Energy consultant and politician Kwadwo Poku has described illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, as a deep national crisis driven by political interference, partisan complicity, and institutional failure. Speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile with host Samson Lardy Anyenini, the CEO of Gasop Oil and special assistant to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said decades of government efforts have failed because of entrenched political and judicial weaknesses that enable the destruction to continue unchecked.
According to him, galamsey has evolved into a national security and economic threat so severe that it now endangers critical infrastructure, including energy transmission lines. He warned that the activity has become violent, with some illegal miners “shooting at authority” as state control collapses in affected areas.
Mr Poku argued that political paralysis at the executive level is the root cause of policy failure. He said decision-making is often constrained by political advisers who prioritise electoral survival over national interest. “At the executive level, the President faces a debilitating conflict. Leaders are told, ‘Masa, if you take this decision, forget your presidency.’ So national action is paralysed,” he explained.
He further criticised the strategy of “withdrawing illegal leases instead of monitoring” as counterproductive, saying it only drives operators deeper into illegality.
At the grassroots level, he said the problem is compounded by bipartisan political complicity. “The fundamental problem of this galamsey is NPP and NDC,” he said, emphasising that both parties are deeply entangled in protecting illegal mining operations. According to him, many miners operate boldly because they have political “backing” from influential figures who own or finance the excavators used for large-scale operations. “Anyone shouting at authority is shouting because he has a backing,” he stressed.
Mr Poku identified Ghana‘s weak judicial system as another major failure. Arrests, he said, have lost meaning because offenders “get bail tomorrow and go back to work the following day.” This revolving door of enforcement, in his view, has made the system incapable of deterring offenders. “Without punitive action, enforcement becomes useless,” he stated.
He noted that the lack of deterrence encouraged a shift from manual to mechanised mining, which has exponentially increased environmental destruction. “Before, they used saws and pickaxes. Now, because there’s no punishment, people bring in huge excavators. That’s what has aggravated the problem,” he said.
Mr Poku also called attention to what he described as the “ecosystem of complicity” involving landowners and financiers. He said no one could carry out large-scale mining without the knowledge of the landowner. “If I can’t just enter someone’s farm and start farming, how can I enter a land and start excavating without the owner knowing? If the land is being mined, the owner is complicit,” he asserted.
He further revealed that powerful financiers behind excavator purchases enjoy high-level protection, recalling an instance where an Indian seller’s Ghanaian partner was so influential that “if his name was mentioned, national security would come for us.”
To address the crisis, Mr Poku proposed two key legislative actions. First, he called on Parliament to criminalise landowner culpability, making landowners legally responsible if illegal mining occurs on their property. Second, he urged lawmakers to criminalise excavator ownership in illegal mining operations, saying this would “attack the industrial capacity” of galamsey by holding financiers accountable.
“The time has come to incriminate the owner of the land and the owner of the excavator. That’s the only way to dismantle the network that sustains galamsey,” he concluded.
