Founder of the United Peoples Party, UPP, Akwasi Addae Odike, has aimed at clergy for being quiet in the fight against illegal small-scale mining, known popularly as galamsey. Odike, one of the most vocal politicians on the issue, is of the view that as representatives of God on earth, pastors must be seen and heard to be on the frontline of the fight against galamsey. He said in a JoyNews interview aired on October 10, 2022; that it was for a reason that God created nature before mankind, stressing the need for man to appreciate and protect not destroy nature. “Why are the pastors who are the representatives of God now, quiet over these nefarious activities of illegal mining?” he quizzed. “Have you heard any pastor issuing a statement to condemn this? “And they should have been the front liners. They are quiet. They are afraid of Akufo-Addo more than God. The pastors are afraid of Akufo-Addo more than God,” he stressed. He said, away from clergy having a political duty to rise up against galamsey, he believed that as divine reps and given that nature belongs to God, “if you are an ambassador of God and you sit aloof for the property of the one who sent you… it is unfair.” Odike has hinted that his party will petition Ghana’s international partners such as the United Nations, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, to pile pressure on the government to take more decisive action in the fight against galamsey. Galamsey has become topical in recent months with the resurgence of news on its continued negative impact on the environment. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at a recent meeting with the National House of Chiefs and selected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, MMDCEs, restated his resolve to root out the canker. The issue has also been given impetus following the rearrest last month of a notorious galamsey kingpin in the person of Aisha Huang. The Chinese national who had as of 2018 been repatriated from Ghana after the state discontinued a criminal trial against her for galamsey, reentered the country on the blind side of the authorities. SARA/PEN