Greening Ghana: Just another empty slogan?

Where is the proof that the 20million trees President Akufo-Addo and Samuel Abu Jinapor claim to have planted yesterday were indeed planted?

The Forestry Commission says it has started paying personnel of the Youth in Afforestation a day to the Green Ghana Day so they will plant more trees, so the question to Akufo-Addo and Samuel Abu Jinapor is, how do the trees survive after planting when payments are halted?

Declassifying the Achimota Forest and the rising prices of LPG are detrimental to the tree planting exercise dubbed “Green Ghana”.

The Eco Conscious Group has described as hypocritical the policy of planting and simultaneously cutting trees.

Charcoal is fast becoming the fuel choice as taxes on LPG pushes prices beyond the reach of most Ghanaians.

Government’s claim of over 80% of trees planted in the previous year’s tree planting exercise is being disputed as there is no proof of the planting of the number of trees Government says were planted in 2021, nor a credible way of ascertaining the number that survived or how much was actually spent on the tree planting exercise.

This year’s tree planting exercise therefore is shrouded in controversy as it amounts to doubling the corruption and uncertainty associated with the previous exercise.

An audit of the entire Green Ghana programme is required.

Where is the proof that the 20million trees President Akufo-Addo and Samuel Abu Jinapor claim to have planted last Saturday were indeed planted?

The many scandals in the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mineral Resources does not give confidence to anybody…

Galamsey Scandals involving the Deputy Minister in charge of Mineral Resources, George Mireku Duker, officials of the Cabinet Interministerial Committee including its Chairman, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng,  the Secretary and Presidential Staffer, Charles Bissiu, top government and party officials…

Charles Bissiu was caught on video collecting bribe in the Office of the President, to allow Galamsey…

Prof. Frimpong Boateng and other party officials were caught on tape discussing how to profit from Galamsey, his son is also heavily involved in Galamsey…

George Mireku Duker was reported on Citi FM as being directly involved in Galamsey and his ownership of a Galamsey Gang which was recently involved in a Deadly Galamsey Gang War…

He recently disclosed that Ghana may soon need to import water because Galamsey activities have destroyed most water bodies on top of the 82% of farmlands stated by COCOBOD…

President Akufo Addo’s inauguration of Galamsey machines at the independence Square has been rejected by Small Scale Miners…

Achimota Forest Landgrab and the mining of the Atiwa, Amansie and Nyinehini Forests by the government approved companies degrading the forests at the expense ecology…

Ramsar sites and wetlands in Ghana have not been spared from the Landgrab epidemic…

The bipartisan Landgrab involving many high profile personalities in Ghana, requires SHOCK TREATMENT of asset freeze, seizure, retrieval and return of ALL LOOTED STATE LANDS to the Original Land Owners as prescribed by the 1992 Constitution; and may be re-acquired by the Government exclusively for other stated national purposes in accordance with the Constitution of Ghana.

The Goro-Boys of the Lands Ministry like Clemence Gyato, Laurence Sackitey and other Middlemen of the Lands Commission must be given the opportunity to explain how a Minister of Lands signed an agreement with Aynok Holdings to reclaim encroached State Lands and be paid with portions of the State Lands and how another Minister of Lands purported to use a Memorandum of Understanding to release, takeover and share the Cantonments Civil Aviation Lands among faceless developers…

A Lands, Forestry and Mineral Resources Ministry with such a record cannot be trusted to undertake an afforestation programme without accountability especially in the wake of the immediate past head of the Forestry Commission grabbing Forest Lands and Ramsar sites which were discovered in his will…

A government which undertakes the building of a Cathedral heralded by cutting of trees in a most bizarre brazen manner amid a monumental financial scandal as exposed recently cannot be trusted…

The turning of Public Funds lodged at the Office of President being turned into a slush fund without any accountability mechanism, nor Parliamentary oversight cannot be trusted…

The GNPC Money given to a particular Chief to plant trees is the litmus test for the Green Ghana project.

How many trees were planted, how many survived, how much was spent and who checked?

#NanaKasa

#NanaKafra

Ghanaians are resolved to be Citizens and not Spectators so demand the Okyehene to tell Ghanaians how he used the public funds given to him by GNPC to plant trees, or be surcharged as stated by then Auditor General Yao Domelevo for which he was removed by President Akufo-Addo and his Executive Secretary Asante Bediatuo…

We must together protect the Public Purse from plunder…

TOGETHER WE CAN.

God Save Our Homeland Ghana by planting trees and keeping our forests; when the last tree dies, the last man dies.

TOGETHER WE CAN.

#AriseGhana

#FixTheCountry

By Prince-Derek Adjei