By J. K Nabary
Winneba (C/R), Sept 08, GNA-The Department of Political Science Education, University of Education, Winneba (UEW), has held its 4th Colloquium on the theme: “Politics, the Environment and Our Common Future; Ghana at a Crossroad.”
The colloquium brought together the academia, traditional rulers, students and many others, who discussed issues affecting the growth of the country.
The event was chaired by Prof Esther Danso-Wiredu, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the UEW on behalf of Prof Stephen Jobson Mitchual, the Vice Chancellor.
Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, an internationally acclaimed cardiothoracic surgeon was the keynote speaker.
Other personalities at the event were Nana Baffour Kwaku Sono Sikabede, the Chief of Akim Esaase (Apapam) l), who was the guest of honour, Togbi Agbotadua Homenyo II, the Chief of Srogboe, who was the special guest.
The guests sat as panel members at a roundtable on the theme: “From Rhetoric to Reality: Confronting the Political Will Deficit in Ghana’s Environmental Governance,” with Dr Kofi Rogers, the Director of Culture, Climate and Safety of Antioch Unified School District in California as the Moderator.
Bringing together traditional authorities, policymakers, scholars and practitioners, the session moved from lamentation to commitment and probed the ferocious state capture, accountability deficits and pathway to resilient governance that could turn rhetoric into reality.
The roundtable, discussed Ghana’s environmental issues, giving a background that the country had a strong environmental policy, yet rivers remained poisoned by illegal mining, forests stripped bare, communities left vulnerable, showing that the problem was not policy drought but political inertia.
They also tackled the gaps in government policies, elite capture of electoral processes with incentives and the legal pluralism that normalises illegality, ecological decline, enforcement failures stemming from weak institutions than from entrenched political polarisation and economic dynamics among others.
To them, the key question was no longer “what must be done?” but “why is it not done.”
They interrogated whose interests benefited from the nation, how electoral cycles erode enforcement and what reforms could shield environmental governance from the whims and capricious of the elites.
Earlier, Prof Gabriel Boateng, the Head of the Department of the Political Science Education, stated in his address that, the programme was not a mere ritual on their academic calendar, but a summons and a call to intellectual discussion for academia to let people know that they were not only in the classroom.
Rather, their research is not only to be online for a few people to read, but also to engage the public to have a discourse on what is affecting the citizens of the country.
Prof Boateng said: “Our theme for the event was not an abstract exercise, it is a stark diagnosis of the present condition of our country, it confronts crisis, one largely of our making.
“Let us be clear about the stakes, the environment not a peripheral concern; it is the very foundation of our existence, the air in our lungs, water in our rivers and the soil beneath our feet, and that foundation is crumbling.”
On climate change, Prof Boateng stated that the nation had already warmed by one degree Celsius and it has been projected to see a rise of up to 3.9 degrees by 2080, which was not a distant forecast.
He further indicated but a future of failed harvests, submerged coastlines and displaced millions was eminent, adding that a seven percent reduction in crop yield was not just a statistic but sentence of hunger for the 70 percent of the population depending on agriculture.
The don said: “The rising sea levels that threaten 25 percent of our coastal population are not waves on a graph; they are waves that will one day crash against the homes of our children and grandchildren, and with illegal mining (galamsey) alongside what we are witnessing, a more immediate, more visible act of self-destruction among other behaviours, which we have mortgaged our common future for ounces of gold today.”
He cited a Ghanaian proverb, which says, “if you cut your tongue and chew it, you have not tasted new meat,” and said, “Ghana is chewing its own tongue and are happily destroying the very source of what the wise ancestors left.”
Prof Boateng said: “Our generation will be judged, our children and grandchildren will not ask about GDP figures, will not ask about our political victories, but will ask two simply but damming questions- “when you saw the rivers dying, what did you do; and when the forest were being razed, what did you say?”
“The mechanisation of Small-Scale Mining was supposed to be a story of progress, instead, it has become a tale of devastation, and as a country, we have traded our birth right, clean water and fertile land for a mess of gold, our forests are being devoured, our rivers poisoned.
“It is about time, we forge tangible, concrete and actionable policies to move from analysis to advocacy, from research to resolve and from resolve to action because the crossroads is before us, one path leads to accountability, restoration and a sustainable future while the other precariously lead to desolate and unmistakably barren inheritance.”
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey/ Benjamin Mensah
