Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, has sharply criticised the country’s handling of illegal mining, arguing that Ghana has spent years “pretending to fight galamsey” with little to show for it.
Speaking on the maiden edition of Prime Insight on Joy Prime on Saturday, August 16, Mr. Bosu said successive governments have adopted half-measures, failed to enforce laws, and wasted resources in the fight against the menace.
“I think that if you look at where we came from and the promises made, we really wasted a lot of effort, not only that, wasted a lot of resources, wasted a lot of time pretending to fight galamsey,” he stressed.
According to him, both current and past administrations had enough information and capacity to act decisively but failed to follow through. “When we knew the people, when we knew the issues that would have been dealt with right from the word go… we failed blatantly to implement the provisions of the very laws we passed,” he said.
Mr. Bosu cited contradictions in policy, noting that while programmes such as Operation Vanguard and a year-long moratorium on small-scale mining were introduced, illegal mining continued unabated. “In the same period that we said there was a moratorium, that was when we also had more exports of gold than ever. Even when we said we were clamping down on these miners, people were still in the pits,” he observed.
He argued that the outcomes prove the efforts had little impact. “By the end of the eight years of the previous administration, we were really back to nothing. A lot of sentiments and commitments, and promises were just thrown away because people still wanted to do galamsey,” he added.
Turning to recent events, Mr. Bosu described the August 6 helicopter crash which claimed eight lives during an anti-galamsey mission as a national tragedy that should force the country to reflect on its failures. He extended condolences to the families of the victims, saying: “That moment of reflection brings all of us to maybe ponder a bit more on what we do to address galamsey going forward.”
He urged leaders to move beyond rhetoric and act with urgency. “It’s not about the structures you put in place, but about the results and the outcomes. Right now, what we need to be talking about is that it failed; it wasn’t successful. We must face that truth and do better,” he said.
