Do well to win galamsey fight!

 DURING his campaign last year for the country’s presidency, Mr John Dra­mani Mahama promised to fight illegal mining, otherwise known as galamsey, in the country.

At the time he was saying this everywhere he went, the Akufo-Addo government had de­clared a fight against the menace and so some wondered what he would do differently.

Today, he is the President and his government has begun varying the approaches to fighting illegal mining.

Just yesterday, his vice, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, opened a conference in Accra dubbed ‘Parliamentarians’ Con­ference on Restoring the Culture of Proper Small-scale Mining in Ghana’.

The Vice President said at the conference that there was the pressing need for collective action to curb illegal mining in the country.

She explained that illegal min­ing was destroying the country’s water bodies, arable lands and forests, and threatening the liveli­hoods of many communities that depend on these natural resources for survival.

The Ghanaian Times cannot agree with the Vice President more because the effects of illegal mining on the very survival of the entire country is well known to every adult citizen.

To some, the fight against galamsey appears to be a charade and something to make the populace accept that the govern­ment has actually risen against the nation wreckers.

Unfortunately, even in the midst of the fight, illegal miners have the impudence to dare the government that they would resist it.

That position clearly gives the impression that there are power­ful people behind the galamsey­ers, hence their impudence and bravado.

The Ghanaian Times, in a number of its editorials last year, did not fail to point out that the fight against galamsey could be won only if three principal stake­holders were ready to put in their genuine efforts.

This paper named these stake­holders as politicians, chiefs and security personnel.

This is why those of us work­ing on The Ghanaian Times are happy that there is a Parliamen­tarians’ Conference on Restoring the Culture of Proper Small-scale Mining in Ghana’.

Involving the parliamentarians in the fight against illegal mining is good for two foremost reasons.

They have constituencies where they can witness illegal mining going on in the communities and where the constituents can easily provide the necessary relevant information.

This means the politician cannot take part in the illegal enterprise as against rumours that some politicians are involved in it.

The second reason is that par­liamentarians, as the country’s law makers, can now find it incum­bent on them to analyse legisla­tion on galamsey and review it, if it is not deterrent enough.

Hopefully, there would be conferences for other stakehold­ers beyond the chiefs and security personnel.

There is the need to involve judges or the courts, as well as agencies like Lands Commission, Environmental Protection Agen­cy, Water Resources Commission, Forestry Commission, Minerals Income and Investment Fund, Ghana Geological Survey Au­thority, and Ghana Water Compa­ny Limited; and also extensively engage community members.

In such engagements, the government must solicit advice on the form the galamsey fight should take.

For instance, a senior lecturer at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Dr Ishmael Quaicoe, has cautioned against the militarisation of the fight against illegal mining, ex­plaining that approach is leading to gun proliferation, and posing security threat to the stability of the country.

He says the government’s attempt at fighting illegal mining with brute force has created “vic­tors and losers in a battle,” and that small-scale miners would find ways of fighting back.

The crux of the matter is that there are powerful persons be­hind those engaging in galamsey and the available legislation must be applied to get them to book.