By Savannah Pokuaah Duah
Member of Parliament for Sissala West, Mohammed Adams Sukparu, has blamed the country’s illegal mining crisis on the political elite, calling for a united effort to tackle the issue.
He told Parliament on Wednesday, February 19, that politicians, not ordinary citizens, are responsible for the environmental devastation caused by illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.
He praised the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources for engaging Parliament on the matter, describing it as a crucial step towards finding lasting solutions.
“This is what we call the resetting agenda because this is the first time we have a Minister coming to this House to let us know that all of us here… are stakeholders, and it is time for us to come together to dialogue,” he said.
Politicians, not citizens, to blame
Mr. Sukparu dismissed the notion that unemployed youth were primarily responsible for the destruction of Ghana’s forests and water bodies.
“We all sit here most of the time and pretend and blame an ordinary youth who is working in Sissala West. A youth living in Sissala West does not know where a forest reserve in the Western Region is, and that particular youth does not know which of our lands contain either gold or diamond,” he argued.
He alleged that political figures actively facilitate illegal mining operations while condemning them in public.
“It is we, the leaders in this country, that recruit these unemployed youth and tax them, give them all the necessary equipment to go and destroy the forest reserves in our country,” he said.
Speaker’s intervention
The MP’s remarks took a controversial turn when he referenced a media report about a regional minister’s driver allegedly receiving a large sum of money linked to illegal mining.
“Mr Speaker, we were all in this country when the media reported that a certain regional minister’s driver took a huge sum of money…” he said before being cautioned by the Speaker.
Clarifying his statement, he added, “I didn’t say, Mr Speaker, I said reported; the media reported.”
