A video that has surfaced on social media portrays former President and presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, to be less committed to the fight against illegal mining, popularly called “galamsey”.
The video which has since gone viral shows John Mahama seemingly justifying galamsey operations.
The former President who seeks to come back to power recently called for the release of some protesters called “Democracy Hub” whose aim for hitting the streets was to call the attention of President Nana Akufo-Addo to the ills of galamsey and end it but ended up with some of them arrested for blatantly disregarding the country’s laws.
The former President found the arrest and prosecution of these protesters harsh, describing it as “high-handedness”.
“We must balance our need to maintain law and order with protecting the rights and freedoms of our citizens. Remanding Democracy Hub demonstrators for 2 weeks is high-handed and an abuse of their rights”, Mahama posted on Facebook.
He added; “The youth of Ghana have a right to engage in manifestations to protect their future, especially in respect of key issues like the destruction of the environment through illegal mining. Draconian judicial decisions such as this won’t stop them from speaking out. The authorities must request the judge to review the remand decision and grant them bail immediately.”
Just when many people thought his call was in solidarity with the youth who but for their misbehavior were on a good cause to clamp down on galamsey, the latest viral video projects a different posture of former President Mahama on the issue of galamsey.
Addressing an audience, Mr. Mahama equated the fight against galamsey to sabotaging Ghana’s gold export which he noted is what is currently holding the nation up.
“Gold is the one holding Ghana now and because of galamsey, we were 80 tonnes per year but this year, we are at 135 tonnes. Lots of the additional come from galamsey, so we must be prepared to sacrifice in the fight against galamsey that production will come down; it means that export will reduce”, he stated emphatically.
Mahama also cautioned that any attempt to end galamsey will jeopardize the livelihood of the youth, stressing “it is because of the lack of employment, that’s why many of the youth are into galamsey”.
He concluded; “Therefore, if you fight against galamsey, a lot of the young people who currently are surviving with galamsey will also get unemployed. So, those are two consequences I’m putting on the
table before we start the fight.”
Watch video below:
@starr1035fm We must be prepared to sacrifice in the fight against galamsey. - John Dramani Mahama (NDC Flagbearer) #StarrFM #StarrNews #EIBNetwork #ElectionHub
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