John Dramani Mahama has chided the media for their failure in holding President Akufo-Addo accountable on promises made prior to his assumption of office in fighting illegal mining within the country.
The flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has alleged that the president had failed in his fight against illegal mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey’ in the country.
With this, he blames the media partly for failing to expose the corruption in government’s galamsey fight.
“The media is not holding government accountable despite knowing what is going on in the galamsey sector”.
Speaking in an interview, John Mahama in similar vein accused the incumbent government of seizing concessions belonging to the ordinary Ghanaian and handing them over to members of its party.
“So if you go to the mining communities, DCEs and NPP party chairmen are actively in the galamsey business”.
Comparatively, the NDC flagbearer noted that the scrutiny the previous government under his leadership was subjected to by the media has waned during the leadership of President Akufo-Addo.
As such, the promises made by him has largely fallen through the cracks or partly fulfilled by him.
“Government officials have never been involved in galamsey in our time as compared to now. Akufo-Addo has failed when it comes to the fight against galamsey and he probably should even not be running for office”.
Mr. Mahama further requested President Akufo-Addo to resign for failing to ensure that illegal mining has been halted in the country.
He made this comment in line with a promise made by the President to vacate his seat if he failed to tackle the canker.
“Akufo-Addo has failed when it comes to the fight against ‘galamsey’ and so if he has put his tenure on the line then he probably shouldn’t be running for the next presidency, he should be resigning now”.
As part of his State of the Nation’s Address to Parliament, President Akufo-Addo had lauded his government for achievements in the fight, though he admitted that there are still some challenges that need to be addressed.
However, Mr. Mahama said employing military force has never been the right approach in combatting illegal mining.
“In our time, we also used that approach but we realized it didn’t lead to anything positive. That is not the right way to do it. You cannot use force of arms to combat illegal mining”.
Additionally, he indicated that water bodies are still being polluted, while lands and other natural resources are also being depleted from activities of galamsey, further emphasizing the abysmal performance by the NPP government in relation to the galamsey fight.
“So you need to bring in some incentives and bring better supervision to the sector”.
