Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has criticised successive Ghanaian governments for what he describes as a lack of serious commitment to tackling illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
Mr Braimah said the continued destruction caused by illegal mining shows that governments have not matched their promises with strong and practical action to protect the country’s natural resources.
Speaking about galamsey, he warned that Ghanaians cannot continue to watch as illegal mining threatens the country’s future and deprives generations yet unborn of vital natural resources.
“We shouldn’t simply look on while the future of our country and future generations is being destroyed,” he said.
Mr Braimah was critical of both the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration and the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, arguing that neither has demonstrated the level of commitment required to effectively deal with the problem.
He described the promises made by successive administrations as largely “fanciful”, suggesting that political leaders have repeatedly failed to translate their declarations into sustained action against illegal mining.
According to him, the current NDC administration has so far failed to make what he considers serious and realistic commitments towards addressing the crisis.
“I think it is saddening to see that after the NPP’s failures, we brought in the NDC and so far, I won’t say that the government of the day has made any serious and realistic commitments towards the fight against galamsey,” he said.
Mr Braimah further compared the rhetoric of the two administrations, saying former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appeared more forceful in his public statements against illegal mining than the current government.
“If anything at all, Akufo-Addo was much stronger in terms of the rhetoric [against galamsey] than the Mahama regime,” he added.
