We salute our President for bold declaration on galamsey

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has indicated how prepared he is to put his Presidency on the line in his quest to rid the country of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

Addressing a workshop on galamsey for traditional leaders from different parts of the country last Monday, the President said in spite of calls on him to proceed cautiously because the people involved were those who voted him into power and, therefore, he risked losing their votes, that was not a bother to him.

The President’s declaration is bold, emphatic and intrepid and is indicative of his willingness to take the bull by the horns and even bite the bullet to tackle the issue fearlessly.

Just last week, about 22 young men perished at Nsuta in the Western Region when their illegal mining pit caved in. Occurrences such as that come with heavy social cost, including serious devastation to families, particularly dependents.

The arguments of the ‘galamseyers’ have been that they do not have any alternative livelihoods.

But the Daily Graphic begs to differ. Mining is not the only occupation in the country; other people are engaged in very simple innovative initiatives which are fetching them fortunes.

The country’s agricultural sector is still viable, even on subsistence basis, and so are vocational and technical trades which are helping scores of people across the country to keep body and soul together.

The Daily Graphic commends the President for taking a resolute and hard stance against the menace, with the determination to stamp it out of our society completely.

However, we want to remind him that we will continue to hold him by his words. This is not the first time a Head of State has made such a promise at the risk of his position.

At least, two examples come to mind — former President John Mahama promised he would not restore the allowances of teacher and nursing trainees even if that would cost him the Presidency, but when the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised to restore the allowances, the Mahama-led administration ate humble pie by restoring the teacher trainee allowance.

Similarly, President J. A. Kufuor, in 2008, increased the prices of petroleum products marginally before the first round of the general election. When the elections went into the second round, President Kufuor quickly reduced drastically the prices of fuel and utility tariffs and moved quickly to rehabilitate some major roads which his administration had earlier kicked against on the principle that it did not want to over-spend the budget to overheat the economy.

This is the reality that sometimes sandwiches our leaders in the dilemma of expedient but politically incorrect decisions.
The Daily Graphic, being a leading member of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, stands solidly behind the President in his resolve to stamp out galamsey and encourages him to walk the talk.

Fighting galamsey is a worthy cause and he must not stop at anything.