Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe, has opined that godfathers of illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) met yesterday October 5 to feign a fight against the menace.
His comment comes on the back of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s meeting with the National House of Chiefs at Manhyia to discuss matters concerning the galamsey menace.
In a Facebook post on October 5, Franklin Cudjoe said the stakeholders who met only disowned their ‘child’ but will continuously benefit from it.
He wrote: “Galamsey just got another bad name today. The godfathers assembled to disown their own child but will continue benefitting from its existence.”
Akufo-Addo courts House of Chiefs support anti-galamsey fight
President Akufo-Addo in an address to the National House of Chiefs expressed concerns over galamsey activities which he admits has been a lost battle over the years.
He said even though he put his presidency on the line to combat the menace in 2017, it results has not been what he expected.
The president said he paid an electoral price for his fight as he lost votes and, in some cases, NPP MPs in the 7th Parliament lost their reelection bid in mining communities.
He stated that the fight against illegal mining can only be won with the support of chiefs as well as stamping out politics from it.
“It can only succeed if it is a truly national battle that no one seeks to exploit for political gain, as we saw in the last election. The progress of our country depends on all of us, all citizens of Ghana, all Fellow Ghanaians, pulling together to defeat this existential threat to our future,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Ghana has been waging war on the activities of illegal miners however it is widely believed that the fight has not yielded the desired results.
The discolored nature of water bodies as well as general environmental degradation has been used as a testament to the failed fight.