President John Dramani Mahama has admitted that illegal mining, commonly referred to as galamsey, involves individuals from diverse political and traditional backgrounds.
He stated that the battle against this menace will be challenging yet imperative.
During a meeting with Organised Labour at the Jubilee House in Accra on Tuesday, March 17, the President underscored the complexity of combating illegal mining due to its deep-rooted presence in Ghanaian society, transcending party lines and local leadership.
He also acknowledged that persons involved in the illegal act often shift allegiance when governments change, allowing the practice to persist.
“Illegal mining has eaten into the fabric of our society. And I must say that it is not only a menace to our society, but it has involved a circle of traditional rulers, political party appointees and everything,” he said.
“Even when one party changes, those who were running some operation, who went to one party, will go to the next party and say, ‘Now that you have come, come and take over this operation, and let’s share. We too will be getting small; this is what we are doing. And so I don’t kid myself that we don’t have our own people involved,” he stated.
According to him, the work of the anti-illegal mining task force is challenging, especially in communities where resistance is strong.
“And the work of the NAIMOS is not easy. They go to a community, and the chiefs, the youth and everybody come out and resist them. And so I didn’t kid myself that we would be able to win that fight overnight. But we cannot relent; we must continue,” he said.
He spoke about logistical challenges facing the anti-galamsey fight, particularly the lack of patrol equipment to monitor rivers and forest reserves.
“One of the problems we have is we don’t have patrol boats, especially on our waterways, for nine months to continue to patrol the waterways,” he explained.
He added that the government is working with the Finance, Defence and Interior ministries to provide the resources to the team dealing with the galamsey menace.
“So we are working with the minister of finance to be able to maintain that,” he said.
Meanwhile, he has linked the rise in illegal mining to challenges in the cocoa sector.
He stated that low producer prices have pushed some farmers to abandon cocoa farming for gold mining.
“And it doesn’t help when we have a crisis in the cocoa industry. The low price that was paid to cocoa farmers made some of them give up their farms for gold mining,” he noted.
He was optimistic that stabilising cocoa prices would discourage farmers from turning to illegal mining.
He said his government is currently working on a pricing mechanism that ensures farmers receive a fair share of global prices.
“We are hoping that it will stabilise with the new automatic mechanism we are coming up with so that farmers know that they are getting 70% of the price,” he said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana