Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reiterated his commitment to restoring Ghana’s gold city, Obuasi to its past glory if given the nod.
He therefore appealed to residents of the area to have confidence in him and support his bid for the presidency since he would never give a promise that he cannot keep.
Addressing supporters and sympathizers of the party in Obuasi last Friday as part of his five-day campaign tour in the Ashanti Region, Nana Addo said he would not only revive AGA’s operations, but regularize ‘galamsey’ operations as part of the transformation agenda to develop the gold city.
According to him, his administration would streamline and transform ‘galamsey’ operations to provide job opportunities to young people in mining communities and towns.
“I am going to use any available energy and my network in the world of business to ensure that AngloGold Ashanti Mine in Obuasi is reopened and strengthened so as to bring life back to Obuasi. Also ‘galamsey’ will be regularized and streamlined into small-scale mining to create jobs for the youth,” Nana Addo stressed.
He called on the people in the area not to buy into the usual propaganda antics of ‘it cannot be done’ and “it’s impossible” mantra by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and its leader in an attempt to beguile Ghanaians to vote for them.
He said the NDC has the penchant of denigrating and demonizing NPP’s proposed policies and programmes that would bring sustainable development to the country, pointing out that the ruling party had rejected policies such as NHIS, free maternal healthcare and capitation grant, among others at initial stages.
“In 2012, I came here (Obuasi) to tell you that ‘galamsey’ which I prefer to call it small-scale mining will be regularized to ensure that the youth find work to do. Shortly afterwards, President Mahama also came here to tell you that I was lying, and that an Akufo-Addo government will rather sack everyone involved in ‘galamsey’.
“When he was voted into power, he rather used the military to flush you people out from the ‘galamsey’ business. Trust me, this will be different under Akufo Addo’s presidency,” he declared.
Nana Addo also used the opportunity to espouse the NPP’s policies to create jobs and stressed the need for Ghanaians to vote for the NPP which performed creditably under the previous Kufuor administration.
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