The Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, has warned Regional Ministers and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) that they cannot escape responsibility for illegal mining activities taking place under their watch.
He says public officials who witness galamsey operations in their jurisdictions but fail to intervene are contributing to the problem, even if they are not directly involved in the mining.
Speaking at the National Conference for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives on Illegal Small-Scale Mining in Kumasi, Mr Ayariga insisted that the campaign against galamsey must become a shared responsibility rather than being left to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
“If you are not part of the problem, you must be part of the solution. And it is not only when you are directly, actively involved in mining that you are part of the problem. You can be part of the problem because you have seen people actively mining and you have looked the other way round,” he said.
He argued that Regional Ministers and MMDCEs are strategically positioned to identify and respond to illegal mining because they live and work within the communities where the activities occur.
Mr Ayariga said the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, should not be expected to carry the entire burden of the campaign while local authorities fail to act on developments within their administrative areas.
“The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources does not sleep in our districts. His office is in Accra. There is so much that he can do to deal with the problem. But we, as MMDCEs and Regional Ministers, sleep in the districts where the action takes place, and there is so much that we can also do to fix the problem,” he stated.
He said local government authorities must demonstrate greater commitment to monitoring mining activities and ensuring that illegal operations are not allowed to continue unchecked in their jurisdictions.