Open Letter to the Asantehene (The Problem of Galamsey)

11.06.2023 LISTEN

Dear Nana Osei Tutu II, Otumfuor, Asantehene,

first, on behalf of many Ashantis in the Diaspora, I wish to thank you for your help in trying to seek outside help for the repair of the devastating damages done to our land due to so- called illegal Galamsey in certain areas of Ashanti, especially Amansei.

As you may be aware of, Professor Dr. med. Frimpong-Boateng was chosen by the present government in his capacity as Hon. Minister of Science, Technology and Environment to prepare a comprehensive Report about the extent of the Galamsey and its effect on the people living in those areas.

Dear Nana, as you are aware, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, on the 7^th July 2020 presented an updated list of small-scale miners permitted to work to the President of the Republic of Ghana, Akufo-Addo.

The Report started by saying:
“For many years our country has been confronted with pollution of land, soil and water as well as destruction of forest and farm lands due to activities of some small- scale illegal miners.”

This is the first time that I had the opportunity to read about this problem in such detail.

The Chairman, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng's findings are meaningless until something is done about the further destruction of our land.

His finding showed clearly extensive degradation of the environment even before he began the journey to help salvage what for years has been destroyed.

He made the following observations:

the lapses of the regulatory agencies responsible, in other words he directly made the Forestry Commission and the Minerals Commission both responsible for the damage done to our lands.

He however failed to mention how these two agencies could be punished for these extremely unacceptable damages that they have done to our land.

It is my opinion that the question of liability for these crimes must be answered. The answer is that our 1992 constitution points fingers to the Attorney General of Ghana, in other words the President of Ghana as liable.

Those responsible for the destruction of our forest, soil, livelihood and above all the health of one million Ghanaians in the devastated areas should be brought to justice.

The Cabinet directed on the 28^th Feb. 2019 to suspend the issuance of all new licenses and permits by the Forestry Commission and
also suspend all the licenses already issued for operation.

Comments:
The People of Ashanti therefore have the right to pursue a legal action against Akufo-Addo's government and to demand damages for not less that 100 million Dollars for the destruction done to our forest. It is however regrettable to note that apparently those who trusted Prof.

Frimpong-Boateng to the extend that he was made the Chairman of the IMCIM, have refused to accept his findings. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the very organisation IMCIM which was created with the public funds have now been disbanded by the same Government without given tangible reasons for their actions.

The whole question of who owns the land must now be discussed

In the 1992 Constitution it is stated clearly that all Lands in Ghana belong to the Government, headed by Akufo-Addo. In other words, this open question must be answered, because I as an Ashanti know that Ashanti is a Nation of people of Ashanti descent and that all lands in Ashanti is the property of the Golden Stool, that means that it belongs to you, Nana.

There appears to be a misunderstanding here. If the land which has been destroyed belongs to the Ashanti Golden Stool then the damages should be paid to the Ashanti Nation. If on the other hand the land belongs to the State of Ghana then the damages should be paid to the People of Ghana.

But one thing for sure: Someone must be made responsible for the damage done to our soil and forest and all those people who were engaged in Galamsey are to be made to pay for the damages caused.

So far, the government of Akufo-Addo has not made any mention about who is going to pay for the damage of the soil, the forest, the air people breath and more importantly, how we can prevent that such a thing happens again.

I at the same time wish to reiterate here that those who appointed Prof. Frimpong-Boateng as the Chairman of IMCIM must be held responsible for having caused the loss of his job, especially because he has not been given any reason, why the IMCIM should not further exist. IMCIM was closed down and his ministerial position was taken away from him and

up to now no official reason has been forthcoming. This is an issue for the lawyers, whether he deserves a compensation or not must be answered.

I wish to remind you, dear Nana, of a vow or a promise that President Akufo-Addo made in July 2017, in a forum against illegal mining, organised to get Ghana's Chiefs involved in the fight against Galamsey. He promised to put his Presidency on the line for the fight against Galamsey. So far the Galamsey still continues and the President remains in office. So what should we say about his promise ?

Akufo-Addo vowed “to stop the menace, even if he ends up losing the Presidency”. The story, however, has been different as some stakeholders have lashed out at the President for reneging on his promise of fighting Galamsey. It is possible that he realised from the 37- page document that the former Chairman of the now defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining presented and which accused government officials of engaging in illegal Galamsey, it would not be possible to keep this promise.

But the Presidency responding to the claims said that the document was a “catalogue of grievances” of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and could best be described as hearsay.

This, as far as I am concerned, is a lie. This is not just hearsay.

In the meantime, 66% of Ghanaians rate government in environmental protection as “poor” and a recent survey by Afro-Barometer, an independent research network, has revealed that Ghanaians believe that the government has performed poorly in reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

It is interesting to note that this President thinks that Galamsey is all about destruction of the soil and not the entire environment and the people who live in it. This shows clearly that he still does not acknowledge what the whole thing is about.

Health and Safety
From his utterances it becomes clear that President Akufo-Addo did not know anything about EPA and what it stands for.

The question is, what legislation governs health and safety in mining in Ghana ? He should have known that the Minerals and Mining (health safety and technical) Regulations, 2012 (L12182) contain detailed provisions on health and safety.

The Minerals and Mining (explosives) Regulations, 2012 (L1.2177) regulate the conveyance, storage, possession, manufacture and use of explosives for mining, quarrying

and civil works and substances used for the manufacture of explosives. Additionally, the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) and its subsidiary legislation and the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Act 490) and its subsidiary legislation contain

provisions on health and safety generally which may be applied to mining operations.

There is however a very important question I would like to ask the mining operators, legal or illegal:

Are there obligations imposed upon owners, employers, managers and employees in relation to health and safety ?

To answer this question I would like to dwell on the challenges encountered by the Chairman of the IMCIM Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.

The one challenge is: Most of the Inter-Ministerial Committee members abandoned the Committee.
The right to brake the law by allowing the Forest Reserve to be used for mining. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and its agents illegally allowed the Forest Reserve to be used for mining purposes. This however is a serious criminal behaviour which demanded a thorough investigation by the CID of the Police. This is and cannot be a hearsay until proved wrong.

Government appointees and certain party members of the various parties in Ghana illegally turned out to be at the same time miners for Gold. Ostentatiously were members from the National Democratic Congress, NDC. And then there were illegal activities by the so-called Operation Vanguards. The rest is community miners and others.

There are certain names to be mentioned here,

Charles Owusu, he is a director of the Operation of Forestry Commission and
Donald Entsuah from C&J Aleska.

Health and Safety (2)
The challenges that the Chairman of the IMCIM faced did not end there. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng wrote the following:

“Many Ghanaians will remember the name C&J Aleska, a mining company co- owned by Donald Entsuah and a Canadian national called Simon Ayman that caused a lot of destruction in the town Denkyira Obuasi, near Diaso.”

During the last NDC regime several mining companies signed MOU with the Ghana Army that regulated the supply of security services to the mining companies. At one point the soldiers at the side of C&J Aleska were under the command of Captain Mahama. This fine

Army man was killed whilst providing security for Donald Entsuah and his C&J Aleska. Please note: This happened during the leadership of the ex-President Mahama from the North. The information we got about this issue was totally different. We were told that this young soldier, Mahama, was brutally killed by a rowdy group in Obuasi. The information that he was not doing his official duties was missing.

Now, this same ex-President Mahama, who is now the flag-bearer of the same NDC is now appealing for understanding from the side of the public for the youth to engage in illegal Galamsey activities.

That means, instead of him, a former President, doing something against the illegal Galamsey, he is rather encouraging the youth to intensify these activities for the reason that they have no jobs. In addition this Mahama now a flagbarer of NDC is promising the people of Bolgatanga I the Northern Region with the construction of a new university. In the midst of a serious economic crisis one would have thought that the flagbearer of NDC would plead for investing in the people since the people are the source of wealth.

So to complete the story about Captain Mahama, residents in the communities bordering the Forest Reserve complained that they could not enter the forest around to cut woma to pound their fufu with. They could not go through the forest to their farms. They were beaten by Chinese who had acquired concessions from C&J Aleska. There were credible reports that on many occasions Chinese miners slapped Ghanaians in their faces, including women and children, with the broad side of machetes.

