Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, a founding member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), has asked the government to hand over the illegal mining (galamsey) fight entirely to the military.
He says the deployment of a single company to deal with illegal mining will not solve the problem until a further step has been taken.
According to him, the fight needs an entire battalion to cater for it rather than sending few soldiers to the mining sites to massage the canker.
“This particular operation is not a political operation. It must be an operation that would be handled entirely by the military. And it is an operation that just a company cannot handle it. It is an operation that must be handled by a whole battalion to be able to have a very successful operation,” he said on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
He says clear objectives must be spelt to the military and the operation left in the care of the commanders, expressing optimism for a better result.
“To me the entire operation should be left in the hand of the military. They should be given clear objectives and targets and the rest should be left in the hands of their commanders and I can assure you, if that is done, within a week, you’ll see a clear change,” he added.
He, however, chided President Akufo-Addo for refusing to accept blame for his failure to address the illegal mining menace.
Instead of taking the blame and addressing the matter head-on, President Akufo-Addo, as usual of him, according to Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, is absolving himself of blame on the matter.
The former administrator of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) says he is not surprised that the President is shifting blame on the matter instead of doing the needful.
His comments come on the back of Akufo-Addo’s call on the flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, to clarify his approach to dealing with illegal mining (galamsey) if elected.
Despite the turbidity levels of water bodies and destruction of forest reserves being the worst under his leadership, President Akufo-Addo has also said that his administration has done the most in curbing galamsey more than any other government.
But Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe said that has been typical of Akufo-Addo and he is not surprised that such a statement is coming from him, despite being the glaring impact of galamsey on the economy and wielding the power as President to deal with it.
“I’m not surprised because if you want to be very critical of Akufo-Addo, Akufo-Addo hears no wrong, what he knows is to shift blame instead of doing the needful. If you listen to it carefully, as usual, he is trying to absolve himself instead of going straight to how to fix the problem,” he stated.
Deputy Speaker of Parliament advocates ‘shoot & kill’ approach to combat ‘galamsey’
