An illegal small-scale miner by name Kwofie K has vowed to convert the country into a desert if government does not resolve the unemployment problem in the country.
He sent a warning to the government over the resolve of his mining crew to engage in wanton destruction of forest cover in search of gold.
In a Facebook live video sighted by GhanaWeb, Kwofie dared the government to come after him and his crew saying their action is motivated by the alleged involvement of government and political party officials in illegal gold mining on a rather large scale.
“What is happening is annoying and I have been compelled to do this video, you should see the number of excavators passing through here to go and destroy the forests and that’s nonsense.
“We will all destroy the forest together. We cannot protect the cocoa trees because of GH₵1 milo. The leaders are destroying the land and we are following suit,” he stated.
He further implored the government to cause an end to the active involvement of political actors in the illegal mining and also provide alternative jobs for the youth engaged in same or risk the deforestation of the entire country in the near future.
“The leaders should wise up. If we destroy the land, future generations will suffer so they have to implement good policies that will provide us with sustainable jobs so we can stop the galamsey. If not, we will turn the whole Ghana into a desert in just 20 years,” he stated.
Despite several efforts by the government, Ghana continues to lose its forest cover and water resources to illegal mining at a rapidly increasing rate.
A report submitted to the presidency by former Minister for Environment, Science, Innovation and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng indicted several government and political party officials as being complicit in the galamsey canker.
The former minister who was the chairman of the now-dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Small Scale Mining in his 2021 report which was recently published in the media implicated several individuals including members of parliament, ministers and presidential staffers.