Now, dear Nana, if someone reads such a story that need investigation. But if the heads of states pooh-pooh that as hearsay then the Nation of Ghana is in big trouble.

Gold Mining
Here, gold containing rocks are ground and afterwards pulverised into small pieces and the material thus obtained is mixed with elemental mercury to form an amalgam out of gold and mercury. After gathering this gold-amalgam it is further processed by smelting, so that the mercury vaporizes and the gold remains behind.

Mercury is a chemical element with a silver-grey colour. It is the only metal that exists in a liquid aggregate state under standard conditions and it evaporates on contact with the ambient air. According to an official EU directive mercury is categorized as a threat to aquatic ecosystems, as toxic though inhalation and as hazardous to human health. It is therefore recommended internationally that all mining agencies must fulfil certain safety conditions:

the mining companies must have safety engineers in their mining complex,
they are supposed to have safety inspectors and professionals and representatives,
they have to provide safety training in order to be able to work in a mining company,
there has to be screening of all the workers by having general chest x-rays, blood examination, ECGs, urine examinations and above all, to have specially trained doctors for occupational medicine

One would have expected that all these miners/mining companies who have been giving problems to the Chairman of IMCIM would have had all these opportunities to safeguard the health and safety of the workers and the surrounding villages.

It is therefore the duty of the CID to investigate, if these conditions had been fulfilled. If not, they should all be charged with suspected manslaughter.

Furthermore it is expected that these mining companies would have the means to test for lead in blood and urine; if the values are kept within the acceptable range clinical lead poisoning will not arise. If the blood lead exceeds 80microgramms/100ml the individual concerned should be removed from further exposure to lead until values within the acceptable range are achieved.

Biological monitoring probably provides the best indication of the exposure of an individual or groups to the lead available for absorption at the workplace. Furthermore for gold extraction the workers should be also monitored for mercury poisoning and arsenic poisoning. It is therefore imperative for the police at this moment to make sure that all the almost 1 million people in the mining areas mentioned are examined for possible toxic effects of the agents used for mining.

In the light of this the detailed information the Chairman of the IMCIM gave us the companies, groups, enterprises mentioned should be asked to bring evidence that they did fulfil all the conditions necessary to prevent health hazards on a population of almost one million people. Anyone who refuses to bring evidence of respecting the rules of health and safety shall be suspected of manslaughter.

The areas considered are:

Ashanti-Region
Central Region
Eastern Region and
Western Region.

In Ashanti-Region alone there were almost 325 companies and I bet none of these companies did fulfil the conditions expected from them with regard to health and safety.

I happen to be a consultant physician specialist who for a period of almost two years took courses in occupational medicine in Germany and I expect the government authorities to do the following:

Instead of falsely accusing a former Minister of something that he is not likely to be personally liable for having done, we expect the government with immediate effect to initiate examination of lead poisoning and clinical and biochemical monitoring of benzine worke. The clinical examination of people working in the mining areas for possible poisoning through gasses, vapours and fumes. Some occupational respiratory disorders should be excluded as well as occupational dermatosis.

It is expected that special courses for nursing and occupational health should be undertaken by the government. There should be special courses for doctors in occupational medicine.

All those companies who do not posses these basic requirements and yet proceeded to do gold mining, should be prosecuted for possible manslaughter {repetition 2x}.

It is the duty of the present government of Ghana to make sure that these basic elements of proper occupational medicine are in place. Therefore the President of the Republic of Ghana should give a reason why, despite his promise to protect the interest of the Ghanaians has so far failed to provide these basic requirements for gold mining in our country.

I would like at this stage to inform the readers about the reaction of one Mr. Godfred Dame, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, to the whole issue of the report by Prof.

Frimpong-Boateng.
Please, I entreat you to listen carefully:
Mr. Dame described the Report by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng as a compilation of the views of the former environmental Minister whilst admitting that it must be subjected to necessary investigation.

Please note that he failed to explain to the public which part of the Report he considered to be just a compilation of views and which part should be subjected to - as he put it - necessary investigation.

