I’ve not seen any progress in the galamsey fight since Ex-President Kufuor’s tenure – Sulemana Braimah

Chief Executive Officer of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, says he has not observed any significant progress in Ghana's fight against illegal mining, despite several interventions by successive governments.

According to him, "To the point of whether this government is fighting galamsey, we are making progress or not, to be honest with you, I have not seen any progress," he said.

He argues that the country appears to be repeating measures that have been implemented by previous administrations without achieving lasting results in curbing the menace.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, October 31, Mr Braimah said interventions to tackle illegal mining could be traced back to the early 2000s, when former President John Agyekum Kufuor introduced Operation Flush Out.

He said subsequent administrations, including those of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, John Dramani Mahama and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had each introduced measures to address the problem.

"What is happening has happened before; it started under President Kufuor. President Kufuor set up Operation Flash Out and deployed the troops. After President Kufuor, President Atta Mills came in and continued what President Kufuor was doing."

"In 2014, President Mahama set up the Inter-Ministerial Committee to deal with the illegal mining thing; military men were deployed, and at some point, four hundred excavators were announced to be seized. All the way to President Akufo-Addo," he added.

According to him, the return of President John Mahama in 2025 has not, so far, convinced him that the country is making meaningful progress towards ending illegal mining.

He maintained that while successive governments had taken various actions and announced interventions, these had not translated into the desired results.

"If it is about actions that we can speak to, that they did that and did this..... so in terms of the fight, I believe if it is about what is happening with NAIMOS, forest reserves recovered is fine, but we still have our water bodies polluted, we still have galamseyers on the field," he added.