Galamsey has gotten out of hand – Sulemana Braimah

The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, says illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, has spiralled beyond control, warning that the problem requires honesty and a united national response rather than political blame games.

He said both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) had struggled with the problem, insisting that political parties must acknowledge the involvement of their own members and executives if Ghana is to make meaningful progress.

“The reality is that the galamsey issue has gotten out of hand,” he said.

Mr Braimah argued that the NDC, while in opposition, understood that tackling illegal mining would be far more difficult than it had suggested during its political campaign.

He said President John Dramani Mahama had acknowledged that some NDC members were involved in illegal mining, just as members of the previous NPP administration had also been implicated.

“What it takes at this stage is honesty and a sense of patriotism,” he said, urging the governing party to acknowledge the scale of the challenge and admit that political promises may have underestimated its complexity.

Mr Braimah suggested that such an admission would create room for both the NDC and NPP to set aside partisan differences and work together against illegal mining.

“If the NDC will come and tell us that they knew the galamsey problem was too much of a problem and was going to be difficult, but maybe we did politics with it to come to power, the NDC and I believe we will also understand, and the NPP can also acknowledge, so that together we can confront what a common enemy is,” he said.

He made the comments on JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on Saturday, October 31, during a discussion on the government’s efforts to tackle illegal mining and whether current interventions are producing sustainable results.