NPP getting re-elected than the NDC.

A significant number of Ghanaians who voted for the NPP in 2016 are saying they are prepared to vote for GUM since the NPP have failed in job creation, meeting the basic needs of the ordinary people and are therefore prepared to vote for GUM as the third political force in the country political history.

Expressing his concerns on the fight against Illegal Small Scale Mining also known as Galamsey, under the administration of President Nana Addo, the leader of Ghana Union Movement (GUM) revealed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the ruling NPP lied to Ghanaians that their administration has fought against illegal small scale mining activities in the mining regions in the country which had largely made negative effects on the water bodies and forest range reserves.

According to him, President Akuffo-Addo claiming to have minimised the activities of illegal small scale mining was completely false adding that it is a political propaganda aimed to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.

He categorically stated that the president has failed Ghanaians in the fight against the menace which continue to put an economic burden on the Ghana Water Company Limited.

He noted that checks from various mining communities indicated that the destruction of water bodies and forest range reserves through the illegal mining activities by the miners has rather worsened under the current President Akuffo-Addo administration.

He asserted that the claims by the President to have set up a taskforce of joint military and police team to arrest galamseyers who flouts the law was rather waste of tax payers money since the taskforce came to worsen the situation.

He added that although the sitting government led by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 waged a war against galamayers by issuing a ban, in its bid to protect the country’s water bodies which were being depleted due to the illegal mining activities has witnessed a spate and upsurge of illegal mining, known in Ghanaian parlance as “Galamsey.”

Elaborating further, he said President Akufo-Addo’s efforts of placing the ban on the small scale mining activities, were just a face serving exercise, ostensibly to give due advantage to some top chiefs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to enrich themselves.

The leader of GUM promised to legalize ” galamsey” if elected as President in the 2020 general elections.

He explained that galamseyers or illegal small scale miners, in the country will return to mining sites if he becomes the President.

According to him, it is pointless for galamseyers to continue to wallow in extreme poverty when they can work to cater for themselves and their families.

Osofo Kyiriabosom revealed he will put in place good measures that will offer galamsyers the opportunity to work again without destroying water bodies.

He explained that his government will supply the galamseyers equipment to reclaim the lands and reserve it for the future generation and for other profitable ventures.

He called on the galamseyers who have been rendered unemployed due to the actions by the government to vote massively for GUM in the December general elections.

“Ghana belongs to all of us, so galamseyers will return to the field when I become President in 2021, after their operations, we will give them excavators to cover the pits that will be created after the mining, and then, we will plant trees on the used lands. We will only allow them to go to the lands and not where water bodies are,” Osofo Kyiriabosom said.

Fuming with rage, he blamed President Akufo-Addo of reducing the Community Mining Programme (CMP) which was launched by him in Wassa Akropong, Western Region on Wednesday, July 25, 2019 to formalise artisanal and small-scale gold mining activities in selected communities across the country to political mire where only those with NPP affinity are being considered.

He indicated that some former illegal small-scale gold miners (ex-galamseyers) who were trained by the government to benefit from the programme have been denied their mining operating permit licenses.

According to him, the licenses for the programme which were to be given to the former illegal small-scale gold miners were rather being issued to few ex-galamseyers who are identified as members and supporters of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) without recourse to the law governing mining activities.

He noted that some of top officials of the NPP who are not supposed to benefit from the programme had rather secured mining operating permit license illegally to embark on the programme meant for ex-galamseyers (youth) who hitherto became redundant due to the ban on illegal small-scale mining activities.

According to him, the miners find it extremely difficult to secure the mining operating license to carry out the community mining programme although they have gone through the rightful processes and procedures of collecting the environmental permit license from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Source: Muhammed Faisal Mustapha