By Benjamin Nii Nai Anyetei
President of the KNUST chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Professor Eric Abavare, has launched a fierce attack on both the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), accusing them of betraying Ghanaians in the fight against illegal small-scale gold mining, popularly known as galamsey.
In a Facebook post on Monday, September 22, 2025, Prof. Abavare described the NPP as “terribly worse than the devil,” claiming that the party had actively contributed to the worsening of the menace while in office.
“I am surprised the NPP suddenly appears concerned about the galamsey menace, but they were terribly worse than the devil himself. They passed the mining law L.I. 2462, oversaw the building of chanfangs, and issued more mining licenses than all previous administrations combined since independence,” he wrote.
Prof. Abavare stressed that both major political parties had failed the nation.
“These two destructive parties have destroyed Ghana in a literal sense because they are clueless about what they are doing. I blame Ghanaians squarely for knowing what they know about these two parties and still queuing to vote for them, while drinking poisoned water,” he added.
The UTAG-KNUST President also criticised President John Dramani Mahama, accusing him of making excuses instead of delivering solutions during his previous tenure.
“President JDM looked into the eyes of Ghanaians and told them they had short memories, and yet when he returned promising to solve galamsey, they voted for him again. Instead, he gave weak excuses for why he could not stop the destruction of water bodies, forest reserves, and farmlands,” he wrote.
He lamented what he described as the complacency of the Ghanaian public, contrasting their silence with how citizens in other African countries would have responded.
“The citizens of a serious country like Kenya would have engaged in civil disobedience right away! The inertness of the Ghanaian makes them complicit in this destruction because they also benefit from it,” he argued.
Prof. Abavare concluded by invoking the memory of the late Major Maxwell Mahama and other victims of galamsey-related violence, warning that Ghanaians must take responsibility for the consequences of the menace.
