A member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) communications team, Dr. Ekua Amoakoh, has described President Mahama’s meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on illegal mining as an attempt to divert public attention from mounting pressure over the galamsey crisis.
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on Tuesday, October 7, Dr. Amoakoh argued that the meeting offered nothing new and was merely a reaction to growing frustration about the government’s handling of the menace.
“I don’t think it’s just the Minority that see it as such,” she said. “When he was speaking, the only thing I noted was there’s nothing new that he said. He listed a number of things — all initiatives that were essentially inherited by this government. So nothing new, nothing special has been done.”
Dr. Amoakoh said the engagement appeared to be a public relations move to ease the pressure on the administration.
“It was quite obvious that the pressure coming from society in general on this matter of illegal mining or galamsey was hitting at the heart of the government,” she explained. “And so he decided to do something sort of to divert attention. But sitting down and talking is okay because the people you speak to feel like they are involved in the matter.”
She added that stakeholder meetings on galamsey were not new and had yielded little over the years.
“This is not something that just started. Stakeholder engagements on galamsey were done several times in the past eight years, so it’s okay if they want to do that — but again, it doesn’t solve the problem; it doesn’t change anything at all.”
Dr. Amoakoh also criticised the government for failing to deliver on its campaign promises, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat illegal mining.
“We were made so many promises by the NDC government when they were in opposition. We were even told they would use AI to fight galamsey, and I haven’t heard of that since they came into power. I haven’t heard of anything new or substantial toward the fight against galamsey.”
According to her, the situation has deteriorated, citing recent public exchanges between top officials and stakeholders.
“I don’t know if you saw that banter between the Deputy Chief of Staff and Ken Ashigbey — that is just how much the matter has deteriorated,” she said.
Dr. Amoakoh argued that despite criticising the NPP’s approach, the current government has shown no improvement.
“Initially when we started speaking about this galamsey issue, everybody was attacked — ‘you were in power for eight years, why are you still talking?’ I find that line of argument very irritating because we are all in this country. You are in government; we saw how you handled this.”
She recalled that the current Minister for Communications, while in opposition, had claimed Ghana’s security forces had the capacity to deal with galamsey if there was political will.
“I came across a video of this current Minister for Communications saying on Newsfile that we have an army that’s 15,000 strong and police that’s 14,000 strong — and so the only thing impeding the fight against galamsey was the lack of political will,” she said. “Fast forward, now we have been under your government for almost nine months, and we are not seeing any improvement. Indeed, we are seeing a deterioration.”
She further alleged that some known members of the governing NDC are actively involved in illegal mining.
“We are seeing the involvement of known NDC people. We are seeing members of the NDC who are parliamentarians now being awarded as the best miners in Ghana.”
Dr. Amoakoh maintained that excuses, rather than action, have defined the government’s response to illegal mining and insisted that the fight cannot be won through military force alone.
“I have never been of the opinion that you can fight galamsey with just using the military,” she said. “I have said that here several times — I am just repeating their own words to them. Again, there are just more excuses.”
She also faulted the government for failing to repeal the Legislative Instrument (LI) governing small-scale mining, despite earlier pledges to do so.
“They said they were going to use AI, and that they were going to repeal the LI. I thought one of the first things they would have done when they came into government was to repeal it — but no, they chose to pass Gold Board in the dead of night instead.”
Dr. Amoakoh emphasised that her criticism stemmed from the government’s own words while in opposition.
“The problem with this galamsey fight, and indeed for the government, is the way they carried themselves on this matter in opposition,” she said. “There is nothing we’ve said that’s even coming from me — it’s what I’ve seen them say, and I’m asking.”
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