Former executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Henry Kwabena Kokofu, has asserted that state institutions, not politicians, should take the lead in combating illegal small-scale mining, also known as galamsey.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Wednesday, December 17, Dr. Kokofu emphasized that the method has proven unproductive over time and stated that both current and previous approaches that mostly rely on political leadership have continuously failed.
“It takes the use of state institutions that can help. The current situation and the past situation where politicians are put in the forefront in the fight against galamsey has proven not to be worth it. It is not working. Why are we continuously doing that?” he questioned.
Dr. Kokofu cited President John Dramani Mahama’s first term as the first significant attempt by a sitting president to take on Galamsey. But he claimed that because politicians were positioned at the center of the campaign, the strategy was unsuccessful.
“President Mahama in his first term was the first president in this country to have taken the battle against galamsey head on, and he failed. Between 2012 and 2014, it couldn’t work because politicians were put in the forefront. We had the inter-ministerial committee on galamsey and we all saw the results,” he stated.
He also reminisced on the early years of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration, saying that some initial progress was made in the fight against illegal mining after 2017.
However, he said that those accomplishments were not sustained, notably during the government’s second term.
“If you will recall, the first real battle that was won against galamsey was chalked under the Akufo-Addo government. But going forward, we lost it, particularly in the second term. We couldn’t fight galamsey and it is obvious that it was part of our demise,” he stated.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