He went on to say:
“The Government supported the efforts of the ongoing processes before statutory bodies like CHRAJ.”

He reiterated further in an interview with Joy-News:

“It is not the full perspective of the issues that were addressed by the respected

Professor and it is just his view on certain matters.”

“It is being put through the processes and I understand that there are some petitions at CHRAJ and Special Prosecutor's Office, and that is the process that we all have to subscribe to.”

This statement by Dame shows clearly that they do not know what EPA is and if they did they would not be talking about CHRAJ involvement in this issue but rather they would have realised that it is a serious crime we are dealing with, because EPA's regulation is not only about earth, soil, but prevention of poisonous gasses killing citizens. In other words we are dealing with a serious crime of manslaughter.

Dame defended his position on the Report being the views of the ex-Minister stressing that it only takes a proper forum to establish the weighty issues in such a report.

He went on to reveal that the government continues to make strides in the fight against illegal small-scale mining with arrests and convictions recorded in the Eastern Region.

The statement that the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General has made shows clearly that he and the rest of his colleagues, ministers, have not even understood what the President had asked Prof. Frimpong-Boateng to do.

First of all, the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources took place on the 7^th July 2020. A critical review of the brilliant Report dealt mainly on the legal aspects of his findings. I wish therefore to reiterate here that the Professor was dealing mainly with the issue of the

pollution of the air,
pollution and degradation of the land, soil and water, then
the health and safety of the illegal miners themselves, their workers, and the citizens of the surrounding villages.

He went on further with the destruction of farmlands and put the blame squarely on the failures of the regulatory agencies, especially the Minerals Commission and the Forestry Commission.

The question is: What is so difficult for the Attorney General to understand here ? Also: Does the Attorney General know anything about EPA, meaning Environmental Protection Agency (of the USA) ?

Does he know the functions of the EPA in America, in Ghana, in West Africa ?

If he does, then I personally find it difficult to understand the nonsense he was telling the people of Ghana.

I repeat that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was purely concerned with the destruction of our land,

forest and the general environment.
This is a crime in America, in Europe, in West Africa and not excluding Ghana. This is what Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was talking about.

Therefore the People of Ghana expect the AG to after those who have broken the law of the land.

I repeat once again, 21 companies obtained full qualification. 791 companies obtained partial qualifications which include newly acquired licenses, who now apply for EPA and operative permits. In Ashanti-Region there were four districts, Amansie West, Amansie East, Adanse South and Atwima Mponua.

Again with health and safety, the question is:

What legislation governs health and safety in mining processes in Ghana ?

The answer is very simple. It is that the Minerals and Mining (health, safety and technical) Regulations, 2012 (L.1.2182), contain detailed provisions on health and safety.

Does the AG of Ghana know about this Regulation ? Does the Minister know the following:

“The Minerals and Mining (explosives) Regulations, 2012 (L.1.2177) regulate the conveyance, storage, possession, manufacture and use of explosives for mining, quarrying and civil works and substances used for the manufacture of explosives.”

“Additionally, the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) and its subsidiary legislation and the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Act 490) and its subsidiary legislation contain provisions on health and safety generally which may be applied to mining operations.”

My question to the Minister, the Attorney General of Ghana is:

Are there obligations imposed upon owners, employers, managers and employees with regard to health and safety ?

The People of Ghana need answers from the Attorney General.

In his Report Prof. Frimpong-Boateng dwelled at length on the challenges that he faced. Of all the challenges one that is for me not understandable is that most of the Inter- Ministerial Committee members abandoned the Committee. In order to say that this information is a lie, the President and his Minister of Justice should in the interest of the people they are governing make some effort to investigate. If there has not been any prior investigation any conclusion of hearsay is foolish and unworthy of anybody serving the interest of the people of Ghana.

Manslaughter
Oxford English Dictionary:
“The crime of killing a human being without malice, aforethought or in circumstances not mounting to murder.”

I challenge the Minister of Justice to bring charges against all those registered miners, illegal small-scale miners and those who got mining licenses through their special relationship to NDC and NPP parties. These people should be made to prove that by following strictly the laws of EPA they have not committed a crime of manslaughter.

