Investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, believes the October 5, 2022 meeting called by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to renew the fight against illegal small-scale mining, galamsey, was fit only to be held at a concert house.
He is concerned that the President is not treating the scourge with the needed seriousness but rather holding meetings and seminars that does little in ensuring that the galamsey fight is won.
In a social media post addressing the anti-galamsey meeting held at the Lancaster Hotel in Manhyia, Manasseh compared the illegal miners to rebels and wondered if the president could have allowed them to run roughshod if they were killing Ghanaians.
Manasseh is also unhappy that the President assembled chiefs on a matter, he believes, the president should have a full brief of, to the extent that he appoints most of the security officers expected to lead the fight against galamsey at the national, regional and local levels.
"The problem is that the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces is not serious about the fight. Who deploys the soldiers to supervise and guard illegal mining and licensed illegal mining activities?
It continued: "Our nation is dying and the jokes of seminars and meetings should stop. Is Akufo-Addo saying if the illegal miners were rebels, Ghana's security forces would watch them helplessly so that they kill us?
"If he cannot lead the police, military and all the human resources under his command to stop galamsey, then he should step down as president," Manasseh stressed.
The October 5, 2022 meeting at Manhyia was with the National House of Chiefs and selected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, MMDCEs.
The president renewed his call for a non-partisan approach to fighting galamsey yet advising the MMDCEs that the best route to maintaining political power beyond 2024 was to root out the canker.
The House of Chiefs pledged their full support for the fight against the menace.
Read Manassseh's full post below:
THE JOKE AT MANHYIA TODAY
President Akufo-Addo met the National House of Chiefs at Manhyia today to discuss the fight against galamsey. I was happy I didn't see the Asantehene at that joke of a meeting, but they could have looked for a concert house for that meeting.
The chiefs have their own issues, but they should not be blamed for our inability to stop the illegal mining that is threatening our land and our survival. Even the stupidest person in Akufo-Addo's cabinet knows the solution to the galamsey problem.
The problem is that the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces is not serious about the fight. Who deploys the soldiers to supervise and guard illegal mining and licensed illegal mining activities? Who appoints the defence minister and the CDS? Who appoints the Regional Ministers and MMDCEs, who chair the regional and district security councils? If they are all failing why do we blame the chiefs? Does Akufo-Addo need permission from the chiefs to fire an appointee who is not doing his or her work?
If Akufo-Addo sends a message that any DCE or MCE who allows galamsey to happen in their district will be fired and prosecuted, it will stop next week. The MDEs and DCEs will save their jobs and stop the party executives from mining. They will expose the so-called big wigs behind the destructive concessions in the forests.
Our nation is dying and the jokes of seminars and meetings should stop. Is Akufo-Addo saying if the illegal miners were rebels, Ghana's security forces would watch them helplessly so that they kill us?
If he cannot lead the police, military and all the human resources under his command to stop galamsey, then he should step down as president.
NOTE: My attention has been drawn to the fact that the meeting was held in Manhyia, but not the palace. The correction has been effected.
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Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo