The Director of Communications for the Bawumia Campaign, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has urged the government to stop what he describes as “public relations gimmicks” in the fight against illegal mining and instead take bold, results-driven action to end the menace.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, October 4, Mr. Aboagye expressed frustration over what he called “empty praise-singing” and “gaslighting” of Ghanaians by officials close to the Presidency during the meeting with civil society organisations that Ghana has made progress in the galamsey fight.
According to him, the menace “has worsened in the past 10 months than it was before this government. That is the truth.”
“If the President is watching, or anybody responsible is watching, they should freeze and pause all the PR attempts and confront the issues. We are in a deep crisis,” he stated.
The Bawumia Campaign’s Communications Director further called on government to “shift from doing the same things we’ve been doing for years” and adopt a radical and transparent approach to restore public trust and safeguard the country’s environment and natural resources.
“Right now, the entire country is ready to rally behind them, and the last thing we want is gaslighting and PR and telling us everything is fine when we know everything is not fine,” he added.
He argued that the government’s current approach is only reinforcing the problem rather than solving it, warning that illegal mining has escalated to unprecedented levels.
Mr. Aboagye also criticised the operations of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) and the government’s gold purchasing arrangements, which he said indirectly fuel galamsey activities.
“Stop buying the gold from the galamseyers because you are enabling galamsey if you are providing an already ready market for them. I thought the Gold Board was actually going to make it difficult for illegal gold to be sold.
“Rather, today in Ghana, gold sales are easier than they were in the past, because you have agents working in the villages now and picking up gold for the government. And when I hear the President say that, whether it is from illegal sources or legal sources, the state will buy it, that is enabling galamsey,” he cautioned.
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