NPP Communicator describes government’s fight against galamsey as a failure

A member of the Navrongo Central New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications Team, Donald Abowinum has criticised the NDC government’s fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, describing it as a failure.

Speaking on the Big Mike Breakfast Show on Wednesday October 21, Abowinum said the government’s proposed strategy to track excavators and mercury was inadequate and amounted to a repetition of measures previously pursued under the Akufo-Addo administration.

He challenged the government to demonstrate tangible results in its fight against illegal mining.

Abowinum argued that the government had no justification for easing its efforts or attributing the persistence of illegal mining to human behaviour, insisting that it should be judged by the effectiveness of its interventions.

He accused the NDC of adopting a different posture on galamsey after assuming office, recalling its demonstrations and press conferences while in opposition, during which party members displayed bottles of water from polluted water bodies to highlight the environmental damage caused by illegal mining.

He challenged the party to demonstrate the same level of urgency in addressing the problem while in government.

“The same human beings the NDC is dealing with today are the people they used to make cheap politics with when they were in opposition,” he argued.

He therefore called on the government to reconsider its approach and introduce more effective measures to tackle the menace.

To support his argument, he outlined several interventions implemented under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, including amendments to the Minerals and Mining Act to increase penalties for illegal mining, ratification of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and the introduction of various enforcement and regulatory mechanisms.

He said the measures were intended to strengthen accountability, deter illegal mining and regulate the use of mercury.

Abowinum also questioned the government’s commitment to its Reset Ghana agenda, raising allegations concerning some NDC officials whom he claimed had been linked to illegal mining.

He maintained that the NPP did not condone illegal mining and insisted that any individual found culpable during the previous administration should be held accountable.

Abowinum further alleged that some NDC communicators had campaigned on mining sites in 2020, promising illegal miners that they would be allowed to work if the party returned to power. He argued that such messages contributed to the political challenges faced by the NPP during the 2020 general elections, which resulted in a hung Parliament.

He also criticised Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George and Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, accusing them of being less vocal about the pollution of water bodies than they were while in opposition.

According to Abowinum, George had disclosed during a Government Accountability Series engagement that galamsey accounted for 25 per cent of cuts to optical fibre infrastructure.

He questioned why the ministers had not maintained the same level of public advocacy on the pollution of water bodies, which he said continued to exhibit discolouration.

Abowinum also highlighted several anti-galamsey interventions undertaken under the Akufo-Addo administration, including a six-month ban on small-scale mining, a subsequent suspension of small-scale mining activities from 2017 to December 2018, the deployment of Operation Vanguard, the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP), the formation of District Mining Committees, and the seizure of excavators.

He argued that these interventions demonstrated the previous administration’s efforts to combat illegal mining and called for a more consistent, non-partisan approach to addressing the problem.

Mike 105.3 FM I Navrongo | Espenezer Webonga

Maseda Spices