Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Science and Technology, John Darko, has urged the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to work together to end illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.
Speaking on Prime Insight on Joy Prime on Saturday, October 4, during discussions on President John Mahama’s engagement with civil society organisations (CSOs) on galamsey, Mr Darko said political divisions were making it harder to address the crisis.
“What I have realised is that we are happy to talk politics. We are happy to exchange words, especially between the two major political parties. The jury is still out there both members of the two political parties are engaged in galamsey one way or the other,” he stated.
He explained that while the NDC and NPP continue to trade blame, illegal miners are taking advantage of the division.
“It appears that while NPP and NDC are fighting, the illegal miners are the ones looting the gold and destroying the water.
“They are happy for the political parties to fight ‘you did this, you did that’ but the people engaging in illegal mining are still there making money,” he said.
Mr Darko noted that people from both political parties have been involved in galamsey, making it difficult for any government to act decisively.
“There are several NDC people who are also engaged in this activity, and they are not the only ones,” he pointed out.
He urged the government to show genuine commitment to fighting the menace by being fair and firm, regardless of political affiliations.
“Let’s be honest and say that whoever is engaging in this, even if the person belongs to our party, we will fight it. When you do that, people will see your commitment,” he said.
According to Mr Darko, politicising the fight against galamsey only makes it harder for the government to succeed.
“When we continue to politicise it, it makes your work even more difficult. Maybe one of the ways we can do this is for the two major political parties to sit down, have a dialogue, and make a deal,” he suggested.
He recalled that before the 2020 general elections, the NPP government had made strong efforts to tackle illegal mining, including a temporary ban on small-scale mining. However, he said those measures affected the party politically and led to a weakened fight ahead of the next election.
“Before the 2020 election, the NPP was fighting galamsey. The President even stopped mining for several months, and that affected the party in 2020. Ahead of 2024, the fight was relaxed because, as a political party that wants power, it became difficult to sustain,” he explained.
Mr Darko proposed that both parties consider a cooperative approach that prioritises national interest over politics.
“For example, maybe the NPP is prosecuting one or two people. The President could say, ‘I see you love your former Minister, maybe he’s done A, B, C, D in exchange for leaving him, give me 100% support to fight galamsey.’ That’s how we make deals to resolve national issues. But they are not ready to even listen,” he said.
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