Introduction

“Galamsey” (illegal prospecting and mining of gold) has been with us for generations, but it has grown through different stages and has now become an albatross hanging around our necks.

Starting as an accepted traditional means of winning gold, it was criminalised when the rule that all natural resources should be vested in the Head of State or President on behalf of and in trust for the people of Ghana emerged.

With time, it moved from a being a low-level criminal activity to becoming organised crime and now a transnational organised crime (TOC).

An organised crime involves networks that operate together within the territorial confines of a state, performing different illicit activities for profit, most often through the use of violence, coercion and corruption.

However, as a transnational organised crime, the planning and execution of these criminal activities, and their effects, where profits from these activities are realised and shared, and the actors involved, cut across borders.

Another feature is where the involvement of State moves from security personnel acting separately and on an ad hoc basis to the participation of state-embedded actors – the police and other security agencies, the judiciary, the prisons service, etc – as well as politicians and government officials in the practice in a coordinated fashion.

A TOC is not simply about crime. It involves human rights violations, the destruction of the environment, the distortion of social demographics, norms and practices of a community, the disturbance of the economy, disruption of the respect for the rule of law or governance (leading to state capture/deep state) and an unravelling of the security and stability of the State – contributing to the creation of a fragile state and ultimately, a failed state.

Galamsey as a TOC

Galamsey moved from being an organised crime to assuming a transnational organised crime character around the year 2000 when foreigners from within the sub-region and countries as far as India, Italy, Russia and China, among other places, entered the fray. Since then, the practice has become more entrenched, the actors more daring, the processes more complicated and efforts to arrest the practice more complicated.

Declaration of a state of emergency on galamsey

On July 24, 2024, students of the International Human Rights Law class of the University of Ghana, in a press conference organised at the auditorium of the School of Law, University of Ghana, indicated that the galamsey menace constitutes an existential threat to the survival of Ghana. Among the recommendations they made to bring the canker under control was to support the declaration of a state of emergency in galamsey-afflicted communities.

It is heart-warming to note that that call continues to ring loud and clear, including coming from organised labour, UTAG, TUC, the clergy, the medical profession, civil society organisations, among others.

Political parties united against state of emergency

Unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, the two main political parties are found sitting on the fence and not ready to take this relevant, radical step to curb the menace because of the short-term, inward-looking benefits that accrue to the politicians, their political parties and cronies. What is pitiable though is that they happen not to be the major beneficiaries but rather the campaign financiers, the smugglers of the gold and the manufacturers of the “changfan” machines. Thus, for a crumb of bread, the politicians have sold their conscience, and mortgaged the State, to criminal gangs and are ready to destroy the environment, violate or overlook the violation of human rights and betray the citizenry and the State.

National Patriotic Party (NPP)

In response to the call for a declaration of state of emergency, the Minister of Natural Resources rather described it as “draconian” and “unnecessary.” Further, he has argued that declaring a state of emergency would affect jobs and livelihood for those doing legal mining. The government has also attempted to mobilise force to go back to the galamsey pits to clear the illegal miners. However, all this is a déjà vu, and a public relations gimmick. We have seen at least four previous unsuccessful attempts to deal with the menace. The vice-presidential candidate’s call for the signing of an anti-galamsey pact with the NDC is part of the gimmick. When is that pact going to be implemented? Now or when the elections are over? As for his advice to the clergy to suggest solutions to tackle galamsey, it is not clear if he went to sleep when the clergy issued a statement supporting the declaration of a state of emergency. Moreover, the NPP’s manifesto on galamsey is weak and pitiful.

National Democratic Congress NDC

In the case of the NDC, their presidential candidate is on record as having said that he would grant amnesty to jailed “galamseyers” if voted back to power. Its manifesto is also very weak on tackling galamsey. Recently, its National Communications Officer issued a statement to the effect that “if the NPP could not fight galamsey in 2,805 days […] with Operation Vanguard, GALAMSTOP, etc, they can certainly not fight galamsey in 86 days whether or not a state of emergency is declared.”

