Mahama will regulate galamsey in his second term - NDC MP

According to him, the next NDC government will ensure that artisanal mining is environmentally friendly to the country's water bodies.

"Mahama will do well to regulate galamsey not what Akufo-Addo is doing now so Ghanaians should have confidence and vote for NDC in the upcoming elections," he said.

He added that it is obvious President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's fight against illegal mining is in a final state of glaring defeat.

He urged the NPP-led government to create a livelihood package for the 'galamseyers'.

In 2017, Nana Addo said he will put his presidency on the line with a commitment to end the illegal small scale mining popularly called galamsey in Ghana.

Rallying Ghana’s traditional leaders together with the president, said if there is one right thing to be done, that thing is for all to fight galamsey, reclaim the lands and leave for posterity a "green country" and a "clean space."

Addressing a two-day workshop on galamsey for traditional leaders, he said many people had said he needed to proceed cautiously since the people involved were the same people who had voted him into power, and that should he take such a decision against them, they would not vote for him in the next election.

"I have said it in the Cabinet, and perhaps this is the first time I am making this public, that I am prepared to put my Presidency on the line on this matter.

"If by the grace of God, my party allows me to go again and I have the health and everything to go again but do not get it again, then I will say to myself: 'Well, this is a choice I have to make as a human being.' Do you do what is right or what you think will make you get along? I think you do what is right and what you are required to do," Nana Addo said.

Illegal mining has been a major challenge for successive governments over the years due to its enormous effects on lands, water bodies, and forests.