Galamsey and national security
No modern nation can consider itself “secure” if its citizens are deprived of the essentials of life.
These essentials include food; water; shelter; health and educational facilities. These broad categories can, of course, be expanded, but those stated here will suffice for the moment.
Governments are established – primarily – to supervise the smooth provision of these facilities, by ensuring that each citizen obtains them lawfully and does not deter or obstruct other citizens whilst they too are trying to enjoy them.
When citizens are PREVENTED from enjoying such facilities and thereby exposed to hunger, harm or disease, or are put in a position in which they must use unlawful means to obtain the necessities of life, then ANARCHY is, usually, what has broken breaks out in the society.
At this moment, large sections of Ghanaian society are being deprived of good drinking water because their rivers and other water-bodies are being wantonly destroyed by galamsey operators.
Under the guise of carrying out “small-scale mining” to “earn a living, the galamseyers drive excavators and bulldozers into the rivers and water-bodies, and churn up the waterbeds to bring up sand and sediments known to contain elements of gold that can be chemically processed into gold, for sale.
Our Governments are aware of the harm that this gold-hunting does, not only to drinking water but also, to food and cocoa farms, which become inaccessible to their owners, because of the huge, water-filled craters that the excavators and bulldozers create as they churn up the soil.
In some localities, the galamseyers show an unbelievable lack of conscience by carrying out their operations close to people’s dwelling houses. Roads, culverts and bridges constructed at a huge cost to taxpayers, are equally ruined by galamsey activity.
So rampant has galamsey devastation become that bodies set up by the Government to fight the disaster are being accused of inaction by some sections of society, which are taking it upon themselves – with justification – to drive galamseyers away from their areas.
Government-appointed “Task Forces” charged with stopping galamsey, are in fact being challenged in some area by local unofficial bodies that accuse them of not being tough enough on the galamseyers, or even of secretly being in league with them. Gold, unfortunately, has therefore become the source of intro-societal suspicion and distrust.
President John Dramani Mahama indicated awareness of this phenomenon when he held a meeting with the Council of States on July 7, 2025. According to Joynews,
the President expressed “deep concern” over “the growing disorder in the fight against illegal mining” and announced that said the Government was taking steps to “streamline” the fight.
The President revealed that his office had had occasion to “urgently intervene to restore order” among key stakeholders. He said: “Just this morning, I had to summon all the stakeholders in the anti-Ramsey fight to my office. Everybody is running helter-skelter and doing whateve4r they want. It has led to the rise of illegal task forces that are taking advantage of the situation.”
The President said the “emergency meeting” was held “to streamline the anti-galamsey activities” and “put an end to the chaos hat has allwed some to exploit the system, under the guise of enforcement.”
The Joynews report explained that “President Mahama’s
comments come amid mounting public pressure for decisive leadership in addressing the [galamsey] menace”.
It is interesting to note that it was also to the Council of State that President Mahama’s predecessor, former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, announced that he had signed into law, an amendment (Act 995) passed by Parliament to the Mines and Minerals Amendment Act that prescribed very severe penalties for Ghanaians and foreigners who would be convicted of carrying out galamsey.
President Akufo-Addo also told the Council of State that the judiciary would, under the new law, be obliged to impose BOTH fines and imprisonment for galamsey offences, thus losing the discretion of the judiciary to impose EITHER fines OR imprisonment for galamsey offences.
Unfortunately, the draconian punishment envisaged by President Akufo-Addo never materialised, for the simple reason that (as far as I know) no offenders were put before the courts for galamsey offences under the new law! Yet the Council of State, again as far as I know, didn’t ask President Akufo-Addo why his Government had failed to enforce the new legislation (before it lost -power).
I recall that sad eventuality to remind the Council of State that the citizenry of Ghana expect it to take seriously, its power of advising the Government of the day to fulfil its promises to the Council, as regards good governance in the country. From it cannot be gainsaid that if the NPP Government had enforced Act 995, the galamsey problem would not have grown to the extent it has done (which has elicited the new “promise” by President Mahama to “streamline” its solution).
In fact, the situation regarding galamsey has worsened beyond belief, in the sense that assiduous journalists have reported that large settlements have been built by galamseyers in our forests, which are self-sufficient in terms of fuel supplies to power mobile power generators, as well as excavators and bulldozers. The mind boggles!
BY CAMERON DUODU
