Features
‘Galamsey assault’: Investigate and punish ‘the rogue soldiers’
Wikipedia says, ‘a rogue’ is a dishonest or unprincipled person.
Synonyms for ‘rogue’ include; rascal, wretch, son of a bitch, vagabond, scoundrel, crook, miscreant, imp, rat and dog.
Webster’s Dictionary also defines ‘assault’ as; “make physical attack on.” Synonyms for ‘assault’ include; beat, cane, hit, punch, pummel, pound, wallop, rough up, whip, smack, thrash, abuse and molest.
Some military officers are alleged to have ‘brutally assaulted’ members of a task force set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to check activities of ‘galamseyers’ at Enchi and Asankragwa in the Western Region of the country.
Reportedly, the ‘unspeakable assault’ inflicted on the task force by the ‘rogue soldiers’ was recorded on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at Asankragwa.
According to Ghanaweb, a lady who identified herself as Mabel Hammond , working at the Office of the President, told ‘the assaulting soldiers’ that the task force was “commissioned” by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to apprehend illegal miners, ‘on or near water bodies’ and hand them over to the police.
Media reports indicate that while the ‘rogue soldiers’ were supposedly ‘interrogating’ members of the task force, they were as well, assaulting and brutalising them in the process.
Ghanaweb says, while the so-called interrogation was on-going, sounds of whipping and commanding shouts such as, “heads-up”, “heads-up”, “heads-up”, were heard in the background.
Reportedly, ‘the rogue soldiers’ ‘arrested’ members of the task force at Wassa Akropong and after brutalising them, transported them all the way from the Western North Region to the Obuasi Central Police Station in the Central Region.
What the soldiers themselves were doing in the galamsey enclaves at that material time , is yet to be established , but a statement issued by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker, has confirmed the appointment of the task force by the Ministry.
The statement said the task force was dispatched to Enchi upon information that some galamseyers were busy at work in the Enchi area.
According to the statement, while reporting back to Accra after their assignment in the region, the task force identified an illegal mining site along the Manso-Amenfi road and so they effected the arrest of two persons.
“The Deputy Minister in-charge of Mining was duly informed and they were advised to contact the District Chief Executive for the conveyance of the two excavators from the site to the Amenfi Central District Assembly”, the statement added.
The statement further said:”A Chinese national and a Ghanaian were arrested during the operation and handed over to the Manso-Amenfi police.
“On their way back to Accra after the arrest, some military personnel accosted them around Wassa Akropong and purportedly brutalised the team and took them to the Obuasi Central Police Station.”
Readers, do you remember Operation Vanguard? It was a military-cum police joint task force set up by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 to combat the activities of galamseyers in the country.
And who are the galamseyers? They are illegal miners spread across the country, depleting Ghana’s forest cover and destroying the nation’s precious water bodies with impunity.
As a matter of fact, many Ghanaians lauded the initial efforts of members of Operation Vanguard in checking the activities of the galamseyers. The job at hand was, no doubt , a Herculean one.
Some critics, however, say “one of the principal reasons Operation Vanguard failed ‘woefully’ was the indisputable fact that some of its members ‘balooned’ in the pockets of the illegal miners.”
The critics contend that:”Instead of defending the ‘bigger’ national interest, some of the members of Operation Vanguard were rather ‘arresting’ the gold they seized from the illegal miners and ‘detaining’ such gold in their own bags and haversacks.”
Such critics are still contending that the soldiers who assaulted the civilian task force recently set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, may be the direct ‘professional cousins’ of the soldiers who ‘derailed’ the ‘fire-power’ of the ‘original Operation Vanguard’.
They ask:”What was the ‘motivation’ of the soldiers in their assault on members of the civilian task force, instead of collaborating with them?
“Was it the case that the soldiers had been compromised by the illegal miners who were arrested by the task force?
