{"id":93664,"date":"2025-09-11T17:17:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93664"},"modified":"2025-09-11T17:17:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:17:19","slug":"mahama-spoke-the-truth-on-galamsey-adom-otchere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93664","title":{"rendered":"Mahama spoke the truth on galamsey \u2013 Adom-Otchere \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 14 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Journalist and host of Good Evening Ghana<\/strong> on Metro TV<\/strong>, Paul Adom-Otchere, has defended President John Mahama\u2019s stance on illegal mining, insisting that the President \u201cspoke the truth\u201d during his media encounter on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews\u2019<\/strong> The Pulse on Thursday, September 11, he noted that the complexities of the galamsey crisis extend beyond law enforcement, with economic considerations making a state of emergency a costly option.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe President spoke the truth on galamsey. It has always been true that dealing with galamsey has several strands. If you declare a state of emergency on all mining, you are likely to see a drop in your mining revenue. The Finance Minister is going to get upset with the President and tell you that\u2019s the point Asiedu Nketia made \u2014 you cannot declare a state of emergency because it\u2019s going to affect the finances,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He acknowledged criticisms that the NDC campaigned on a different tune while in opposition, pushing for a state of emergency, but suggested that such calls may have been more political than practical.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMaybe during the campaign, not as much truth was said. Everything President Mahama said this time was true. But perhaps those who ran the campaign knew a state of emergency would affect the economy and still pushed it because it was campaign time,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr Adom-Otchere stressed that while the President\u2019s refusal to rush into a state of emergency might anger some, it reflects the realities of governing a developing country already battling post-COVID challenges, the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and financial pressures.<\/p>\n

He warned, however, that President Mahama\u2019s admission that revenue from gold has increased despite galamsey activities could backfire internationally.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis information that has been put out there potentially can have people coming to tell Ghana in 2027 that we can\u2019t sell our gold because it is sourced from people destroying water bodies,\u201d he cautioned, recalling similar restrictions placed on Ghana\u2019s cocoa industry in 2008.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

President Mahama, during his media encounter on September 10, at the Jubilee House, said his government would not rush into declaring a state of emergency in the fight against illegal mining, describing it as a last resort. He emphasised that the current legal framework provides enough powers to act without such drastic measures.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve been reluctant to implement a state of emergency in the galamsey fight because we\u2019ve not exhausted the powers we even have without a state of emergency,\u201d the President explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr Adom-Otchere concluded that by openly stating these truths, the President had placed himself \u201cin the firing line,\u201d but ultimately prioritised transparency and fiscal responsibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MahamaHost of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, Paul Adom-Otchere, has defended President John Mahama\u2019s stance on illegal mining, insisting that the President \u201cspoke the truth\u201d during his media encounter on Wednesday.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,1883,117,4238,10,9,1155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey","category-national","category-news","category-paul-adom-otchere","category-politics","category-popular","category-president-john-mahama"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}