Political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has told Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor he is engaged in beautiful nonsense.
Prof. Gyampo described the initiative of the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor mandating the Regional Security Councils (REGSEC) to intensify enforcement actions on illegal small-scale mining as “beautiful nonsense hurriedly put together to tick a fake box of governmental responsiveness”.
In his response to the decision taken by the Minister yesterday, he said it is a “clear show of lack of grasp of the enormity of the problem and the urgency with which it must be tackled”.
He noted that such effort is targeted at dousing the resolve of the Labor Unions.
“No labor union or civil society can be fooled by this. Place a moratorium on mining, whether legal or illegal; let our water bodies recover their integrity; and then let there be a national conversation on mining that doesn’t leave dangerous ecological footprints. We would flex every muscle as labor, to achieve this” Prof. Gyampo echoed.
He cautioned of politicizing the fight against illegal mining stating it is a problem that predates all governments under the Fourth Republic. “Hence the fight to restore our environmental integrity must be seen only as such and not targeted at making any regime unpopular”.
Gyampo explained that the “resolve to fight all mining activities that undermine our very source of livelihood and leave dangerous ecological footprints is irrespective of regime. We are where we are now because of excessive partisanship that has blinded us from seeing real problems and solving them”.
“This is a fight against an existential threat. It can therefore not be construed to be weakening the chances of the ruling government and strengthening the opposition. Whether it is NPP or NDC or Movement for Change or CPP, etc in power, our hatred and resolve to end galamsey would not stop until the battle is won” Prof. Gyampo concluded on his Facebook wall.