Mr. Akwasi Duodu, a former organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Manhyia Constituency who is into large scale mining, has challenged President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo’s approach to the fight against illegal mining.
According to him the President was only paying lip service to the exercise.
Speaking to The Chronicle, Mr. Duodu contended that the deployment of the military like Operation Vanguard and other security agencies to fight the menace was not enough, hence, the need to revise his notes.
The miner also recommended that the President engages the Minerals Commission and other stakeholders in the mining industry to ensure that they share ideas in putting in place measures to collectively to win the fight.
He stressed that the current approach to fight illegal mining cost the President in the 2020 general elections, hence, the need to engage the state security and industry players in the mining sector.
The former party organiser also advised the President against following the ways of his predecessors, former presidents John Agyekum Kufuor, John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama, which did not see the light of the day.
Mr. Duodu argued that no government can win the fight against illegal mining without the involvement of stakeholders, especially, those in the mining sector, be it small scale or large scale mining.
He disclosed that the operations of Operation Vanguard, which were assigned to stop illegal mining did not help the President’s vision, as the military turned their operations into a money making avenue to enrich themselves at the expense of the President’s determination to stop illegal mining towards preserving the forest reserves and protect water bodies.
He disclosed that most of the security deployed to ensure the realisation of the President’s vision took bribes from the illegal miners to compromise their stance, and stressed the need for the President to deploy more security agencies for the task.
Mr. Duodu also suggested that the President consults the miners themselves for inputs, adding that there were some individuals in government and the party who were masterminding illegal mining, which defeats the President ambition, thus, resulting in the electoral losses, especially, in the mining communities.
The post President’s approach to galamsey fight not the best -NPP stalwart appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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