Economic Advisor at the Office of the Vice President, Professor Sharif Mahmud Khalid, has defended the government’s efforts in the fight against illegal mining, saying President Mahama deserves some credit for the measures taken so far.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, September 27, Prof Khalid argued that declaring a state of emergency is not the only solution and that practical steps already in place should be recognised.

“If the President were sitting idle and had never taken any step in the last nine months since assuming office, then...... But here’s a case where he is putting prudent measures in place. You don’t take one decision and think that would be the end of it,” he said.

He pointed to the arrest of 1,400 illegal miners in the last eight months and the seizure of over 440 excavators and machines as proof of progress. According to him, these arrests are the foundation for tracking down the financiers and leaders of galamsey operations.

“His promise was to go after the kingpins. But if you start with 1,400 arrests, you are snowballing towards the kingpins, because they are connected to the workers. These arrests are the first initiation that would snowball to the arrest of the kingpins,” he explained.

Prof Khalid also rejected claims that the President intends to grant amnesty to the “big men” behind galamsey. Instead, he said leniency for some small operators is only to help investigators get to the real masterminds.

“It is only prudent to say that if you can lead us to your boss, help us, we would give some amnesty to you. So let’s contextualise these things. If they are retrained and given artisanal skills, it helps to put them back into the economic chain,” he added.

He further called for a bipartisan approach, saying that the fight against galamsey should not be reduced to partisan politics.

“The government is doing a lot. We need to cut the President some slack. Let’s stop that gravy train of NDC and NPP, and try to put a bipartisan approach to this,” he said.