The Media Coalition Against Galamsey has vowed to push Ghana’s two leading presidential candidates, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to publicly condemn illegal mining activities, known locally as galamsey.
This comes after the coalition petitioned the candidates ahead of the December elections.
In an interview on Channel One TV‘s Face to Face, Dr Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, Convenor of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, expressed determination to pursue the agenda despite the candidates’ silence on the petition.
“We need the National Democratic Congress’ presidential candidate, H.E former President John Mahama, and the New Patriotic Party presidential candidate, H.E Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to declare openly the support for this crisis response that we’re asking for.
“Unfortunately, we have written to the two of them [Bawumia and Mahama], but we don’t have any response yet. We’re going to push that.”
The Convenor of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey outlined strategic actions to combat galamsey in the lead-up to the elections.
To ensure a united front, he emphasized the need for a non-partisan approach to prevent political exploitation. He called on political parties to join forces with President Akufo-Addo to tackle illegal mining collectively.
“If we don’t make this a non-partisan battle, and bring everybody in, you will have a situation where some of these political parties would want to take advantage of the fight to the detriment of Ghanaians.
“We need the political parties all behind the commander-in-chief and saying that we’re fighting this together. And I can tell you, the movements are going to happen.”
