A leading academic has delivered a damning indictment of Ghana’s political class, accusing officials from both current and former governments of being complicit in the illegal mining scourge known as galamsey.
“Politicians from both past and present governments are involved in galamsey. That’s why they use ambiguous language to wriggle themselves out of trouble,” declared Prof. Gladys Nyarko Ansah, Principal Investigator of the University of Ghana’s Anti-Galamsey Project.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsfile, Prof. Ansah criticized political leaders for prioritizing party interests over the nation’s welfare. She noted that their calculated use of vague language is a strategy to shield themselves and their affiliates from accountability.
Prof. Ansah analyzed recent comments made by a National Democratic Congress (NDC) official, interpreting them as a veiled threat to expose high-level political actors involved in illegal mining. “That man is daring some big party people,” she said, adding that “there are people behind it” who have yet to be named publicly.
Beyond the politics, Prof. Ansah emphasized the devastating human and environmental toll of galamsey. “How many kidneys will be protected? How many lungs? How many needless deaths will be prevented?” she asked, listing the health risks, environmental degradation, and cultural destruction associated with the practice.
Quoting research and public commentary, including an article by Judith Brown detailing the state’s potential revenue losses, she argued that national priorities must shift. “We should go beyond building cars and start building the nation,” she urged.
Prof. Ansah called for the government to declare illegal mining a national emergency, emphasizing that the cost of inaction far exceeds the gold revenue being defended.
