Godfred Alufar Bokpin, a Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, has condemned the government for refusing to enforce strict measures to curb the ongoing illegal mining also known as ‘galamesey’.
The unemployment concerns, which some people have raised, including government officials, as the reason for leadership’s lackadaisical attitude towards fighting galamsey, according to the Professor, is a nonstarter.
He says the President does not need anyone to remind him of his own lecture slides during the Covid-19 era, where he said he knows how to resuscitate the economy and not the dead.
According to him, the heavy metals being released into Ghana’s water bodies are causing liver and kidney problems which are taking the very lives the government said it cannot bring back.
Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, October 26, 2024, he stated that, the government’s assumption that people would lose their economic livelihoods if galamsey is stopped at the expense of the entire population is an act of shortsightedness.
Prof. Bokpin asked the President to revert to its note on Covid-19 to see how selfish and greed the current position of the government is.
“That is selfishness, that is greed, it is shortsightedness that assumes that position. The President told us that they know how to bring the economy back to life they don’t know how to bring the dead back to life.
“So, if this irresponsible mining is destroying human organs, causing death, which ones should you prioritise? Which one can you bring back? Do you need somebody to remind us of our own lecture slides we presented during Covid?,” he quizzed.
Professor Bokpin questioned why Ghana is living a contradictory life, looking at the pronouncements of the President and the happenings which have not been addressed. “Why are we living a contradictory life?”
The concerns come over the renewed calls for the illegal mining menace to be stopped, with the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey and the University Teachers Association of Ghana, wagging a serious war against it.
The groups have petitioned the government to declare a state of emergency and stop all forms of small-scale mining to protect Ghana’s environment.
Organised Labour initially threatened a nationwide strike to protest against the ongoing canker demanding the government to act swiftly on the issue but rescinded its decision a night to the commencement of the labour unrest.
Meanwhile, UTAG insisted on embarking on the strike, demanding the government to take stringent measures until the issue is brought under control.
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