Former presidential staffer Dennis Miracles Aboagye has urged the government to take urgent, concrete steps to tackle illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, warning that the situation has deteriorated sharply in recent months.
Aboagye said the government appears to have “taken off” in recent weeks after renewed public pressure and widespread evidence of environmental destruction emerged.
“When they came to ask us for evidence, we took them to the evidence and showed them,” he said on Channel One TV as monitored by MyNewsGh.
“Now, people across the country are sending photos of polluted rivers and damaged lands. The entire country is awake against galamsey.”
He noted that while the government is now under pressure to act, much of that pressure was “self-inflicted,” recalling how high expectations were created during the campaign to end illegal mining.
Aboagye stressed that the galamsey menace has worsened over the last nine months, becoming, in his words, “the biggest threat to Ghana’s survival.”
He said Ghanaians are frustrated because they believed this administration would deliver a decisive change from its predecessor’s approach.
“You raised their hopes, and they had confidence that something extraordinary would be done,” he said. “If people don’t see that, they will complain, and rightly so.”
Aboagye urged the government to stop making excuses and fulfill its own campaign promises.
“The situation is dire, and nobody has time,” he said. “Implement the promises you made, even if they don’t work. At least Ghanaians will know you tried.”
He concluded that the current administration had “boxed itself into a corner,” adding that citizens’ anger stems from unmet expectations rather than political manipulation.