It is interesting to see NDC portraying a holier-than-thou attitude and branding itself as more or less having nothing to do with galamsey. Galamsey was on the ascendancy under former President Mahama. Yet, during the presidential and parliamentary electoral campaigns, he relaxed the anti-galamsey fight to pander to the influences of the “big fishes” in the galamsey network who were known to finance political campaigns. It was also to win votes from the “small fish” galamseyers who threatened to vote against the NDC if they were denied the opportunity to work in galamsey pits.

It was for that reason that Nana Akufo-Addo, upon assuming office in 2017 decided to put his presidency on the line to fight it. Unfortunately, however, he failed woefully because galamsey, having become transnational, had introduced a new relationship between the “outsiders” and the “insiders,” and between criminals and politicians. Galamsey provided an important means to finance political campaign and other political related activities or simply to line the pockets of politicians.

Ghana – a “Galam-State”

At this stage in the galamsey practice, state capture is evident. This is a setting in which the ruling elite, criminal gangs and/or powerful businessmen capture and manipulate policy formulation and formation and influence the decision-making process to their own advantage.

We are also seeing a gradual descent of the state into a galam-state. A galam-state, like a narco-state, is a state that is captured and linked to a higher form of grand corruption.

In a galam-state, a galamsey practice is “normalised” and the people are silenced or limited to mere criticism of the negative practice while these criticisms are met with a counter-narrative (clothed in legalese and big English) indicating that, compared to the previous regime, strenuous efforts are being made or have been made by the government in power to deal with the menace.

A galam-state is identified by the types of state institutions captured (the legislative, executive, judiciary, regulatory agencies, public works ministries) by large private firms, political leaders, high ranking officials, interest groups such as transnational criminal networks.

Also, in a galam-state, there is a perfect blend between criminally-minded politicians and politically-minded criminal gangs, creating a hybrid form of governance. In such a scenario, the traditional role of the State to arrest, investigate, prosecute, adjudicate cases, convict accused persons and incarcerate or fine them – key ingredients of resilience factors or the ability to withstand and disrupt TOC as a whole – are compromised. A weakened criminal justice system in turn promotes patronage and clientelism, with the latter contributing to creating hybrid forms of governance

The next stage in the consolidation of the galam-state would be the formation of mafia-style criminal gangs whose typology includes militia and guerrilla groups exercising identifiable membership and territorial control.

Already, some galamseyers have approached some local chiefs who are complicit in the practice to buy portions of rivers for galamsey. These groups are likely to be formed where the gold resources – being non-renewal resource and due to the crude methods used to win them – become exhausted. Having become used to a particular lifestyle, they will seek to replace galamsey with other forms of TOCs, especially drug trafficking.

State of emergency

The call for a declaration of state of emergency is not asking the NPP to bring an end to galamsey within 86 days, as is being claimed by the NDC. It is to mark the beginning of a process, which has to be continued by the new government (whether NPP or NDC) that will come to power in 2025.

The NDC must support the call for a declaration of a state of emergency. However, it feels equally threatened by the call because it will curtail their ambition to continue the galamsey loot should they come to power next year. There is also the likelihood of losing support from potential financiers who are waiting on the wings to replace the DCEs and MCEs and reconstitute the DISECS and widen and deepen the galamsey practice, thereby taking Ghana to the next level of state capture; what is called the “Deep State.” From Deep state we will end as a fragile state and then a failed state.

Conclusion

We cannot rely on any government in power to uproot galamsey. A declaration of a state of emergency is the surest way to break the back of the galam-state. There will be resistance from the State. That is why the threat of concerted targeted actions and interventions by the citizenry, civil society organisations, organised labour, the media, the clergy, students and youth groups to organise various targeted actions to deal a fatal blow to galamsey is in order.