I therefore wish to reiterate that these above mentioned miners should have recognised the importance of maintaining strict regulations meaning health and safety regulations expected of gold miners. I have mentioned several times the importance of adhering to the regulations of EPA. Some of these regulations are about the toxicology of metals other than lead, further occupational and environmental exposure to lead. Gasses and fumes and vapours, since they are amongst the most potentially dangerous forms of matter and are particularly hazardous, because of their physical state they may cause, e.g. acute lung damage.

These are some of the crimes we expect the CID and/or the Attorney General to investigate. If this is not possible then the state must have failed the people of Ghana and since the President has vowed to seek the interest of the People of Ghana, he must be impeached immediately for failing to keep to his promise.

Compulsory Clinical, Biochemical and X-Ray Examination of People Around Mining Areas

The problem is this:
The government must make sure that millions of people who are living around the mining zones are medically examined for the dangers that they for years have been exposed to.

What to do is to routinely do chest x-rays of all the people to exclude possible opacities in the lung. This is done in South Africa, why not in Ghana ? It has been done in Ghana once in Bibiani. Blood pressure was taken, kidney function test was done, liver function tests were done, differential blood tests were done and so on and so forth.

The government of Ghana is obliged to do these tests, they cannot let these people suffer and die.

In conclusion:
I think failure to act upon these recommendation that were made is tantamount to manslaughter or attempted manslaughter on a massive scale.

There is though one other important issue that I wish to draw the attention of my fellow Ghanaians to:

The list by the Presidential Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of fully and partially qualified companies/groups and enterprises in

Ashanti-Region,
Central Region,
Eastern Region,
Western Region,
Brong Ahafo Region,
Northern Region and
Upper East Region

has 812 entries and was provided by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng on the 7^th July 2020.

Within all these Regions and their Districts the people and their direct environment have potentially been affected and poisoned for centuries to come:

The water they drink or wash their clothes with, the grass on which their children play games, the fields that grow our crops, the food for their chicken and the eggs they lay every day, the earth that will be dug up to build a new house, the insects and the birds that catch these insects and the cats that catch the birds and at the end of it all we human beings at the top of every food-chain and our health and reproductive organs. Everything is affected.

The danger is immense. Entire civilisations have seized to exist because of such horrors – just recently massive structures and temples were discovered in the South-American jungle where empires withered and fell because of mercury poisoning from the bright metallic colours they produced.

We too have mercury poisoning, but we also have also lead and arsenic. There is no escape. They just pulled the sword out of the ground.

THIS is how serious the situation is and they arrested the man who tried to alert us all because they are not yet done robbing Ghana of its Gold and need a distraction.

Additional remarks and references:
(Please refer to PubMed or the National Library of Medicine for more detailed information regarding mercury exposure and its health effects in workers in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, published 13^th Feb. 2022)

(The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II recently (29^th May 2023) questioned the Vice-President of Ghana, Mr. Bawumia, about the meagre benefits and proceeds for Ghana from the oil and gold exploration taking place.)

On the 7^th July 2020 the updated list of small-scale miners permitted to work in Ghana was published.

The list of companies who have been permitted to commence work following the lifting oof the ban on small scale mining are the following:

21 companies obtained full qualification. (For details of the qualification please see the original report.)
791 companies obtained partial qualifications, which include newly acquired licenses, who now apply for EPA and operating permits.
In Ashanti-Region there were four districts, Amansie West, Amanie East, Adanse South, Atwima Mponua. In all 325 companies registered in Ashanti-Region.

A Critical Review of the Brilliant Report by a Renowned Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng Regarding the Main Work of the IMCIM Presented to the Government of Ghana on the 7^th July 2020

My review here deals mainly with the legal aspects of his findings.

Before or prior to commentary to identify which of Profs documentation throws light on

pollution of the air,
pollution and degradation of the land, soil {repetition}, water,
hazardous air pollution {repetition},
the health and safety of the illegal miners themselves {and} of the citizens of the surrounding villages,
destruction of farm lands {repetition}
most importantly failures of the regulatory agencies especially the Minerals Commission as well as Minerals Commission {repetition}.

