Dr. Eric Abavare, President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) at KNUST, has criticised the government’s handling of the fight against illegal mining, saying that the deaths of eight officials, including Major Maxwell Mahama who was lynched in 2017, have “never served any lesson” for the nation.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, September 18, 2025, Dr. Abavare argued that Ghanaians themselves are partly responsible for the country’s challenges, accusing leaders of reneging on promises and justifying harmful practices for short-term gains.
“Dear Ghanaian, do you know that Ghanaians are 100% the root cause of the problems in Ghana? The Kwaku Ananse trick stories we imbibed during childhood ingrained in our subconscious minds to be evil and liars,” he wrote.
He accused President John Dramani Mahama of making empty pledges to end galamsey while campaigning for power, only to abandon them after winning office.
“The conman didn’t know gold was the one commodity holding Ghana’s economy before the election, and promised to root out galamsey? He just blatantly ignored his so-called social contract and is now justifying the galamsey menace,” Dr. Abavare said.
The UTAG-KNUST President questioned the government’s priorities, warning that economic gains from illegal mining cannot come at the expense of human survival.
“My question to him is, what would be the essence of the existence of an economy if Ghanaians didn’t exist? What would posterity live on? This is the man who thinks Ghana will not exist after tomorrow and has no plans for the future of this country. If he had any plans for posterity, his utterances would be different,” he wrote.
Dr. Abavare lamented that the deaths of Major Maxwell Mahama and eight other officials who lost their lives fighting galamsey had not inspired lasting lessons.
“Unfortunately, Major Maxwell Mahama died painfully, and the eight officials died needlessly. We never learned anything from their deaths. Their deaths never served any lesson,” he added.
