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Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor – Designated Minister of Lands and Natural Resources
The designated Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor, said the government’s fight against illegal mining cannot be called a failure.
He said no government had shown such a commitment to tackling illegal mining, also known as “galamsey”, under the Fourth Republic, as the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo administration had done. -Addo.
“I want to stress that the president’s efforts during his first term to combat illegal mining are unprecedented. I don’t think there is a government of the Fourth Republic that has undertaken this fight in the way that we have.
“The government should therefore be congratulated for its courageous and daring gesture. There have been a lot of successes, despite the challenges, ”said Minister-designate.
He said that when he took his turn to the Parliamentary Appointments Committee to be considered as part of the approval process for his appointment.
President’s call apt
Responding to questions on whether the president’s call for a national consultation meant the fight was lost, Mr. Jinapor, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP from Damongo, said instead that the call of the chair was appropriate and appropriate. .
“I believe this call was on the back of the needless politicization of illegal small-scale mining in the country, where if a particular political party tries to solve such a problem, the opponent will very quickly find a way to score. political points on that, ”he said.
The minister-designate expressed the conviction that it was in the spirit of what the President felt that it was time for the country to stop politicizing this sector.
“It’s a national problem; when you go to mining communities, there are people who suffer from health risks, some of them getting ulcers from the use of mercury in mining, ”Mr. Jinapor.
He added that the environment had deteriorated, saying that was the spirit in which the President had called for a national conversation to garner broad support for the fight against illegal mining in the country.
During the disbandment of the inter-ministerial task force against Galamsey, the minister-designate said it had nothing to do with failure.
No missing excavator
Mr. Jinapor also pointed out that no excavators were missing, contrary to reports in the media that 500 excavators were missing.
“I had a briefing from the inter-ministerial committee on illegal mining and I want to point out that no excavator was missing. It was a media man who broadcast it and sparked the controversy, ”he said.
Mr. Jinapor said the task force confiscated 209 excavators and could explain them all.
“As we speak, 161 of these excavators have been released. Some were handed over to the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and Accra Metropolitan Assembly, while the court ordered that we return some to their owners, ” he explained.
Preserving the Atewa forest
Mr. Jinapor also gave assurances that the government is determined to preserve the Atewa Forest.
“The President is the co-chair of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Committee made up of prominent advocates of climate change and environmental conservation issues, so these issues are very important to him,” he said. .
The minister-designate said the government will ensure that the Atewa forest is not degraded unnecessarily, saying, “Whatever we have in the extractive industry, the balance between exploitation of natural resources and preservation. the environment will be delicate.
“What I know is that the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Corporation (GIADEC) has a green unit under its secretariat, which specifically deals with the issues of the Atewa forest and other forest reserves that may be impacted by the work of GIADEC. So I want to assure you that we will protect the Atewa forest, ”said Mr. Jinapor.
Digitize land administration
He said the government, during his first term, had done work, together with the World Bank, to address challenges related to land administration.
“At this stage, we must deploy a program to digitize the archives of the Land Commission. It is not negotiable and I know that the Land Commission itself is piloting a digitization of administrative land registers in Ghana and we must do it forcefully, ”said Mr. Jinapor.
Aggressive afforestation program
On how to solve the problem of deforestation in the country, the minister-designate called for an aggressive reforestation program.
“In the previous administration a lot of work was done. Under Ghana’s forest plantation program, the government has planted 101.9 million trees and about 70 hectares of land has been covered, ”said Mr. Jinapor.
However, he stressed that the time had come to implement an aggressive reforestation plan where once a year, preferably on World Environment Day, the President would lead a planting exercise. trees.
“We need to get around five million Ghanaians to plant trees. And it should not only be about planting the trees, but also about ensuring the trees grow to maturity.
“We must not just plant just any tree, but economic trees which will bring enormous benefits to the country,” Jinapor said.
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