The proof that President Nana Akufo-Addo “walked his talk” on illegal small-scale mining is the results of the 2020 general elections, the Minister-designate of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor has told Parliament’s Appointments Committee.

“If one wants evidence of how the President walked his talk, we should go and take the results of the 2020 general elections”, he said on Wednesday, 24 February 2021, explaining: “The President could have done otherwise, the President could have chosen to renege on his commitment to put his presidency on the line and that could have changed the results”.

In the view of the former Deputy Chief of Staff, “any objective person’s cursory examination [of the election results] will show that it is because the presidency, indeed, and, in fact, put his presidency on the line; that is why even though he believed in the policies he implemented, he didn’t turn out to be popular with some people … so he walked the talk”.

The first-time lawmaker said: “A lot of efforts were made and some achievements were chalked in the first term of President Akufo-Addo in the fight against illegal small-scale mining”.

“About 4,000 illegal small-scale miners were trained”, he noted.

In July 2017, President Akufo-Addo, while addressing a two-day workshop on galamsey for traditional leaders drawn from different parts of the country in Accra, said: “I have said it in the Cabinet, and perhaps this is the first time I am making this public, that I am prepared to put my Presidency on the line on this matter.”

“If, by the grace of God, my party allows me to go again and I have the health and everything to go again but do not get it again, then I will say to myself: ‘Well, this is a choice I have to make as a human being.’ Do you do what is right or what you think will make you get along? I think you do what is right and what you are required to do,” he added.

The President, however, noted that one could not dismiss the key role of traditional leaders in the fight, adding: “We cannot win this fight without the support of the traditional authorities in this country.”

“So, the reason you have been brought here today is to have the opportunity to share with you our thoughts, our strategy, our thinking and I ask of you, in the name of generations yet unborn, your support and active involvement in bringing this menace of galamsey to an end,” he pleaded.

The President said the campaign being waged against illegal mining was not for the present generation alone but for posterity, adding: “I have great confidence in the Ghanaian people and their traditional leaders. They will always stand up during critical times.”

“Essentially, I am very committed, but my commitment is not enough, I need yours as well. With your commitment, I will leave here knowing that no matter how difficult and how long it takes, we will win this fight,” he pointed out.

He, at the time, expressed optimism that: “We will write a glorious chapter in the history of our great nation and posterity will say that when it mattered most, our traditional authorities were not found wanting but rose to the occasion.”

He said it was quite understandable that the first duty of every man or woman was to provide for the family, but was quick to add that equally more important was the fact that there were some things that “we just cannot allow to happen and one of them is the heritage we inherited from our fathers, grandfathers, especially the Ghanaian space”.

“We have a duty to protect it for those who will come after us, and if our river bodies are drying up, our landscape is being desecrated, we here, leaders of our society, leaders of our nation, political leaders, religious leaders, we have a responsibility to say ‘no, we can’t allow this to go on for our own common survival and that of those to come’,” he said.

He said allowing that to happen amounted to “jeopardising our own future”, adding that the Cabinet had decided that now was the time to put the full weight of government behind the decision to stop illegal mining or galamsey.

“Rivers that have been with us for centuries are drying up; forest areas which we should preserve for the sanctity of our lives are being devastated, all because of the phenomenon of galamsey. And all kinds of people from all walks of our national life are engaged in this exercise — security personnel, political leaders, businessmen, and Nananom, some chiefs are all involved in this.

“So, we sat down and said to ourselves that we have a responsibility because we took an oath to protect the integrity of our nation. We have sworn to uphold the Constitution. We have sworn to protect its sovereignty and what that means is that the care of the nation, its people, its resources, its nature have been put in our care, temporarily, as trustees.

“Don’t sit back and say, ‘well, all these young men do not have anything to do and so let them go on’ when you know that the activities they are involved in are jeopardising the very survival of our nation,” the President noted.