Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the government’s interest in fighting against illegal small scale mining made the President a subject of victimisation at some point.
According to him, President Akufo-Addo has had his share of denial in his bid to curb the menace.
“President Akufo-Addo has himself been a victim of this fight against galamsey. The reality is that there are so many people internally and externally involved in this galamsey who end up fighting any president who desires to do a good job at it.”
“There is one subject… I believe we the people need to have an open conversation, and that is the phenomenon of galamsey. Should we allow or not allow galamsey?” President Akufo-Addo quizzed in Parliament.
But speaking on PM: Express on JoyNews Tuesday, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah explained the question was a rhetorical one.
“The point the president was making is that we have to come around the table as leaders and have a conversation that this is not because it feeds my party or it could give my party a political gain, therefore, let me seek to make partisan political capital out of it.”
Mr Akufo-Addo will not support such a move as he is keen on putting an end to galamsey, the Information Minister said on JoyNews.
“Because if we do that, then we collectively lose, that’s the conversation the president is asking us to have because he takes his presidency on the line, he has taken bullets for it, he’s lost parliamentary seats.”
According to him, the NPP lost some votes in the just-ended polls because of the campaign against the illegal actions.
“I hear people ask how come your margin dropped from 900 thousand to 500 thousand?.
“We (NPP) are clear in our minds that the fight against galamsey is one of the reasons, if you look at the returns for many of the galamsey areas, they voted heavily against the president and his candidates because at the same time, while even internal party persons were sabotaging the fight, you also have people on the other side of the political device.”
Source: myjoyonline.com
