Professor Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, Associate Professor of Development Politics at the University of Ghana Business School, has hit back at critics who claim the Mahama administration has failed in the fight against illegal mining, commonly known as ‘galamsey’.
President John Dramani Mahama is expected to address the nation today, Wednesday, May 7, 2025, outlining key achievements under his 120-day social contract with the people of Ghana.
The governance pact, launched on January 7, 2025, was designed to set a performance benchmark for transparency, accountability, and results-driven leadership.
While many have praised the administration’s early strides, including efforts to cut down government size and enhance transparency, others have raised concerns about limited progress in tackling illegal mining and corruption.
Responding to these concerns on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Prof. Abdulai urged for fairness in assessing the government’s anti-galamsey efforts, especially given the short time it has had in office.
Drawing from his extensive research on illegal mining, Prof. Abdulai explained that the problem has long been treated as a technocratic or poverty-related issue, when in fact it is fundamentally political.
He said, “Well, I think we should be very fair. We should be very fair in assessing the president within this few number of days in that light. I am actually an anti-galamsey crusader. Much of my research work is around galamsey and I engage in quite a lot of conversations about galamsey. I have been to a lot of these illegal mining sites. We need to bear in mind that galamsey is an extremely entrenched problem.”
“I am aware, I mean, in the course of my research, that state institutions like the Mineral Commission, like the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, had actually implicated some people of engaging in various illegal mining activities in forests, reserves, before this government took over. I am not sure I saw any strong action against some of those entities. But within these few number of days, at least we have seen some evidence, we have seen some evidence that so-called big shots in society are being sort of like tools in the face, that illegal mining is not something that they can continue to engage in. You see, for a very long time, one of the reasons why we have not been successful in illegal mining is that my argument has actually been that illegal mining is a hugely political problem. But we have in the past been tackling illegal mining as a simple poverty, socioeconomic, and technocratic problem.”
He emphasized that while significant progress has been made, the real impact of reforms will take time to fully materialize, saying, ” Galamsey is not a fight that can be won in a day or two. Galamsey actually touches on the livelihood of just not poor people in society but also extremely powerful people in society. The reality is that there has been some progress, but I think the results are not the kind of things that we are going to see within a very short period of time or a few number of days.”
