President John Dramani Mahama’s approach to fighting illegal mining, popularly referred to as galamsey, will not work; this is according to security analyst Paul Boateng.
His comments come on the back of an announcement made by Interior Minister Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka that the government has repatriated over a hundred Chinese nationals involved in the galamsey.
Boateng, who is the Executive Director of the Africa Center for Security and Intelligence Studies (ACSIS), observed that repatriating foreign nationals to their countries, transferring police commanders from the galamsey communities regularly, and confiscating excavators, among others, would not yield any positive results.
“Government’s approach to fighting galamsey won’t work; all the approaches they have adopted won’t solve the problem. It is like we don’t have the political will and have been dancing around the problem” said Boateng to Kumasi-based Nhyira FM recently monitored by Ghana Eye Report.
He blamed the country’s political leaders as well as the various leaders in our local communities for contributing to the galamsey problem.
Commenting on the joint operations undertaken by the police, the military, and other security agencies to fight the menace, the security analyst observed that research has established that joint operations involving the military and other security agencies do not work to an appreciable level.
“If you give the Armed Forces a specific role to perform, they do it well rather than undertaking joint operations.” he stressed.
According to him, the military has some pride, and if they are given a particular task to perform on their own, they execute it perfectly and propose that if we are serious about fighting galamsey in the country, the Ghana Armed Forces should be made to lead that operation solely.
“If indeed we have the political will and are committed to winning the galamsey battle, I will suggest we make a law and entrust all our land, forests, and water bodies to the care of the Ghana Armed Forces and let’s see if anybody can enter such areas to do anything that they like in two months time,” Boateng further stated.
The galamsey menace is an age-old problem but has grown from bad to worse in recent times owing to the sheer number of stakeholders involved in the practice and the failure of successive governments to tackle the problem head-on.
Page 80 of the 2024 manifesto of the then-opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) states, “The NPP government has harmed the environment by allowing increased illegal mining activities, with political figures heavily implicated. Additionally, there have been attempts to privatize forest reserves like the Achimota Forest,” it said.
“The next NDC government will introduce a ‘restore Ghana initiative’ to deal with the issue of galamsey-impacted lands and water bodies through a comprehensive land and water-based rehabilitation and pollution control programme; and reclaim and convert impacted land into viable agricultural farmlands,” it added. Enditem
Source: Ghana Eye Report
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