President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has expressed strong dissatisfaction with what he describes as the government’s over-reliance on meetings and dialogues in addressing illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
Speaking in an interview on *Eyewitness News* with Sammie Wiafe, Cudjoe argued that gatherings with the President and other stakeholders appear to lack direction and concrete results.
“Frankly, apart from esprit de corps, as in gathering and meeting on this matter, I don’t know the takeaway from this meeting.
“Maybe the President wants to hear from us directly, face to face.
“I don’t understand the meeting; whatever it is, it’s an opportunity to meet him head-on and say ‘look, this is essential and must be dealt with and some assurances that it will be done,’” he remarked.
Cudjoe further noted that President Akufo-Addo had campaigned extensively on tackling the menace, yet there appears to be little urgency from the Presidency.
“The president campaigned for close to 12 months or more on this issue, so he knows. The Presidency has made its stance known. They are not in a hurry to declare a state of emergency,” he said.
Highlighting the way forward, Cudjoe stressed that the solution lies not in endless deliberations but in practical measures that secure mining hotspots and distinguish between legal and illegal operators.
“The measures we have to put in place are to secure the hotspots simultaneously. Those properly registered acquire proper licences to do their work, and those who don’t have licences will be dealt with,” he said.
For him, such meetings amount to little more than symbolic gestures unless backed by accountability frameworks.
“The meeting is a meet and greet, so far as I’m concerned. We will have to hold the President to account. We need to give ourselves timelines, give ourselves KPIs. If the year ends and we don’t see anything on galamsey, it will be ‘butubutu’ [a problem],” he warned.
