The former Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Inusah Fuseini has described the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) under the first tenure of the Akufo-Addo administration as a failure.
Speaking in an interview on the fight against “galamsey”, he said due to the failure of the committee,;a new platform has been created to tackle the issue at hand.
“The interministerial committee was a total failure. The chairman of the committee was not even invited to share his expertise at the forum which is ongoing. The President knowing it was a failure does not want to be associated with it; that’s why a new platform is being created to deal with the situation.”
Inusah Fuseini
His comments come on the back of the two-day National Consultative Dialogue on small-scale mining; which seeks to tackle issues related to mining in the country.
The former minister also said the use of military men in warding off the illegal miners;from the various sites is not “the use of the military isn’t ‘the be-all and end-all’ because they are human beings and can be compromised.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Affail Monney, also stated that,;the ongoing National Consultative Forum on small scale Mining in Accra is an indication that;the momentum in fighting the social canker previously failed.
“The fight against “galamsey” is achievable given what we saw in the past. The dialogue is an open admission that we were doing well but we failed at that moment. So, there’s the need to be more tenacious.”
Affail Monney
Restore campaign against illegal mining
The President of Association further emphasized the need to restore the heightened campaign against illegal mining, also known as “galamsey”.
He spoke as a stakeholder since GJA is part of a media coalition against “galamsey”;established at the peak of the “galamsey” fight, after President Akufo-Addo placed a temporal ban on small-scale mining.
Speaking on the programme so far, the Lands and Resource Minister, Samuel Jinapor assured the public that;the fight against illegal mining was going to be successful. He also said various measures will be put in place for the various small-scale-miners;in order to help remove the illegal aspect of the activity from the sector. Read more: https://bit.ly/2Qv5CpL
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo also speaking at the opening of the national dialogue said;he was determined to enforce the law and punitive measures on faulters on illegal mining matters. He also asked all the stakeholders involved to be bi-partisan in the fight against “galamsey”. Read more: https://bit.ly/3wSgaAh
The National Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining,;which ends today, April 15, 2021,;is expected to come out with a communiqué on the solution to the illegal mining menace.
The forum which focused on challenges facing the small-scale mining sector has had inputs from key mining experts,;the Small-Scale Mining Association, the Coalition of Civil Society Against Illegal Small-Scale Mining amongst other stakeholders.
