The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has described calls for a state of emergency to combat illegal mining, known as galamsey, as \u201cdraconian and far-reaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that while the fight against galamsey remains one of the government\u2019s top priorities, extreme measures could have unintended consequences on the economy, livelihoods, and governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trades Union Congress and some civil society organisations have called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ban all illegal mining and declare a state of emergency in all mining communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organised Labour on Wednesday, September 11, also issued a stern warning to the government, threatening a nationwide strike by the end of September if decisive action is not taken to address the escalating galamsey crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But speaking at a media engagement in Accra, the minister acknowledged the widespread public outcry and the growing frustration over the devastating effects of illegal mining on Ghana\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he cautioned against declaring a state of emergency, suggesting that it could lead to deeper social and economic instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Jinapor assured that the government will engage labour unions and civil society organisations on how best to address the galamsey menace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDeclaring a state of emergency, that is in the bosom of the president, but I find that being far-reaching, [being] a very draconian measure to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo we will engage him and we will have this conversation, and I believe out of that, we maybe need to come up with some consensus that we can work with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has described calls for a state of emergency to combat illegal mining, known as galamsey, as \u201cdraconian and far-reaching.\u201d He stressed that while the fight against galamsey remains one of the government\u2019s top priorities, extreme measures could have unintended consequences on the economy, livelihoods, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[6827,4553,13052,8348,8982,6693,8590,8440,5196,11954,9196,5556,192,2264,10321,11577,1828,3874,12113,7795,7252,11347,3805,7669,7253,11533,5818,7231,10415],"class_list":["post-43862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-abu-jinapor","tag-accra","tag-akufo","tag-ban","tag-combat","tag-congress","tag-conversation","tag-crisis","tag-economy","tag-engagement","tag-environment","tag-galamsey","tag-ghana","tag-government","tag-illegal","tag-illegal-mining","tag-labour","tag-lead","tag-menace","tag-mining","tag-minister-for-lands-and-natural-resources","tag-organised-labour","tag-president","tag-president-nana-addo-dankwa-akufo-addo","tag-samuel-abu-jinapor","tag-state-of-emergency","tag-strike","tag-union","tag-work"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43863,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43862\/revisions\/43863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}