Speaking on Joy News’ NewsFile programme monitored by GhanaWeb on Saturday (October 10), Dr. Tamakole warned that if a state of emergency is not declared soon, 'galamsey' will lead to the collapse of Ghana.
“Where we have reached with this thing, I believe it is time a decision is taken. And if a decision is not taken, this poor country called Ghana will faint. Because at the moment, the country is bleeding profusely.
“I will say if we really want to solve this problem, the state in which we are now is a state that we need what we call a declaration of a state of emergency, immediately. This must be put on military footing, and I can assure you, this will completely end this crisis," he said.
Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe said that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo currently seems not to know what he is doing.
“It appears the president, at the moment, does not know exactly where he is going. It is so sad. I say it is so sad because I have backed him all my lifetime in politics, so I don’t see why he can’t take such an easy decision. The president I know who could say no and his no was his no, now cannot take decisions,” he noted.
Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has refuted suggestions that his government is not committed to the fight against illegal small-scale mining (‘galamsey’).
According to Akufo-Addo, his government has been committed to the fight against the menace since his first day in office and its determination to curb it even cost his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), some votes in the 2020 General Elections.
The president, who made these remarks at a meeting with the National House of Chiefs and some Municipal Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in Kumasi, intimated that the votes he and his party lost showed that he really put his presidency on the line to fight 'galamsey'.
"Since I took office on January 7th, 2017, nearly six years ago, I have made it a central feature of my presidency to lead in the fight to rid our country of this menace, which we all now call galamsey. Indeed, it was an important aspect of my inaugural address that day. It has not been easy; it has not been popular and we have not gotten the immediate results that I was looking for.
“Indeed, in the last election of 2020, my stance on the issue cost my party and I significant losses in the mining communities. It turned out that my statement that I was putting my presidency on the line in the fight against galamsey was neither bumbazed nor reckless. It was the simple truth,” he said.
IB/BOG
Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe (left), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (right)