You couldn’t fight galamsey in 8 years you want NDC to do it in 7 months – Kwesi Pratt slams NPP

Veteran journalist and Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has criticised the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) over a petition its Members of Parliament recently submitted to the presidency regarding illegal small-scale mining, commonly known as galamsey.

In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, July 28, 2025, Pratt expressed surprise at the NPP’s stance, accusing the party of hypocrisy for blaming the current government for the ongoing menace.

According to him, the NPP had ample opportunity to address the issue during its eight years in power but failed to do so.

“At the beginning of his tenure as President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said he was ready to put his position on the line in the fight against illegal mining (galamsey). By the end of his presidency, galamsey had virtually destroyed all or most water bodies in the country, and cocoa production had fallen by as much as 50% as a direct consequence of illegal mining,” Pratt wrote.

He questioned why the same party that, in his view, oversaw the deterioration of the environment due to illegal mining activities would now turn around to criticise the new National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, which has been in office for less than seven months.

“Less than seven months into the rule of the new administration headed by John Dramani Mahama, on July 24, 2025, Members of Parliament of the NPP presented a petition to the seat of government complaining about the slow pace of the fight against galamsey,” he said.

“They hold the Mahama administration responsible for the failure to uproot galamsey. Whaaaat? This is certainly very interesting,” he added sarcastically.

The petition by the NPP MPs comes amid growing national concern over the environmental and socio-economic impacts of illegal mining, an issue that has plagued successive governments.

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