Galamsey fight: I will move galamseyers into industrial hemp cultivation as alternative livelihood – Presidential Candidate

Independent Presidential Candidate, George Twum-Barimah-Adu, has disclosed that if he were the president of Ghana, he would move the galamseyers from the dangerous illegal mining into Indian hemp cultivation to provide an alternative sustainable livelihood for them.

George Twum-Barimah-Adu recounted that he met some galamsey workers in the Western Region and they told him that if they are guaranteed X amount of money every month, they will stop the galamsey because they are aware of the risks and it is killing them.

He explained to Blakk Rasta in an interview on the 3FM Urban Blend show that he would move the galamseyers from the illegal mining into industrial hemp cultivation because Southern African countries have successfully moved the youth from tobacco cultivation to industrial hemp cultivation and it is giving them good money.

“From studies, industrial hemp is used for medicine and so many things. I will legalize it, but I won’t legalize marijuana” he clarified.

Mr Twum-Barimah-Adu attributed the growth of galamsey to the failure of Ghana’s developmental models to tackle the human perspectives to grow and develop the individuals in the past 32 years.

“When people are hungry, they will do anything and everything to make money. So first and foremost, we have to tackle it from the point where we get the people something to do that will make them earn good income” he proposed.

George Twum-Barimah-Adu however emphasized that in the interim, small-scale mining must be paused. “I won’t say we have to stop it. We have to pause and make sure that we put all the necessary measures in place”.

“As for the water bodies, that must be stopped and ended with all the necessary force that we need to use, but the others, we have to pause till we get it right” he added.

George admonished “we cannot kill ourselves to become rich. There is no sense in that, so we must pause till we get it right even if it will take years. Until we all decide to do the responsible mining that has been done since time immemorial without destroying forest and water bodies, then we should let the gold and everything stay till we learn to do it right”.

He argued that the galamsey menace facing Ghana has not been successfully dealt with because of political partisanship.

“So you see this galamsey that everybody is talking about, one party will say because they will lose votes, they don’t want to say anything about it. That is the problem with the political party system” he concluded.

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By Samuel Afriyie Owusu

The post Galamsey fight: I will move galamseyers into industrial hemp cultivation as alternative livelihood – Presidential Candidate first appeared on 3News.

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