New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful Kwabena Agyei Agyepong is worried about Ghana’s land tenure system, warning that it has long deprived customary landowners of what rightfully belongs to them while foreign companies profit heavily.
“I am worried by what is happening, not only because of the galamsey, but land owners have been deprived of what is theirs in this country, and I do believe that the initiative that I’m preaching will review and reform our land tenure system, make sure that compensation frameworks are very transparent,” he said on Joy News’ PM Express.
He expressed shock at how resource exploitation benefits outsiders more than locals.
“How is it that a company can come into Ahafo and make so much money, sell off some of their shares for 1 billion to a Chinese and then the indigenous are left to rot in the dust?
“For me, no… I find it unacceptable if our generation cannot exploit our God given resources for the benefit of everybody and future generations, you are better off leaving it in the ground. Maybe the ones after us will do it better.”
Kwabena Agyepong stressed that the injustice is not new.
“It didn’t start today; it predates our colonial times. You know where lands have been forcibly taken by executive instrument. The owners of the land have never been compensated, and then it’s been farmed off to foreign interests.”
He pointed to how the real wealth from Ghana’s resources ends up abroad.
“If you go to the boardrooms in London and Canada and Australia, where the mining cabals are, they are enjoying millions of dollars from poor Ghana.
“I think it’s something I do not accept, and we’ve got to find a way of re-engineering that. That’s very important.
Credit: Abubakar Ibrahim
