Let’s stop sugarcoating it: galamsey is no longer an environmental issue. It is economic sabotage and national security warfare. Last week, Dr. Hannah Bissiw, the NDC’s appointee to the Minerals Development Fund, was nearly shot in broad daylight by armed galamsey thugs while leading an anti-galamsey taskforce in the Bono East Region.
How is it that a woman—yes, a woman—is risking her life in the trenches, while state machinery plays blind, deaf, and dumb? What kind of Republic allows this to happen without triggering a full blown national emergency?
And if the Republic cannot neutralize internal eco-terrorists, how can it respond to external threats? If we can’t stop gun-wielding thugs from terrorizing taskforces, how do we defend against jihadist infiltration across the northern border?
The logic is simple: a state that cannot protect its rivers and forests cannot protect its sovereignty, nor defend its flag. 
If any government is truly serious, then the time has come to declare galamsey a treasonable offense because that’s exactly what it is. You cannot arm civilians to destroy water bodies, undermine state authority, poison entire communities, and call it anything short of treason. This is no longer illegal mining. It is insurgency.
Frankly speaking, we are losing this war not due to a lack of intelligence, but because of a lack of courage. Galamsey is enabled by elite collusion, political godfathers, rogue chiefs, compromised security forces, and a justice system that bites only the powerless. This is not just a governance failure. It is a moral collapse.
What Must Happen Immediately:
- Declare illegal miners eco-terrorists and all galamsey operations a treasonable offense
- Disarm and dismantle all galamsey militias with brutal force
- Ruthlessly prosecute galamsey kingpins, financiers, and their political protectors
- Protect and empower anti-galamsey units, not abandon them
This is not a partisan issue. The NPP has galamsey sponsors. The NDC has galamsey backers. We are watching our future sold off in ounces of gold we will never see, leaving behind poisoned rivers, broken farmlands and forest reserves, and a legacy of cowardice.
Enough of the cowardice. Galamsey is treason. Treat it as such and act like this country is worth saving.
