Special Aide to former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dennis Miracles Aboagye says the overpoliticisation of illegal mining, locally known as galamsey, severely undermined the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s efforts to tackle the menace.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, August 16, Mr Aboagye said the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) created the impression that the NPP government itself was engaged in galamsey, a narrative that made it difficult to deal with the problem.

“One of the challenges we had as NPP in government was the high overpoliticisation of the galamsey fight,” he explained.

“The way and manner that the NDC created an impression, as if it is the NPP government that is engaged in galamsey, ostensibly insulated every other person and gave those people cover to continue to pursue this criminality. And so it made it very, very difficult for the government.”

Mr Aboagye urged the NDC, now in government, to avoid repeating the same mistake. According to him, the current opposition has made a conscious decision not to politicise the issue and expects the ruling party to focus squarely on ending the menace.

“For the first time, they have in us an opposition party that has made a firm commitment not to do politics out of galamsey. They should take advantage of that and let us fix this existential threat. If they fail at it, posterity will charge them,” he said.

He also criticised what he described as misleading communication from government officials, particularly the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. “You sit on TV and tell the whole country that we’ve taken over nine forest reserves, creating the impression that galamsey is no more, or not at a high ascendancy, for which reason there is no urgency. You’re not being truthful to yourself, and you’re not being fair to the country,” he noted.

Mr Aboagye admitted that despite initiatives like Operation Vanguard and calls for a state of emergency, the NPP government struggled to deal with galamsey before the 2024 elections due to the heavy political pressure surrounding the issue.

“No government, no political party in the history of our country has been under as much pressure as the Akufo-Addo government in the last two, three months to the elections. The crime was that there was galamsey, and the narrative was that government functionaries, even the President, were leading it. I kept telling them, you are allowing the criminals to go free if you continue this way,” he said.