ACCRA, Oct 7 (The African Portal) – A senior academic at Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has criticised the government’s handling of the country’s long-running illegal mining crisis, saying recent policy moves are “misplaced and superficial.”
Eric Abavare, president of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) at KNUST, said in a Facebook post on Monday that the government’s focus on what he called “new terminologies,” such as de-chemicalization, trivialises the fight against illegal mining, locally known as galamsey.
“Dear Ghanaian, have you heard of the new terminology called de-chemicalization? It is funny because the core idea is being shifted to a point of trivialization,” he wrote.
Abavare said policymakers appeared more interested in coining technical phrases than addressing the destruction of rivers, forests and farmland caused by unregulated mining.
“Our inability to solve the problem has been shrouded and made unmeaningful by ‘majoring’ the minor and ‘minoring’ the major,” he said, adding that the government’s response reflected a lack of seriousness.
He explained that de-chemicalization in scientific terms refers to removing chemical pollutants during water treatment, but argued that invoking the term in the galamsey debate only exposed “a lack of genuine commitment” to environmental recovery.
Abavare also questioned President Nana Akufo-Addo’s resolve to end illegal mining, saying: “Whether we succeed in getting our rivers back depends largely on the will of the President — which, from where I sit, he does not have.”
He ended his post by honouring security officers, including the late Major Maxwell Mahama, who died while confronting illegal miners, urging Ghanaians not to forget their sacrifices.