The Report tells us of the complete failure of the Inspectorate Division of both commissions in their duty to maintain standards.

Corruption in the Commission is legendary. This is a statement that demands investigation and since the CID already has a copy of the Report from Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, why has it failed to ask the Professor for help in investigating his accusation.

Is the CID in this case aiding and abetting a crime ? If not, why the silence for a period of two years ?

The Professor wrote a damning accusation of corruption:

“Issuance of mining permits and licenses did not follow any workable pattern and sometimes it took miners up to 10 years to obtain necessary documents to mine legally.”

“The Artisanal and small-scale mining sector was informal in nature and the regulatory agencies lacked both human and logistical resources required to regulate the industry.”

These two examples he gave, the CID should have by now started investigations with the help of the Professor. Two years have passed and they have done nothing.

It would have been in the interest of Ghana if all these allegations had been properly investigated instead of carelessly describing them as hearsay. For justice in our country, this behaviour has not been helpful. It shows clearly that someone somewhere does not want to punish a culprit.

This situation has been made known to the President without any reaction; the President of Ghana, President Akufo-Addo, described these claims as purely hearsay.

Historical Facts

Around 1900, Ghana had about 8,8 million hectares of primary forest.
By 1950, the area has shrunk to 4.2 million hectares, and
further down to 1.5 million hectares by 1999.
In 2010 the Food & Agriculture Organisation estimated Ghana's deforestation combined was almost 135.000 hectares per year.
Illegal Mining included mining in riverbeds, dredging mining in riverbanks, diversion of failings and other effluents into water bodies, mining in forest reserves, non-reclamation of land, small scale mining engaged in by foreigners and inappropriate use of dangerous chemicals.

All these practices belong legally to the function of the newly formed or constituted IMCIM.

I do not understand why a man has spent months if not years to compile all this wonderful work for the state and suddenly, without any reason, his work has been rejected, the committee that he presided has been disbanded, he lost his job and he received no

compensation and now everything he did is considered “hearsay” because apparently or allegedly some of the culprits he has identified, e.g. one Mr. Otchere-Darko is a cousin of the President. If what I am assuming is true, then our Nation is in big trouble.

The Promise of President Akufo Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana

His Promise
“Soon after the President was sworn in in January 2017 he expressed his commitment to protect the Land, the Forest and the Water-bodies for the present and future generations.

He made the profound statement that he was prepared to put his presidency on the line to stop the destruction of the environment.

This promise was followed by the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining in march 2017.

The mandate was a very good idea. For details please read the original Report.” The Activities of the IMCIM centred mainly on small scale and Artisanal Gold mining.

The IMCIM was faced initially with the problem of

Mining in the forest reserves
which led to the destruction of forest(s), cocoa farms, water-bodies, farmlands as well as harassment of villagers in bordering communities by armed mining guards, including soldiers.
In 2018 the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Lands itself decided to give out almost all the forest reserves in this country for free for mining activities. Whether this action is legal, we shall later on find out.

Here, once again, the President's promise has been shown to be an empty promise. This is my opinion that if this is true it could be a cause for an impeachment.

This action of the Ministry of Lands was reported to the Cabinet to no avail.
The Cabinet directed the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to

“suspend the issuance of all new licenses/permits by the Forestry Commission and all licenses already issued for operation in the 47 forest reserves.”

Soldiers had officially been withdrawn from mining sites, while in many areas regular Ghana Army personnel were seen illegally providing security at illegal mining sites.

Though this Report is known to the President who promised to fight against illegal mining, now suddenly he calls this Report a “collection of hearsay”, thus personally insulting a respectable Minister in his own Party.

The Administrative Aspects of Mining
Central titles registration office

the Minerals Commission is required to maintain a register of Mineral Rights in which shall be promptly recorded applications grants, variations and dealings in assignments, transfers, suspensions and cancellation of rights. The register shall be open to public inspection on payment of a prescribed fee and members of the public shall be given a copy of the records upon request to the Commission and the payment of a fee. There is in Ghana no evidence that such a Central Registration Office existed. That is why it was for the corruption described by the Chairman of the IMCIM, Prof Frimpong Boateng.
A system of appeals against administrative decisions in terms of the relevant mining legislation. It is doubtful whether such a system ever existed; if it existed, it was ignored by the Ministry of Lands and Minerals Commission.
Safety Obligations

The Manager of a mine must make sure or take steps that are necessary adequate ventilation is supplied to places where persons are working underground.

