{"id":95489,"date":"2025-09-23T23:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95489"},"modified":"2025-09-23T23:18:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:18:00","slug":"galamsey-fight-not-npp-ndc-matter-but-govts-keep-massaging-it-rev-fr-nicholas-aazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95489","title":{"rendered":"Galamsey fight not NPP, NDC matter, but gov\u2019ts keep massaging it \u2013 Rev. Fr. Nicholas Aazine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 14 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The president of the National Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Aazine, says the fight against galamsey is not about political parties but about governments massaging the issue.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Joy News\u2019 PM Express on September 23, he said the church has long raised concerns about the devastation caused by illegal mining. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt, well, something was happening, and then they sealed it off. And then a new government came. Honestly. They joined us in the same cry, and we were thinking, at the end of the day, they\u2019ve taken the mantle. Now let\u2019s see something.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he noted that the actions have only mirrored what previous governments did. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, some of the things being shown on TV were some of the things the previous government was doing. The bishop conference has just written another communique, and they are saying, \u2018Let\u2019s do something.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that political promises have not been matched by real action. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, if things are not translated on the ground, and it\u2019s all bookish and it\u2019s all news, and look, people will continue to make noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ghana Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference, on September 18, called on President John Mahama to immediately declare a state of emergency in areas ravaged by illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read also: Galamsey: Declare state of emergency without hesitation \u2013 Bishops\u2019 Conference to Mahama<\/p>\n

In a strongly worded pastoral message, the bishops warned that galamsey \u201cravages our rivers and forests, poisons our soil, endangers public health, corrupts governance, erodes our moral fibre, and extinguishes livelihoods.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They stressed that the situation \u201cis not a routine challenge to be managed with half-measures; it is a national emergency requiring decisive, extraordinary response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rev. Fr. Aazine recalled writing recently about how the issue is being handled. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote an article a couple of days ago, saying the issue is now being massaged. It\u2019s not an NDC, NPP, matter to massage. I\u2019m talking about the government, anyone who comes into office massages the issue. And it\u2019s something very bad, which we need to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

He welcomed calls for a state of emergency in galamsey areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo if people are calling for a state of emergency, I mean, sometimes people think it\u2019s going to come to the whole country, or what I don\u2019t know\u2026 some are saying, \u2018No, we\u2019ve, we\u2019ve done all kinds of things and looked at it in different ways, but it is not working. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo declaring the state of emergency would halt what is happening, and then people can come together. We sit together and talk about some measures, concrete measures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GalamseyThe president of the National Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Aazine, says the fight against galamsey is not about political parties but about governments massaging the issue.<\/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":[196,1883,10,9,9132,1887],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-rev-fr-nicholas-aazine","category-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95489","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=95489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}