Galamsey: Akufo-Addo explains what he meant by putting his presidency on the line

President Nana  Addo Danwka Akufo-Addo has said that he took a huge political risk to fight the illegal small-scale mining (Galamsey) menace.

He recounted that due to the fight against galamsey, his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost a lot of parliamentary seats in the mining areas during the 2020 general elections.

During his ‘Thank You Tour’ in the Northeast Region on Tuesday, October 15, President Akufo-Addo “In the last election [2020] in the mining districts of the country, the NPP did very badly largely because the NDC presidential candidate and the party had gone around the mining areas and said that the policy that I was implementing of trying to stop galamsey would be reversed when he comes to power and that those who were already in jail for offences, the galamsey offences, all of them would be amnestied.

“When I said I was putting my presidency on the line, that’s what I meant, that I was prepared to take the political risk involved in trying to deal with this galamsey phenomenon. The result, of course, was that the mining districts, especially in the Western region, all of them, including almost nearly even Tarkwa, were lost to the NPP.

“That is what I meant when I said I’m putting my presidency on the line, that I was prepared to take the political risk involved in coming to grips with this problem.”

Akufo-Addo further asked Former President John Dramani  Mahama to declare his stance on galamsey.

“Today, he [Mahama] said that, no, he doesn’t believe in jail, that he’s against galamsey, and he will enforce the law. So once again, we have to ask ourselves, Mr. JM, where do you stand? What are you telling the people of Ghana? Because every time you speak, you speak from one corner of your mouth and you speak from another corner of your mouth.”