Ghana will lose the fight against galamsey if it is politicised - Kamal Deen

Deputy National Communication Director of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) Kamal Deen Abdulai, has opined that the country is on the brink of losing the crusade against illegal small-scale mining(galamsey) if it is reduced to partisan politicking rather than sticking to principle.

He said the canker of galamsey cannot be wished away by arguing for and against it on partisan lines but rather be bold to name, shame and prosecute those involved, irrespective of their political affiliation based on principle.

Mr Abdulai said this in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3, Tuesday, May 25.

He was speaking on the back of the involvement of some high profile party people deeply involved in the act and the blatant support of opposition people against the burning of excavators seized in the act by the Task Force.

Mr Abdulai said “this fight against galamsey could come with some excesses, the checks that you have just said they should do before even burning is also very important in the process. You could go and burn down, if you like, machines of very legal companies on the ground, okay, those are the excesses we are talking about."

"That is why I have heard the story of this Extra Gold, I have heard that they said they want to go to court, of course if they have evidence to prove that what went on against them is wrong, the law court is there to prove it for us".

“I want every soul to understand that nothing is perfect, nothing is 100% but what is important is that there is a commitment to this fight by us all, the media, the chiefs and everybody. You see we lose the fight when we start this NPP, NDC fight in it, that if all of us say we are committed to it, let’s commit ourselves to it. But if you sit here and say you want to do politics with it, as usual we are going to go down the road without getting anything”.

Asked if the fight is waged with a concerted effort but at the end of a four year mandate, a political party will run political campaigns on it that they ended it, he said “it is unfortunate, I was very elated when I saw my good friend, the former Minister for Lands and Forestry, Natural Resources of course, Hon. Inusah Fuseini, being part of the forum organized by the ministry to speak against galamsey and to strengthen the fight against galamsey".

“If the positives come, let us all agree that the nation has won, if the negative also comes let us all agree that the nation has failed. This is how it should go, but for us to make it partisan and say look, I support it because I am NPP, of course there could be elements of NPP people doing galamsey, they wouldn’t be left out. So my point is that let us agree that the fight against galamsey is a national fight, if it’s positive it’s for the nation, if it’s negative it’s against the nation, then we will be able to curb it.”