Too much English impeding anti-galamsey fight - Akua Donkor to govt

Government must rethink the medium of language it employs in sensitization efforts in the fight against illegal small-scale mining known as galamsey.

This is the view of Akua Donkor, founder and leader of Ghana Freedom Party, GFP, whe she made submissions late last week at a National Dialogue on galamsey in Accra.

“What I want to say is that all that he [President

Read full article.Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] has said, he has to say them again.

"He has to reorganise the program [National Dialogue] again because those who mine the gold, none of them understand English,” she said.

She stressed that even if any miners tuned in to the programme which was carried live by some news outlets, chances were high that they would find it difficult to appreciate the submissions.

It is not the first time Madam Donkor is pushing for local languages to be used in national discourse.

In November 2020 in the run up to the 2020 polls, she told Accra-based Adom FM that if elected president she will push for local languages to be used in schools, parliament and throughout the court system.

The media was another group that she tasked to disseminate information on galamsey using local languages in order to get the message to sink down properly.

New Lands and Mineral Resources Minister spoke at a two-day National Consultative Dialogue on galamsey last week at the Accra International Conference Centre.

The dialogue attended by the president and other high profile stakeholders in the lands sector was to solicit views, proposals and suggestions on how to effectively tackle the incidence of galamsey which was one of the biggest challenges of the Akufo-Addo 1 government.

It was organised by the Forestry Commission under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.