Kumasi, Ashanti Region – The President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Eric Avabare, has launched a blistering attack on Ghana’s two dominant political parties, accusing both the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of failing the nation in the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
In a strongly worded Facebook post on Monday, September 22, 2025, Prof. Avabare condemned what he described as the hypocrisy of the NPP’s renewed concern about the menace, insisting that the party itself had been deeply complicit in fueling the crisis while in power.
Worse Than the Devil”
“I am surprised the NPP suddenly appears concerned about the galamsey menace, but they were terribly worse than the devil himself. They passed the mining law LI 2462, oversaw the building of chanfangs, and issued more mining licenses than all previous administrations combined since independence,” he wrote.
The academic argued that both the NPP and NDC had demonstrated gross incompetence, saying their governance had left the country on the brink of ecological collapse.
“These two destructive parties have destroyed Ghana in a literal sense because they are clueless about what they are doing. I blame Ghanaians squarely for knowing what they know about these two parties and still queuing to vote for them, while drinking poisoned water,” Prof. Avabare added.
Criticism of Mahama and Ghanaian Voters
The UTAG-KNUST president also took aim at former President John Dramani Mahama, accusing him of offering “weak excuses” for his failure to tackle galamsey during his earlier term in office.
“President JDM looked into the eyes of Ghanaians and told them they had short memories, and yet when he returned promising to solve galamsey, they voted for him again. Instead, he gave weak excuses for why he could not stop the destruction of water bodies, forest reserves, and farmlands,” he argued.
Prof. Avabare further criticised what he called the complacency of the Ghanaian electorate, contrasting it with how citizens in other African countries might have responded to similar failures in leadership.
“The citizens of a serious country like Kenya would have engaged in civil disobedience right away! The inertness of the Ghanaian makes them complicit in this destruction because they also benefit from it,” he lamented.
Reminder of Galamsey Victims
Concluding his remarks, the professor invoked the memory of the late Major Maxwell Mahama and other victims of violence linked to illegal mining, stressing that Ghanaians cannot absolve themselves from the devastating consequences of galamsey.
His comments come at a time when debates over the environmental, social, and economic costs of illegal mining continue to dominate national discourse, with growing pressure on government and political leaders to demonstrate real commitment to ending the crisis.
Source – My News Ghana
About the Author
