W/R NPP Chairman pushes for new approach to ‘galamsey’ fight

The Western Regional Chairman of the governing NPP, Francis Ndede Siah, has re-echoed the need for a more human-centred approach to the fight against illegal mining, also known as ‘galamsey’, in the country.

He says although the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government has good intentions in fighting galamsey, the current approach is not the best and impacting negatively on the party’s electoral fortunes.

Seats lost

In Western Region, for instance, Mr Ndede Siah said, NPP lost four parliamentary seats in heavily dominated galamsey constituencies in the just ended general elections. These are Prestea-Huni Valley, Amenfi East, West and Central constituencies.

Minister of State Catherine Afeku also lost her Evalue-Gwira- Ajomoro seat because residents in the heavily galamsey dominated communities in the constituency voted against her.

Chairman Ndede Siah noted that the party could have also lost the Mpohor and Tarkwa-Nsuaem seats but for the mixed nature of the constituencies.

He admitted that even though other factors, like poor human relations on the part of some of the candidates and internal wrangling, impacted negatively on the results, galamsey played the major role.

Speaking to the media, the NPP Chairman indicated that results from the galamsey communities in the Ellembele constituency were equally bad, resulting in failure of Kwasi Bonzoh, the NPP’s candidate, to unseat Armah Kofi Buah for the third time.

Waterloo

Describing the galamsey issue as NPP’s 2020 ‘Waterloo’, Chairman Ndede Siah said it largely accounted for inability of his administration to hit the targeted 15 parliamentary seats in Western Region this year.

The ruling NPP, in 2016, had 13 out of the 17 seats in the region, with plans to snatch two more from the NDC this year. This dream could however not materialize, leaving the NPP with only nine seats after the 2020 elections.

It is against this backdrop that the party chairman says it will be prudent to go back to the drawing board to see how best the situation could be rectified ahead of election 2024.

He used the occasion to caution all newly elected NPP Members of Parliament against arrogance and other negative attitudes which make them unpopular to the detriment of the party.