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Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has denied reports that he has given support to the government’s fight against galamsey.
In a statement signed by Yaw Brogya Genfi (Regional Youth Organizer) and copied to GhanaPoliticsonline.com Mr. Yaw Brogya Genfi hinted that he rather spoke against the approach adopted by government to fight the menace.
“Our position is that government’s approach to the fight against galamsey is not the best. And that this stakeholders meeting should have happened long before today. I believe if we had done this earlier, we would not have gotten to this stage of disappointment.
This is because stakeholders in the mining industry include; media, political parties, the mining operators etc,” he recounted.
Below Is The Full Statement:
It has come to our notice that the Daily Statesman newspaper has carried on the front page of today’s (22nd May, 2017) edition a story with headline; “NDC, NPP YOUTH SUPPORT FIGHT AGAINST GALAMSEY”.
Other news portals including; ghananewsagency.org, citifmonline.com, and peacefmonline.com have also published similar misleading headlines over the weekend.
In all these publications, false and misleading statements were generated and attributed to the Regional Youth Organizer.
Most worrying among such statements is the quote that the youth leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress have declared his support for government’s resolve to clamp down on illegal mining in the country and the false impression created of his condemnation of the previous government for lack of effort towards the fight against galamsey!
The quote reads; “Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Kumasi, Brogya Genfi, the Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the NDC, commended the New Patriotic Party Administration for taking the bold decision to stop the canker of galamsey, which had destroyed the environment and polluted our water bodies. He said if the decision to halt illegal mining had been taken in the past, the devastation on the environment wouldn’t have been so grievous.”
These are false statements that require immediate correction by the media. THE FACTS An invitation was honored to an inter-party youth stakeholders meeting by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
We arrived quite late to the conference hall at the tail end of the meeting and the Minister of Lands granted our leader the opportunity to state our position on the NPP government’s fight against illegal mining.
Our leader addressed the gathering for about five (5) minutes or less!
For the avoidance of doubt, this is the accurate report of what he said at the meeting and our position on the issue; “My name is Yaw Brogya Genfi, Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of NDC.
I came with a good number of my constituency youth organizers (72 in all).
We got invitation through my colleague Regional Youth Organizer of NPP for us to attend an inter-party youth stakeholders meeting organised by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
As responsible citizens, we honored the invitation and have come to state our position on the fight against galamsey.
Our position is that government’s approach to the fight against galamsey is not the best.
And that this stakeholders meeting should have happened long before today. I believe if we had done this earlier, we would not have gotten to this stage of disappointment.
This is because stakeholders in the mining industry include; media, political parties, the mining operators etc.
A visit to mining sites will reveal, those in the business, cut across the political divide – NDC, NPP, and CPP members are all involved as well. More importantly, political motives will be read into the action to ask these miners to leave their various sites at the time of a change in government.
This is why I believe if this consultative process had happened prior to the instruction to them to leave the sites, the response would have been much more acceptable and the process made easier!
For us, we believe we are in difficult times, and those who frequent our markets will attest to this fact of prices of goods are on the rise as the value of our money keeps decreasing.
So merely asking these breadwinners to pack and leave with no livelihood to fall back on, you’ll understand their predicament!
When you understand the intricate chain in the mining industry , you will realize this action by government has affected several people as far as to Suame Magazine – I’m using Suame because it falls under my constituency.
Those who sell the heavy duty equipment there will tell you, for the last two months no one has come to ask of the cost of even the filter of an excavator, or any other spare parts simply because there is no need for servicing when the equipments lie idle.
Yes we all have been talking about illegal mining and it’s effects on our water bodies which is very worrying but for me and my youth, we believe the manner in which the fight began did not help and has really worried a lot of families.
And I believe we need a better way, now that there’s an engagement with chiefs, miners and other stakeholders.
As we are now at where we are, the question is what is the way forward for these miners?
The rumour is when the Ministry is done, they may re-issue mining certificates to political party activists and members of the NPP. If that’s true, what happens to the others with no affiliation to the NPP?
So all we need now is an assurance on what the fate of the current miners will be after this process. Not everyone is mining illegally.
There are some who may not be able to produce mining certificates but they have gone into partnerships with those who have the certificate to mine.
So in considering all such people, what will be the way forward.
This is our position and I believe this is what will help us all.
Thank You” Thank you
Signed Yaw Brogya Genfi (Regional Youth Organizer)
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