Comment: These obligations were not met or fulfilled, because it was reported that in 2018, the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Lands illegally gave out almost all the Forest- Reserves in this country for mining activities, thus bypassing all the requirements stated above.

Summary:
Galamsey, has been previously defined as illegal mining, and usually refers to small-scale mining activities conducted without proper authorization and adherence to environmental regulations in Ghana. It has been a significant concern due to its detrimental impact on the environment, local communities, and the economy. With the repeal on the ban on small- scale mining politicians argued that it would be possible to solve the problem. But not only did the aforementioned detrimental impact increase significantly, formally legal mining operations seem to have contributed to horrendous destructions the outcomes of which are yet to be determined and could lead to extensive health problems as well as loss of life and make large swaths of land inhabitable without serious precautions and counter-measures.

Per a Report by the Chairman of the IMCIM from 2020 the previous governments of Ghana

failed not only in effectively addressing the issue of Galamsey but also in identifying the environmental hazards of legal mining as well as recognising the damage already done to the ability of affected communities to survive. Some of the key shortcomings identified include:

Inadequate enforcement: Previous governments struggled to enforce existing mining regulations in legal operations and crack down on illegal mining operations effectively. The lack of resources, corruption, limited coordination and outright bypassing of regulation by governmental and law enforcement agencies contributed to the weak enforcement efforts.
Weak institutional framework: The institutional framework for managing and regulating the mining sector was often considered insufficient. There were gaps in coordination between various government agencies responsible for monitoring and regulating mining activities, making it challenging to address issues with legal and illegal mining activities effectively.
Inadequate monitoring and surveillance: Monitoring and surveillance mechanisms to detect and deter illegal mining activities as well as inspect and enforce compliance to regulations of formally legal mining activities were insufficient. The lack of advanced technology and limited resources hampered efforts. It seems that these shortcomings were by design (i.e. on purpose).
Corruption and illegal networks: The presence of corruption and illegal networks within the mining sector posed a significant challenge. Employment of Army personnel by mining operators led to conflicts and deaths. These criminal networks often facilitated the continuation of illegal mining activities by providing protection, permits, or support, undermining official government efforts to tackle Galamsey.
Failure of a Comprehensive Approach: Addressing these shortcomings would require a multi-faceted approach, which resulted in the formation of an inter-ministerial committee in order to strengthen institutional capacity, improve enforcement mechanisms, promote community engagement, enhance monitoring and surveillance systems, and tackle corruption within the mining sector.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, as Chairman of this very inter-ministerial committee (IMCIM) reported on these shortcomings in an extensive paper that has been made public recently. It seems now that the fact that many members of both political parties have been implicated as taking part in these illegal, destructive and life-threatening mining activities was the reason why the IMCIM was dissolved and why Prof. Frimpong-Boateng now himself faces unfair and unfounded charges of corruption which he himself uncovered.

The fact that people in government and opposition alike have the ability to thwart a comprehensive approach by the government against Galamsey and poorly monitored formally legal mining activities is a danger to the security and stability of the state and its institutions. The fact that these mining activities endanger the health and safety of the population to an extent that could make large swaths of land uninhabitable due to lead- poisoning, mercury-poisoning and arsenic-poisoning together with deforestation, pollution of water-bodies and degradation of the land call for immediate intervention by all Ghanaian people and authorities affected (including, but not limited to the Asantehene and the Council of Chiefs) as well as international institutions if the state should fail in its primary obligation to protect its population.

This has lead to repeated calls for a new Constitution which will enable the people to regain control over their lands, their properties and their destinies and wrest it from the hands of corrupt individuals with networks who will not care about people's lives.

I am one of those who call for a New Constitution to save Ghana and its People and prevent Ghana from becoming a failed state.

Time is not on our side.
Dr. Edward Kwame Poku