A leading member of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, says Civil Society Organisations left their meeting with President John Mahama without clear timelines on the promises made to tackle illegal mining.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines said that while the President spoke about what would trigger a state of emergency in the fight against galamsey, there were no clear milestones or deadlines attached to the government’s plans.

“The format of the program did not get that opportunity, so we did not get the clear milestones and we did not get clear timelines,” Dr Ashigbey said on JoyNews’ PM Express on October 6.

President Mahama had earlier met with Civil Society Organisations at the Jubilee House on October 3, urging them to intensify advocacy and keep the government under pressure to end illegal mining.

The meeting followed concerns from environmental groups about the government’s pace and approach to dealing with the crisis.

Dr Ashigbey said the Coalition had planned to ask the President specific questions on what would trigger a state of emergency, the timelines for the interventions, and what his definition of success in the galamsey fight was.

But that opportunity never came.

“Looking at what the Lands Minister did, and again, we should bear in mind that there was a presentation the minister did before our ask. In his concluding slide, there were a few issues that had timelines, but the majority of them did not have timelines,” he explained.

According to him, even in the President’s responses, the key details were missing.

“The President, who was responding to the issues he did address, was only talking about what would result in him declaring a state of emergency.

"The only way we heard was that it is his National Security chiefs who are failing us. And so we did not get all the timeline from that again,” Dr Ashigbey said.

He added that the issue of accountability for local authorities and traditional leaders did not come up as expected.

“On the issues of chiefs and the fact that the good ones are preventing galamsey from happening, and those who are not should be held responsible, since the DCEs and all that, that did not come,” he stated.