Our lead story today talks about some instances affirming the resolve of the Mahama administration to win the fight against galamsey, a resolve The Ghanaian Times holds in high esteem and would support till it is accomplished.
It is heart-warming that 60 excavators used by illegal miners have been confiscated by the Anti-Galamsey Taskforce formed by the government to help rid the country of illegal miners.
The heart-warming aspect of the event is that the confiscated machines would be deployed to rural communities for the reshaping and upgrading of their roads.
Those of us working on The Ghanaian Times believe that the illegal miners must, by all means, be disenabled and the process must cost them greatly, while the benefits accrue to the larger Ghanaian society.
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Illegal miners are cruel self-centred people synonymous with sadists, because they do not care about the devastation their activity causes, including degrading the land and polluting water bodies, and the associated health hazards.
In fact, the description of illegal mining as environmental terrorism by the Minister of Environment, Science, and Technology, Dr Murtala Mohammad, is apt.
Like terrorism, galamsey has profound multifaceted effects, including disruption of economic activities of affected communities whose members mostly depend on land and sources of water for their livelihoods; the financial and psychological trauma resulting therefrom; and the potential to cause people to be internally-displaced and as such leave for somewhere else to start life afresh.
The latter can cause shifts in social attitudes, including some people not getting in close contacts with loved ones as frequently as they would have wished to do.
If galamsey can be viewed as a kind of terrorism, then the perpetrators are terrorists who must not be entertained and so must be dealt with in any manner that can restrain them from all angles so they would not have a choice but abandon their nation-wrecking activity.
Today, the Ghana Water Limited, the country's water supplier, incurs a heavy cost treating water for the country.
The result is that some communities are totally denied supply while others get water rationed to them.
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Why should the State refuse or stay disabled to confront illegal miners head-on?
There is the need now to use greater force, including prosecution, to stop galamseyers who continue to show impunity to the appeal to them to abandon ship.
We, therefore, support the resolve by the Mahama government to not spare any individual or group involved in illegal mining, regardless of political affiliation.
It is an open secret that some people rely on their political affiliation, particularly to the party in power, to venture into galamsey, so we are happy with this resolve as it sends serious warning to National Democratic Congress (NDC) who have such intentions because their party is in power to rescind their decision.
President John Dramani Mahama is saying that he would treat galamsey as crime and anyone caught in its web, no matter who he is, will be dealt with according to the law.
If this is done according to the letter and spirit of the law, certainly illegal mining would be consigned to history and its end would be a serenading legacy.
But while we say this, we would like to reiterate our position that politicians, chiefs and security personnel collectively can stop galamsey and so they should live up to expectation
