Ghanaian poet and playwright Chief Moomen has cited a lack of political will to enforce laws as the reason for the increasing cases of illegal mining in Ghana.
Speaking in an interview, he stated that until the entire structure of the government makes it a priority to end illegal mining (popularly known as galamsey), all attempts to tackle the menace will be elusive.
Chief indicated that the major problem of galamsey is the state which encompasses the various actors including all the organs of government and the various political parties that make up the state.
“…I feel that once the governance and state system has been ineffective, no matter how brilliant the policies are, if we do not have political will to implement the laws, to implement those policies, to hold people accountable, then this problem is just going to get worse.
“Now the big question is how do we change the state’s approach to galamsey? To me, it is not rocket science. I comes down to the political will. Until we have leadership that is willing to exercise its power from the district assembly level all the way to the presidency, if that system fails then we will only be pouring water into an empty basket,” he said.
Chief Moomen made this comment when he joined other creatives to talk about the effect of galamsey on Ghanaian citizens.
This comes a few weeks after the conversation about illegal mining got re-ignited by protests and marches by some groups.
On the back of the suspended strike by Organised Labour, the President, Akufo-Addo has resolved to deploy additional military personnel to beef up the fight against galamsey, to suspend mining in forest reserves, to strengthen the prosecution of illegal mining cases and has called for a national pact on illegal mining.
