Business24 Editorial: Galamsey fight a sham!

President Nana Akufo-Addo in his first term of office pledged to put an end to the galamsey menace destroying the country’s arable lands and vegetation cover.

A moratorium on small scale mining was placed to rein in all activities of small-scale miners. Excavators were seized. An inter-ministerial task force was established to among other things ensure that directives issued by government were not flouted.

But all these measures now appear to be window dressing if reports from some of these galamsey-prone areas are anything to go by. A recent news report by an Accra-based FM station uncovered how some military personnel were allegedly giving protection to a company mining illegally.

Even before the station would go out with its full report, the company goes to court to secure an injunction to forbid the station from broadcasting the report. Not that this means complicity but this kind of reportage are becoming one too many.

While the Ghana Armed Forces may have indicated its readiness to investigate the incident, this would only amount to being a judge your own cause – and we may never find out the facts

The President, who is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces must, as a matter of priority, call for a thorough investigation not just into this recent incident but into the brazenness with which some galamseyers are going about their practice.

Not only are we losing our farmlands to the wanton destruction of these miners but our forests – some of which may be the source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.

We need a renewed commitment to the fight against illegal mining – one that is not a lip service. We cannot pretend to be business as usual. With Parliament set to vet the Lands and Natural Resources Minister-designate, Samuel Jinapor, the legislators must push for a commitment to reduce the devastation.