Dr. Michael Boadi Nyamekye, the founder and lead pastor of The Makers House Chapel International, has underscored the critical need for practical measures to tackle the illegal mining issue in Ghana, widely referred to as galamsey.
During an open conversation on Starr Chat with Bola Ray, on October 3, 2024, he expressed worry that hunger is pushing the youth into these perilous activities, indicating that simple prayer will not solve the problem. “You don’t pray for somebody to get food when they are hungry. If somebody is hungry, you need to give them food, not prayer. You can’t go to the forest and pray that from today the boys should never come to the forest and stop mining, which is not going to happen.”
Dr. Nyamekye believes that rather than just offering prayers, religious leaders should seek divine wisdom and guidance for the country’s leaders. “If the clerics have prayer to offer, they should pray that God gives the leadership ideas and wisdom to create more jobs and provide solutions to societal problems so that people will not go back there,” he urged.
His comments highlight an increasing concern about the environmental and social effects of illegal mining. He warned, “If people are hungry, they will go back there and destroy the water bodies, destroy the forest reserves and all that because they need to survive.”
He rejected the idea that prayer alone could address galamsey, poverty and social instability, asserting, “The thing is not a prayer issue; to stop galamsey will not be found in the prayer equation, poverty will not be solved using the prayer equation, and anarchy in society will not be solved using the prayer equation.”
Dr. Nyamekye concluded by stressing the importance of instilling hope and a sense of responsibility in the youth. “We need to get people hope and a sense of responsibility. We need to help other people find out that this is the way to go and let them be in line.”
