BY Daniel Bampoe
President John Dramani Mahama is facing a storm of criticism after backing away from his much-publicised campaign promise to declare a state of emergency in the fight against illegal mining, widely known as galamsey.
At his September 10, 2025 Presidential Media Encounter in Accra, Mahama insisted that existing laws provided sufficient authority to tackle the menace, dismissing calls for emergency powers to confront the canker.
“I’ve been reluctant to implement a state of emergency in the galamsey fight because we’ve not exhausted the powers we even have without a state of emergency,” the President said.
“We have the opportunity to arrest anybody, to confiscate any such thing. The laws for forest protection and all that give us enough powers to act.”
He added: “Implementing a state of emergency might sound nice, but it should be the last resort. So for now, let’s exercise all the powers we have — and if it becomes necessary for a state of emergency, then we look at it.”
A Broken Campaign Promise?
John Mahama’s remarks sharply contradict his emphatic pledge during the 2024 election campaign, when he promised Ghanaians:
“If we truly care about safeguarding the environment, there should not be any hesitation in seeing to the state of emergency being declared.”
Many who rallied behind him on that promise now say they feel betrayed.
Journalists And Civil Society React
Investigative journalist Erastus Asare Donkor of the Multimedia Group, who has reported extensively on illegal mining, described Mahama’s comments as a betrayal of public trust.
“The president did not inspire hope and urgency in the fight against galamsey,” Donkor said.
“He watered down a very precarious situation just as he has always done. His posture reflected complicity in the infractions on the ground, whittling down a decapitation to a broken arm.”
He directly challenged Mahama’s dismissal of police operations against galamsey.
“I totally disagree with him on the withdrawal of the IGP’s men and accusing them of not knowing the difference between legal small-scale miners and illegal miners,” Donkor argued.
“That is a total fallacy. It shows that either the President was ill-briefed about the situation on the ground or he was totally clueless about what was happening. Or maybe he’s also joining the bandwagon of deliberate spinning of falsehoods in a bid to give the dog a bad name to hang it.”
Raising a series of pointed questions, Donkor asked: “What is a small-scale mining entity doing in a forest reserve when the law does not give permits to do so in a forest reserve? Who licensed small-scale mining companies to be mining inches away from the Rivers Pra, Ankobra, Tano, Offin, Ayensu, Bia, Offin, and the others where the taskforce arrested them?”
He painted a grim picture of environmental devastation: “This is not the President of a country with more than 60 percent of its waterbodies polluted and laden with heavy metals! This is not the President of a country with 44 of its forest reserves attacked in a spate of eight years. This is not the President of a country whose muddy rivers are polluted into the sea, whose forest reserves are turning into miles of pits and gullies waiting for another generation to seek loans to reclaim them.”
Asare Donkor also slammed Mahama’s justification that illegal miners cannot be chased away without alternatives:
“It’s equally disappointing to hear the President say; ‘we can’t be chasing after them when we have not provided them alternatives’! Excuse me to say, it’s just like telling armed robbers, money doublers, and scammers to continue with their criminal activities until the government finds employment for them.”
Dissent In Mahama’s Own Party
Even within John Mahama’s own party, unease is growing.
Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, National Coordinator for the District Roads Improvement Programme, admitted public dissatisfaction in an interview with Channel One TV.
“The only response that people were not too happy with the president was on galamsey,” Vanderpuye said. “I think people came there expecting that he would accept and declare a state of emergency. But listening to various media houses and people’s reactions, it appears that is the one response many were not too happy about.”
Rising Pressure
The backlash underscores growing frustration as Ghana grapples with what experts describe as an existential crisis: over 60 percent of the nation’s water bodies polluted, 44 forest reserves destroyed, and communities struggling with health hazards linked to mercury and heavy metal contamination.
Civil society groups, labour unions, faith leaders, and environmental activists who campaigned for a state of emergency in 2024 say Mahama’s U-turn has dashed their hopes.
