{"id":96039,"date":"2025-09-27T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96039"},"modified":"2025-09-27T12:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T12:00:03","slug":"govt-is-fighting-galamsey-lets-cut-the-president-some-slack-sharif-khalid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96039","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t is fighting galamsey, let\u2019s cut the President some slack \u2013 Sharif Khalid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 46 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

Economic Advisor at the Office of the Vice President, Professor Sharif Mahmud Khalid, has defended the government\u2019s efforts in the fight against illegal mining, saying President Mahama deserves some credit for the measures taken so far.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 Newsfile on Saturday, September 27, Prof Khalid argued that declaring a state of emergency is not the only solution and that practical steps already in place should be recognised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the President were sitting idle and had never taken any step in the last nine months since assuming office, then\u2026\u2026 But here\u2019s a case where he is putting prudent measures in place. You don\u2019t take one decision and think that would be the end of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to the arrest of 1,400 illegal miners in the last eight months and the seizure of over 440 excavators and machines as proof of progress. According to him, these arrests are the foundation for tracking down the financiers and leaders of galamsey operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis promise was to go after the kingpins. But if you start with 1,400 arrests, you are snowballing towards the kingpins, because they are connected to the workers. These arrests are the first initiation that would snowball to the arrest of the kingpins,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Prof Khalid also rejected claims that the President intends to grant amnesty to the \u201cbig men\u201d behind galamsey. Instead, he said leniency for some small operators is only to help investigators get to the real masterminds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only prudent to say if you can lead us to your boss, help us, we would give some amnesty to you. So let\u2019s contextualise these things. If they are retrained and given artisanal skills, it helps to put them back into the economic chain,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

He further called for a bipartisan approach, saying that the fight against galamsey should not be reduced to partisan politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is doing a lot. We need to cut the President some slack. Let\u2019s stop that gravy train of NDC and NPP, and try to put a bipartisan approach to this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\"Gov'tEconomic Advisor at the Office of the Vice President, Professor Sharif Mahmud Khalid, has defended the government\u2019s efforts in the fight against illegal mining, saying President Mahama deserves some credit for the measures taken so far.<\/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":[442,111,1883,10,9,9388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey-fight","category-mahama","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-prof-sharif-khalid"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96039","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=96039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}