A former UN Senior Governance Advisor, Prof Baffour Agyemang-Duah, has criticised political parties for being hypocritical in their stance on adopting a pact to combat illegal mining, also known as galamsey.

According to him, their position to enter into such an agreement indicates that they are abreast of the urgency and the solutions needed to address the issue.

Speaking on JoyNews' The Pulse on Wednesday, September 25, Prof Agyemang-Duah said; “Absolutely, they are all being hypocritical. This issue did not start yesterday."

"We know that under the previous government, efforts were made towards that and that is why when the present president was seeking power, he told us that he was prepared to put his presidency on the line." 

He explained that President Akufo-Addo had promised to take measures to address the galamsey issue, and after the 2016 elections, he did indeed implement such measures, stating that as a result, his party lost parliamentary seats in most, if not all, of the areas where galamsey occurs.

The former UN Senior Governance Advisor further stated that, toward the elections, opponents went to these areas and assured the galamseyers that they would be spared this ordeal and that those imprisoned would be released.

This, he said, contributed to the loss of parliamentary seats by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“So as you can expect of politicians, they have all learned the lessons that the galamseyers have become an important political constituency. They now have the power to influence election outcomes and that is why the NPP has moderated its stance and that is why the NDC is also moderating its stance but none of them - even in their manifestoes, they made references to that but nothing substantial to tell us how serious this issue is and how serious they will approach it so both parties are culpable in this.”

Prof Agyemang-Duah expressed disappointment in the lack of strong commitment from political leaders to halt this dangerous trend in the mining sector.

“Our political party elites are all culpable in this because they are involved in one way or the other and therefore their commitment has not been as strong as we were expecting.

“In this particular case, I think citizens are ahead of the political leaders in terms of how to address this and I think that the earlier they come together to commit to this, the better for all of us,” he said.