President John Dramani Mahama has made a candid admission that members of his own National Democratic Congress (NDC) are among those fuelling Ghana’s illegal mining crisis, while pledging to deepen the government’s fight against the menace.
Speaking during a dialogue with Organised Labour at the Jubilee House in Accra on Tuesday, Mahama offered a frank assessment of how deeply galamsey has embedded itself within the country’s social and political fabric.
“Illegal mining has eaten into the fabric of our society. And I must say that it is not only a menace to our society, but it has involved a circle of traditional rulers, political party appointees and everything,” the President said.
He went further, describing a pattern in which illegal mining operators cynically switch political allegiances to protect their operations whenever power changes hands.
“Even when one party changes, those who were running some operation… will go to the next party and say, now that you have come, come and take over this operation and let’s share. We too will be getting small, this is what we are doing. And so I don’t kid myself that we don’t have our own people involved,” Mahama stated.
The President acknowledged that the cross-party, cross-sector nature of the problem — implicating political figures, traditional authorities, and local communities alike — makes it one of the most difficult challenges for any administration to confront and dismantle at speed.
The Truth Behind The Sudden Silence On Galamsey In Ghana
Despite that, Mahama reaffirmed the government’s resolve to press ahead, pointing to hundreds of arrests already recorded under the current administration as evidence of stepped-up enforcement. He also signalled that the government is working to address the underlying economic pressures and community-level resistance that have long complicated anti-galamsey efforts.
His remarks have since reverberated across social media and the wider news cycle, drawing praise from some quarters as a rare moment of political candour, while others have questioned whether the admission will translate into meaningful and sustained action on the ground.