There was a moment, in the middle of the fierce contest for the NPP flag, when Chairman Wontumi spoke without restraint.
With confidence and with volume, Bernard Antwi Boasiako declared to anyone who cared to listen that he would prefer the NPP to lose power and sit in opposition than to see Alan Kyerematen lead the party as flagbearer.
He meant it. He said it openly. He repeated it with pride.
Now look at where we are.
The NPP is indeed in opposition. And the same Chairman Wontumi has been convicted by the High Court in Accra for facilitating illegal mining, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, while his company Akonta Mining has been fined GH¢120,000.
This is what happens when careless oaths are made in public. Words spoken in pride often come back to demand payment, and the payment is usually heavier than we imagined.
WE MUST LEARN TO BRIDLE THE TONGUE
Wontumi was not an ordinary member. He was the Ashanti Regional Chairman, the commander of the NPP’s electoral fortress. When he spoke against Alan, delegates took notice. His statement gave others boldness to believe that power would never leave, that nothing would ever go wrong.
But power never stays forever. In our party, we have developed a habit of speaking in absolutes. We say never, we say over my dead body, we say we would rather be in opposition. We forget that tomorrow is not in our hands.
Before you shout, think of tomorrow. Because some declarations cannot be withdrawn once events start moving.
Wontumi wished for opposition instead of a particular flagbearer. Today he is experiencing opposition in its harshest form, not from the comfort of his regional office but from inside a prison cell.
Today it is Wontumi. Yesterday it was someone else. Tomorrow it could be another.
TO THOSE WHO ARE DOING GALAMSEY TODAY BECAUSE THEY HAVE POWER
This is not a piece to celebrate Wontumi’s pain. Any honest NPP member knows what he did for the party.
This is a warning to those who have replaced him.
Do not think that because you now hold political power, you can freely engage in galamsey and profit from it without consequence.
The same law that jailed Wontumi still exists. Act 703 as amended by Act 995 still prescribes 15 to 25 years for facilitating illegal mining and for assigning mineral rights without ministerial approval. The same forest reserves at Samreboi, Atiwa, and Offin are still under threat. The same excavators still move at dawn.
If you are a party appointee, a youth organizer, a contractor, or a traditional authority who is today allowing people without licences to mine inside your concession and you call it reclamation, remember the judgement of Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay. She called that reclamation story an afterthought.
Two years ago, nobody believed Chairman Wontumi could be jailed. People said he was too rich, too connected, too powerful. Today he is serving 20 years.
Power is a passing wind. Today it is on you. Tomorrow it will blow elsewhere.
Justice may appear to overlook the powerful for a season, but it does not disappear. It waits. And when it decides to move, it moves without respect for persons.
LET US NOT CALL ACCOUNTABILITY PERSECUTION TOMORROW
When Wontumi was being prosecuted, many voices in the NPP described it as a witch-hunt by the NDC government.
But the court did not rely on politics. It relied on his own witness statement, on the evidence of PW1, on the fact that he permitted Henry Okum and Michael Gyedu Ayisi to mine without ministerial approval in 2024.
Conviction was based on law, not party.
So let us set a standard now. When this government leaves and the next one begins to hold its own people to account for the galamsey that is happening today, let us not rush to shout political persecution.
If we condemn galamsey in Samreboi in 2024, we must condemn galamsey in Awaso in 2026. If we accept a 20-year sentence for an NPP chairman, we must accept the same for an NDC appointee tomorrow.
The forest does not know NPP or NDC. Polluted water does not know NPP or NDC.
Wontumi’s loose vow should teach every NPP member to speak with wisdom, and his sentence should teach every Ghanaian in power today that the pit you dig for gold today may become the pit that swallows you tomorrow.