The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has responded to political critics over the government’s handling of the illegal mining (galamsey) crisis, accusing them of being partly responsible for the environmental degradation the current administration is striving to reverse.
Speaking on GTV’s Breakfast Show on Wednesday, September 24, the Minister highlighted a legacy of mismanagement and reckless licensing under the previous government.
“Those political apparatchiks who have caused the damage that we are trying to solve, they should really give us some break, and they should give us some room,” he said.
Mr. Buah alleged that nearly 27,000 mining licences were issued under the previous administration—a figure he described as “unprecedented in the history of this country”—enabling political operatives to exploit Ghana’s forests and cause widespread destruction.
“These are the people who have given almost 27,000 licences… to political operatives to open the floodgates of our forest to be destroyed,” he said.
While acknowledging the urgency of the galamsey problem, the Minister noted that reversing years of damage cannot be accomplished overnight.
“The level of destruction that this new government came to meet— we are under no illusion that this is going to be solved in eight months. But we are proud of what we are doing, we are seeing progress, and every time we believe we have to strengthen what we are doing, we do,” he stated.
He added that the government remains open to constructive criticism and is willing to do more, but drew a clear line between well-meaning calls for action and politically motivated attacks.
“We believe those who are really calling for the government to do more—we understand. This is a listening government; we are going to do more and we appreciate it,” he said.
However, he reiterated that criticism from those he claims enabled the crisis lacks credibility and should be taken with caution.
“They should really give us some break and they should give us some room,” he repeated.
Source: Emmanuel Tetteh
