Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, says the fight against galamsey should be a continuous national effort rather than one tied to specific timelines.
He stressed the need for constant vigilance, arguing that people will always seek to engage in illegal activities such as galamsey.
Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Channel One TV on Tuesday, April 8, he argued that what matters most is for government to show clear commitment by consistently taking action against offenders.
“First of all, I’m not sure that a timeline is necessarily the conversation we should be having. I think it should be a lifelong activity. The point is that we cannot guarantee that people will stop wanting to do galamsey.
“Every time that somebody plans to do galamsey and actually starts doing it, it is the issue of the state to fight it. So to the extent that humans are such that they would always want to go and do something contrary to the law, we must remain eternally vigilant,” he said.
Mr Kwakye Ofosu noted that this ongoing commitment is more important than setting unrealistic deadlines for the restoration of water bodies.
“What matters is that people see demonstrable commitment to fighting it, such that today, if you are engaging in galamsey, you will be stopped by the government, and action will be taken against you,” he stressed.
