Convener for the pressure group, FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor has announced a vigil on Sunday, September 21, at Revolution Square in Accra to protest illegal mining and its environmental impact.
In a post on Facebook, he announced that, a public march will follow on Monday, September 22.
“The responsibility to protect and preserve the environment is by divine assignment, ours as a people. Our responsibility to end galamsey does not end at elections. Nor does it begin after our party loses one. This is bigger than petty politics,” Mr. Barker-Vormawor shared in his Facebook Post.
He urged citizens to join the events and demand urgent action on what he called “an environmental crisis of urgent proportions.” FixTheCountry has long criticized political interference in efforts to combat galamsey.
The youth-led activism initiative gained popularity in 2021 when they demanded for economic reforms. They have in recent years redirected the energies at calling on duty-bearers to address the menace of illegal small mining in Ghana, popularly known as “galamsey”.
#FixTheCountry Movement in 2024, for example, protested against what they described as debilitating economic conditions and the menace of galamsey ahead of the 2024 general elections in Ghana.
Illegal small scale mining continues to ravage Ghana’s environment with varied environmental, economic and social consequences including loss of water bodies through cyanide/mercury contamination, destruction of about 4000 hectares of forest with over 100,000 acres of cocoa farms affected and unregulated gold trade, amongst others.
Recent commentaries by President John Dramani Mahama on his decision to use State of Emergency as the last resort, a statement which contradicts his promise of using it as a primary tool to fight galamsey, has raised eyebrows with some watchers questioning whether the president is indeed ready fight galamsey.
Despite the government’s announcement of some successes chalked in its quest to fight the menace, particularly with the seizure of excavators, some Ghanaians still believe much can be done especially with illegal mining still ongoing in some forests reserves in Ghana.
