Richard Ahiagbah, the Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), dismissed John Dramani Mahama’s pledge to use Artificial Intelligence to combat illegal mining if elected president as mere political rhetoric.
In a post on his X handle, Ahiagbah argued that Mahama cannot effectively fight galamsey, accusing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of promoting galamsey.
Mahama, speaking at the 3rd Annual Transformational Dialogue on Small-scale Mining at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani, promised to use AI to locate small-scale mining operations, track excavators, and geofence concessions to monitor and reduce environmental damage.
Ahiagbah cited a “widely publicised 2020 video of Kwaku Boahen, then Deputy Communications Officer of the NDC, promising a golden age of galamsey to voters in mining communities across the country,” and Mahama’s 2020 campaign promise to “to free galamsey convicts in 2020, at a campaign event at Mpohor,” as evidence that Mahama’s administration would not successfully tackle illegal mining.
