The Apeate mining explosion disaster did not only reveal the Akufo-Addo government as one that is sensitive to the plight of Ghanaians, but also exposed the spectators and citizens in the country.
Until this sad event occurred, some nation wreckers had almost succeeded in misleading the gullible poor masses to buy into their claim that the One Constituency One Ambulance project was a needless venture.
Contrary to the position of these sadists, the relevance of these ambulances was felt by the whole nation as 11 of these health logistics were deployed to save the lives of the helpless victims.
Government’s immediate response to this unfortunate incident was very commendable. A team of government officials, led by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, visited the town, and promised to bear the medical bills of all the patients on admission.
From there, the government went ahead to set up a three-member ministerial Apeate Investigative Committee to investigate the cause of the disaster and advise it on the way forward.
The findings of the investigative committee energised the conscience of the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, to slap Maxam Corp Ltd. with a damage of $6,000,000.00.
This commission gave birth to the Apeate Reconstruction Committee, which was composed of experts from different sectors. The work of this commission resulted in the formation of the Apeate Support Fund.
Specialised critics
Through the Fund, Ghanaians who believe in supporting their government to impact lives have been differentiated from the spectators who have specialised in criticising everything government.
As of June 2022, 42.5 million cedis had been raised for the reconstruction of the town. These monies were paid by corporate bodies, religious groups and individuals who believe in the place of citizens in national development.
While these bodies and individuals contributed their widow’s mite to bring back Apeate to life, the spectators were busily finding possible faults with the project. Thankfully, the citizens were able to prevail over the onlookers.
The reaction of these nationalists to the reconstruction of Apeate shows that Ghanaians can achieve a lot with the current Akufo-Addo government should they choose to put on the ‘cloak of citizens.’
I am therefore appealing to appeal to the rest of the citizens to ignore the sadists and learn from the good example of the few who teamed up with the government to rebuild Apeate.
Nonetheless, it is important to cast our minds back to the pains the sadistic spectators have caused us as a nation. If not for the unpatriotic commentary of these architects of destructive criticisms, who have made up their mind to blame government for every bad phenomenon, the recent hikes in prices of food substances could have been checked.
Discarding nationalism
The media and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) could have played a role to control the astronomical rise in food items and other goods a few months ago if they had acted like the nationalists who helped the government to raise funds for the reconstruction of Apeate.
Unfortunately, however, these two major stakeholders of Ghana’s development failed in performing their societally constructed role when the country needed them most.
Instead of setting an agenda to conscientise Ghanaian traders against profiteering, the media rather encouraged them to take advantage of the situation to make more profit at the expense of the poor Ghanaian.
The defacto leader of the NDC, Mr John Dramani Mahama, also had the opportunity to appeal to the conscience of the 5 million sympathisers and supporters of his party to cooperate with government by not taking advantage of the situation.
Contrary to this, the former President rather held lectures and seminars to blame the global economic crises on the current administration. This encouraged the poised profit-minded traders to continue hiking prices of their goods since somebody else was blamed for their actions.
Two scenarios
It is clear from these two scenarios that the poor masses suffer most when the public is swayed by the spectators. When the citizens prevailed over the spectators on the reconstruction of Apeate, the government was able to realise its plans for the victims of the mining explosion.
On the other hand, when the sadists succeeded in the case of rise in prices of food items and other goods, the poor masses suffered the consequences.
Going forward, I would like to appeal to the general public to ignore the spectators whose unpatriotic commentary has discouraged them from patronising the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) and contribute to it.
For the general good of all, I reiterate that the citizenry should totally ignore the fiendish people and emulate the good example of the few who have teamed up with government to raise funds for the reconstruction of Apeate.