The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has described the five-member ad hoc ministerial committee constituted by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to engage stakeholders to assess the government’s efforts to deal with illegal mining activities, popularly known as galamsey as dead on arrival.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s ‘I Stand Against Galamsey’ campaign, GNAT’s General Secretary, Thomas Musah, intimated that there is nothing new that the five members will bring to the galamsey fight.
President Akufo-Addo on Friday, September 13, announced the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, as the chairman of the committee to be assisted by four other ministers.
But GNAT indicated that the ministers, most of whom are contesting in the upcoming December 7 polls, will have little to no time, to engage to address the galamsey issues.
“The constitution of the new committee by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is dead on arrival because the only new person there is the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations and these ministers will soon go and contest in their various constituencies and there is no way they will get time to get this thing done.
“In any case, the promise [to end galamsey] was made by the president and not ministers and we have gone past this stage already and therefore the invitation by the committee for us to meet them on Tuesday is a non-starter and we are asking that a state of emergency must be declared given the evidence that we have.”
GNAT also made five demands, including the following;
1. Immediately declare a state of emergency.
2. Evacuate all mining equipment from forest reserves and water bodies.
3. Revoke Law 2462 and withdraw all mining and prospecting licenses in forests, protected reserves, and water bodies.
4. Deploy Police and Military to remove and destroy all mining and earth-moving equipment in river bodies and forest reserves.
5. Establish a special court to prosecute those involved in illegal mining (Galamsey).