The former Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Allotey Jacobs, has described the ongoing discussions about galamsey activities as a political issue.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo show on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, he noted that galamsey issues have persisted for a long time, dating back to the administration of the late former president Jerry John Rawlings.

He added that none of the past administrations were able to effectively tackle and combat the menace.

“Currently, the issues surrounding galamsey have become a political issue. Galamsey started from Rawlings’ time. President Rawlings couldn’t do anything about it; the issue resurfaced during president Kuffour’s government and he couldn’t fight it. It also came under the administration of Professor Atta Mills and John Mahama and they didn’t do anything about it.”

Allotey Jacobs asserted that President Akufo-Addo fulfilled his promise to combat galamsey, even at the risk of his presidency.

He attributed NPP’s loss of parliamentary seats in some key areas to Akufo-Addo’s commitment to addressing the problem.

“Now it has fallen on Nana Akufo-Addo. The only thing Akufo-Addo said is he will risk his presidency to combat galamsey activities. He risked it; to be factual, he risked it and for that reason the NPP lost almost all their seats because most areas dominant with galamsey activities were lost by the NPP; because there is another opposition party who was clamoring for votes. Now they feel it is time to gain an advantage again so they want to expose the very people who were trying their best to stop galamsey,” Allotey stressed.

He, however, opined that small-scale community mining could have helped resolve galamsey problems in the country, but the high unemployment rate among youths led politicians to exploit their frustrations and deceive them into engaging in galamsey.

“Ghanaians are very stubborn, there is an innovation to this galamsey business and that is small-scale community mining. That would have solved this problem but because of the frustration on the part of unemployed youth, they are easily deceived by politicians who want power. So, Ghanaians are the cause of their own woes because the government has done all they can but its not working,” he added.

MAG/MA