“In any case, is ‘brutal assault’ the only ‘tool’ to ‘elicit’ information from ‘suspects’? “
Indeed, well-meaning Ghanaians are calling for ‘quick’ and ‘proper’ investigation into the ‘nauseating’ assault on the task force set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
They are of the view that the soldiers involved in the assault, must be identified and quickly investigated by the state and if found culpable, be severely dealt with according to the law.
They insist that the outcome of the investigation must be published and given wide publicity, instead of keeping it on the shelves.
Really, some Ghanaians strongly believe that the national galamsey-war will be won if there is effective collaboration between ‘carefully selected security human capital’ and the civilian population.
They assert that the state security agencies alone cannot win ‘the galamsey-war’ , insisting that” disciplined, loyal, dedicated, patriotic and nationalistic state security officers ought to be identified and selected to collaborate with carefully selected civilians to win ‘the galamsey-war’.
So, over to you; the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces and your surbodinates.
Contact email/ WhatsApp of the author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
By G. Frank Asamah
Features
Fix It Fast or Lose Them Forever: The Ever-Rising Importance of Service Recovery in Competitive Industries
Yes, in literature and in practice, differences exist regarding customer service, service failures, and service recovery.
But have you ever considered the latter (service recovery) and its potential impact on service experience, brand building, and sustainable growth?
Well, in today’s fiercely competitive service economy, customer experience has become one of the most powerful determinants of business survival and long-term success.
Across industries, from aviation and banking to telecommunications, hospitality, healthcare, retail, and digital platforms, customers now expect fast, seamless, and reliable service delivery at every touchpoint.
Yet despite technological advancements and operational improvements, service failures remain inevitable.
Systems experience downtime, deliveries are delayed, reservations are misplaced, payments fail, customer inquiries go unanswered, employees mishandle interactions, and digital platforms experience disruptions.
In the midst of these, what increasingly separates successful organisations from struggling ones is not whether failures occur, but how quickly and effectively they recover when they do.
Service Recovery
Simply put, it is the process of fixing a service problem and restoring customer confidence after a failure has occurred.
Examples of service recoveries are; an airline offering compensation after a flight delay, a telecom company restoring interrupted service and providing bonus data, a restaurant replacing a wrongly prepared meal at no extra cost, a hotel upgrading a guest’s room after a booking problem, and finally a bank reversing an erroneous transaction and apologising promptly.
As competition intensifies and customer expectations continue to rise, service recovery is rapidly evolving from a routine customer service function into a critical strategic capability.
Businesses are discovering a hard truth of the modern marketplace: fix customer problems quickly, or risk losing them permanently.
Customers are More Powerful Now Than Ever
Customers now possess more power than at any other time in business history. Digital technology, social media, online reviews, and mobile connectivity have fundamentally changed customer behaviour.
Consumers now easily compare competitors instantly, publicly share negative experiences, switch providers with ease, and influence the purchasing decisions of thousands of others online.
This evolution has made customer loyalty increasingly fragile. A single poor experience can quickly damage years of brand-building effort.
In highly competitive sectors where products and pricing are often similar, customer experience has emerged as one of the few sustainable competitive advantages.
Modern customers no longer evaluate organisations solely by product quality or pricing. Increasingly, they judge businesses by their responsiveness, reliability, transparency, empathy, and effectiveness in resolving problems.
Why Service Recovery Matters More Than Ever
Failures are no longer viewed as isolated operational incidents, especially in competitive service sectors. They are moments that directly influence customer trust, brand perception, and future purchasing behaviour.
Research across service industries consistently demonstrates that customers are often willing to forgive mistakes when organisations respond quickly, communicate honestly, show empathy, and resolve issues effectively.
Conversely, poor recovery experiences frequently create stronger dissatisfaction than the original service failure itself.
For many businesses, the greatest reputational damage does not arise from operational errors, but from delayed responses, poor communication, lack of accountability, and unresolved customer frustrations.
This has elevated service recovery into a central component of customer relationship management and competitive strategy.
Speed, a Competitive Weapon
In the modern service economy, speed is no longer merely operational efficiency; it is a basic customer expectation.
Consumers increasingly expect: immediate responses, real-time updates, fast complaint resolution, and proactive communication. Delays are often interpreted as incompetence, indifference, or organisational inefficiency.
Consequently, organisations are redesigning their service recovery frameworks to prioritize rapid intervention and customer reassurance.
A cursory assessment revealed that some businesses now operate dedicated customer experience teams, 24/7 support systems, AI-powered service platforms, automated escalation systems, and real-time issue monitoring dashboards.
The ability to resolve customer problems quickly is now a major source of competitive differentiation.
Technology Is Transforming Recovery Strategies
Technology is fundamentally reshaping how organisations manage service recovery. Across industries, companies are leveraging artificial intelligence, customer analytics, chatbots, predictive monitoring systems, and integrated digital support platforms.
These tools allow organisations to identify service failures earlier, monitor customer dissatisfaction, automate responses, personalize engagement, and accelerate resolution timelines.
Some organisations now proactively contact customers before complaints are formally lodged, using analytics to identify service disruptions in real time.
This means that the future of service recovery is increasingly preventive rather than purely reactive.
Service Recovery as a Brand Strategy
Forward-looking organisations are now treating service recovery as part of brand management strategy rather than operational damage control.
The logic is straightforward because, acquiring new customers is expensive, dissatisfied customers influence others, and loyalty is increasingly experience-driven.
Businesses are therefore measuring customer satisfaction, response times, complaint resolution rates, customer retention, and net promoter scores more aggressively than before.
In many industries, service recovery performance is now discussed at executive and board levels because of its direct relationship with profitability, reputation, and long-term growth.
A call to action
As industries become more digital, interconnected and customer-driven, service recovery will likely become even more important.
Therefore, organisations that succeed in the future will likely be those that respond rapidly, communicate transparently, empower employees, leverage technology intelligently, treat customers fairly, and place their (customers’) trust at the centre of recovery strategies.
Remember, customers now have more choices, less patience, and greater influence than ever before, a clear message to forward-looking organisations that when service breaks down, recovery is everything. Fix it fast or risk losing customers forever.
Writer: Mohammed Ali
Conflict at work is more common than you might think. According to 2022 research by The Myers-Briggs Company, more than a third of the workforce reports dealing with conflict often, very often, or all the time in the workplace.
Addressing a dispute might feel tense or awkward, but resolving the conflict is typically well worth it in the long run. Whether you are trying to mediate conflict between colleagues or are directly involved. Last week we looked at three and this week is the remaining four steps you can take to manage workplace conflict.
4. Find common ground
The best way to handle workplace conflict is to start with what you can agree on. Find common ground between the people engaging in conflict. If you are directly involved in the conflict, slow down and focus on results instead of who’s right.
If you are the mediator for conflict resolution between coworkers, observe the discussion and help point out the common ground others may not see.
5. Collectively brainstorm solutions
When deciding how to handle workplace conflict, it can be tempting to problem-solve on your own. Sometimes, it feels easier to work independently rather than collaboratively. However, if you want to achieve a lasting resolution, you will need to motivate your team to get involved.
Brainstorm possible solutions together, and solicit input from everyone involved on the pros and cons of each option until you settle on a solution that feels comfortable to everyone. This will help all team members feel a sense of ownership that can help prevent future conflicts.
6. Create an action plan
Once you have created an open dialogue around workplace conflicts, it is time to resolve them. Just like any other work goal, this requires creating a concrete plan and following through.
Create an action plan and then act on it. It does not matter what the plan is, as long as you commit to it and resolve the conflict as a result.
7. Reflect on what you learned
All conflicts offer an opportunity to grow and become a better communicator. Identify what went well and what did not.
Work with your whole team to gather learnings from the conflict so you can avoid similar situations in the future.
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Fix It Fast or Lose Them Forever: The Ever-Rising Importance of Service Recovery in Competitive Industries
