The Communications Director of the 2024 Bawumia campaign, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has expressed frustration over how the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) is handling the issue of illegal mining in the country.
Aboagye said he is sometimes tempted to mock the NDC’s approach to addressing illegal mining, recalling how, while in opposition, the party dismissed the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) warnings on the issue.
“Sometimes when I wake up and I see galamsey issues and the way this government is struggling with it, I feel like let us just laugh at them because we told them and they knew what we were saying was right,” Aboagye said.
He explained that before the 2024 elections, the NDC made promises that raised false hopes among illegal miners, despite being cautioned against such promises.
He claimed that prominent NDC figures, including former President John Mahama, promised to allow illegal mining to continue under the pretext of creating jobs.
“We told them that it is wrong for them to go and stand on a campaign trail as a presidential candidate and tell the people that ‘I don’t see the reason why the NPP would come and arrest them, people in the pit and that when I come to the office I will release you all the galamseyers,'” Aboagye said, referring to Mahama’s 2024 campaign remarks.
Aboagye also criticized the politicization of the galamsey issue, claiming the NDC is not doing enough to address the problem. He argued that the practice would not be eradicated unless it is depoliticized.
“Until we depoliticise galamsey, no matter the structures put in place, it will not work,” he emphasized.
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