President Akufo-Addo Reveals How Galamsey Fight Cost NPP Parliamentary Seats
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has revealed that his administration’s fight against galamsey resulted in the loss of several parliamentary seats for his party in the 2020 elections.
According to the President, the decision to tackle galamsey was not a popular one, but he was committed to protecting the country’s environment.
In his final State of the Nation Address, the President stated that the anti-galamsey campaign was a major factor in the NPP’s loss of seats, which ultimately affected the composition of the 8th Parliament and hindered the implementation of his policy agenda during his second term.
The President expressed his commitment to continuing the fight against galamsey, emphasizing the need to protect the country’s lands and water bodies for future generations.
“Mr Speaker, in my inaugural speech at my swearing-in in my first term on 7th January 2017, and early on in that term, I made a public commitment to tackle galamsey, the phenomenon that had been ravaging our environment and destroying our lands and water bodies in the pursuit of mining for gold. I knew, and was very much aware, that fighting galamsey was not a universally popular position for a President to take, but I felt strongly enough about the need to protect our environment to say I was prepared to put my presidency on the line in the defence of our lands and
water bodies.”“And indeed, Mr Speaker, the fight against galamsey led directly to the loss by my Party of several parliamentary seats in the 2020 elections, and to the makeup of this 8th Parliament, which affected the implementation of my policy agenda, and impacted the second term of my presidency. I welcome the many loud converts to the fight against galamsey that suddenly appeared in the run-up to the 2024 elections, and I pray that more and more of us get to embrace the need for the protection of our lands and water bodies.”
“As I have stated on numerous occasions, the fight against galamsey is not a fight against mining or the extraction of the gold the Almighty has so generously endowed us with. But we owe it to future generations of Ghanaians to extract our minerals in the manner that protects our lands and water bodies.”
Source: NewsandVibes.com
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