Former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has made some startling revelations about the battle against illegal mining (galamsey) by President Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
According to him, he had wrongly presumed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo supported his fight against illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in the country.
However, Despite the President’s bold declaration that he was willing to stake his presidency on the fight against galamsey, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng believes the President did not mean his words.
Speaking in an interview with TV3, he argued that he believed that Akufo-Addo would back him up in his fight against galamsey, but this did not happen.
“When he said something he meant it, and he was approachable, he still is, but there are a lot of things that he said that are not working well as far as I am concerned.”
“Let us take the fight against illegal mining, the president gave his word that he was going to put his presidency on the line to stop that thing. I was very confident I had his support but later on, I got the impression that maybe I was wrong,” he said.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng noted that the present-day NPP is different from the party he served during the Kufuor administration years ago.
He attributed this to the rise of certain individuals who have no appointed or elected positions in the party or government, yet wield so much power that they do what they want, causing fear among party and government officials.
This development, in his view, is unhealthy for both the party and the NPP government.