President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed his reluctance to declare a state of emergency in illegal mining areas, asserting that the country’s existing laws provide sufficient power to deal with the menace. According to the President a declaration of a state of emergency should be the “last resort.”
“I’ve been reluctant to implement a state of emergency because we’ve not exhausted all the powers we have,” Mahama said in an answer to a question from GHOneTV and Starr FM’s Joshua Kodjo Mensah during his maiden media engagement at the Jubilee House last night.
The event brought together a formidable gathering of editors, senior journalists and news anchors from various media houses across the country, creating a convivial yet professionally charged atmosphere.
The President explained that the fight against illegal gold mining or galamsey was a process and not an event.
“I never deluded myself that the fight against illegal gold mining or galamsey was going to be an event.
There is no magic wand,” he said.
The President added that the decay had eaten so much over the last eight years that “it is going to take a lot of work to be able to overcome it”.
“I didn’t expect that in 18 months we would declare victory in the fight.
As the livelihoods of about four million Ghanaians is on small-scale mining”, therefore, it was going to be a process and not an event.
The President said his government was not going to give up but had the determination and was on top of the situation.
