Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker, has hit back at critics of the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government. Regarding the issue of illegal mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey’, the Deputy Minister argued that those criticizing the government should first condemn previous statements made by former President John Dramani Mahama and demand an apology from him to Ghanaians.
In a 2020 address, Mr. Mahama accused the current government of favoring foreigners involved in illegal mining in the country. He stated that, “The government said it was fighting galamsey and they arrested, prosecuted, and jailed Ghanaians who were engaged in that activity but left the Chinese woman.”
He added that, “Today, they are still in prison. That Chinese ‘galamsey’ queen was arrested but left to go free. She was never prosecuted but our people are in jail suffering.”
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress further promised that his next government would grant amnesty to arrested ‘galamseyers’, saying “When we come, we shall grant all those arrested and jailed some amnesty. They will come back to their homes and work. I believe that these operators are remorseful towards any unlawful activities, so we will give them another chance. We would institute measures to check the operations of small-scale mining.”
In recent times, civil organizations such as the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Apostolic Fathers of Ghana, and the Labour Union have all called for a temporary ban on small-scale mining while the government works out permanent solutions to the practice.
In his address at the commissioning of the Meretweso Community Mining Scheme in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality of the Central Region on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, Mr. Mireku expressed the opinion that a ban on small-scale mining is “misdirected”.
“It is misdirected because I was expecting them to have condemned the statement made by His Excellency former President Mahama before even calling for this action because you can’t just, in a way out of the blue, say put a ban. Ban on what?” he asked.
Mr. Duker further questioned, “What are the metrics, what have you done? What analysis have you done? The statement President Mahama made was unfortunate so why didn’t they in a way ask him to apologise?”
According to the Deputy Minister, the government opposes the destruction of water bodies and forest reserves. However, it is exploring ways to protect these resources, including farmlands, and announced that river guards will soon be deployed to safeguard the water bodies
“Secondly, yes people are destroying our waterbodies there are measures we need to take to clamp down recalcitrant who are destroying our waterbodies, and I agree with them perfectly…But I am against it. Personally against the call for the ban on mining generally. You can’t ban mining. Why must you ban mining,” he remarked.