I can bet my last penny on Mahama to contain the High-Tech Galamsey (HTG) in Ghana

Dr. John-Baptist Naa
Historically, the practice of the traditional ‘galamsey’ (illegal small-scale mining) has been with us from time immemorial and serves as a form of livelihood for those living close to mining areas.

I have always maintained that the kind of galamsey operations we have seen now under Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia is a new dimension and I term it 'High-Tech Galamsey (HTG)’ activities that have destroyed our biodiversity-rich forest reserves, clean rivers and cocoa farms for gold to benefit only few individual operators and financiers in the small-scale gold mining sector.

The ravaging HTG operations have unfortunately flourished under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime because of complicity and lack of leadership to fight this dangerous environmental problem.

President Akufo-Addo together with Dr. Bawumia have been highly insincere with Ghanaians regarding the galamsey fight. Both have failed and just looking on for HTG operations to cause a lot of human and environmental havoc if this existential threat to our future is not well addressed as soon as possible.

It is highly likely the Flagbearer of the NPP, Dr. Bawumia cannot contain this worsening HTG phenomenon caused by the regime he is part of. Like corruption, Dr. Bawumia will be complicit, and he will not have the political will to stop the current HTG operations, if he were elected to be President in 2024. For instance, Dr. Bawumia will not prosecute his NPP gurus engaged in HTG operations, who were exposed by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s damning reports.

Akufo-Addo and Bawumia are only using lips service to fight galamsey and the latter cannot do anything different from the former. Galamseyers are rather emboldened to engaged in this life-threatening and unsustainable practice

However, I can bet my last penny on Mahama to contain the frightening HTG operations after 2024 for various reasons.

Former President Mahama will contain ongoing HTG activities because his previous record on the fight against traditional galamsey protected cocoa farms, major river bodies and forest reserves in mining areas. The current destruction of forest reserves and pollution of rivers from HTG operations under this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime clearly demonstrate the difference between how Mahama and Akufo-Addo handled the galamsey fight.

During the media encounter with Mahama on 7. July 2024, he was highly emphatic about how his next regime will effectively deal with the worrying HTG phenomenon. He promised to decentralize the Inspectorate Division of the Minerals Commission to every district where mining activities are taking place.