Ghana has lost the fight against galamsey — Barker-Vormawor

Social activist and lead convener of the Democracy Hub pressure group, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has stated that Ghana has lost the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

Barker-Vormawor made the comment in a social media post on Thursday, October 1, amid increasing concerns over the continued destruction of the country’s water bodies and forest reserves through illegal mining.

“We have lost the fight against Galamsey. Don’t believe any propaganda. Travel and see,” he wrote.

His comments come amid similar concerns raised by Convener of the One Ghana Movement, Senyo Hosi, who has questioned the effectiveness of Ghana’s current approach to tackling illegal mining.

Speaking on Accra-based Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Wednesday, September 30, Mr Hosi said Ghana had missed an opportunity to decisively tackle the menace during the first term of former President Akufo-Addo.

“I’ve maintained that we missed the boat in the fight to stop galamsey with our default strategy, and that’s sometime in former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s first term,” Mr Hosi said.

Mr Hosi said the initial measures adopted by the Akufo-Addo administration had significantly disrupted small-scale mining but were later weakened by political considerations, including concerns over the 2020 general election.

He has, however, maintained that the fight itself is not necessarily unwinnable, arguing that Ghana must change its strategy from repeated enforcement operations to reforms that make responsible small-scale mining more profitable than illegal mining.