The President of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana, Professor Eric K.K. Abavare, has delivered a scathing review of the NDC government’s handling of illegal mining, describing its anti-galamsey effort as a “theater of ecocide and crisis of conscience.”
In his latest epistle titled _‘The Theater of Ecocide and the Crisis of Conscience’_ addressed to Ghanaians, Prof. Abavare said the government, which in opposition promised an uncompromising ethical rupture from past environmental stewardship, has betrayed that promise.
According to him, President John Dramani Mahama, who in opposition stated “I will use AI to fight galamsey if elected,” and the NDC administration assured the republic of decisive action, but a clinical assessment shows the effort has “degenerated into an elaborate talk shop, where press statements and cosmetic committee meetings are deployed to deflect blame while party apparatchiks and mining syndicates operate with total impunity, aided and abetted by foreign mercenaries in the heart of our forest reserves and rivers.”
Prof. Abavare said his primary concern lies in how public figures chose to navigate the crisis. He noted that while key figures like Hon. Felix Kwakye Ofosu and Sam Nartey George advocated for drastic statutory interventions such as declaring a national state of emergency, others including Sammy Gyamfi and Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa prioritized media spectacle by holding press briefings featuring bottled samples of highly turbid water.
He said communicators also petitioned international bodies, including calling on the United Nations to revoke President Akufo-Addo’s role as Co-Chair of the UN SDGs Advocates, while parliamentary debate devolved into finger-pointing over which administration dirtied Ghana’s rivers more.
“These actions highlight performative politics at its peak. High-profile press conferences, dramatic physical props, and grand calls for emergency declarations served headline-grabbing political narratives rather than delivering sustainable, on-the-ground protection for the environment and the health of everyday Ghanaians,” he wrote.
*Minister On The Spot: Daylight Declarations, Nocturnal Mining*
Prof. Abavare placed direct culpability on the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, alongside the leadership of the Minerals Commission and the EPA, saying despite polished declarations on sustainable transitions, oversight has been defined by paralyzing inertia.
He alleged that concessions overlapping gazetted headwaters remain active and enforcement has been reduced to theatrical farce, with intermittent incursions of NAIMOS and Blue Water Guards paraded to trumpet achievement.
He further alleged an open secret of nocturnal impunity where heavy excavators, changfans and industrial wash-plants owned by ruling party financiers operate after dusk guarded by armed private militias, tearing through riverbeds. He linked this to campaign assurances made at mining sites in 2024 and recalled the famous quote of former NDC Chairman Hon. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, ‘No Contribution No Chop’ mantra.
*Choked Dialysis Centres and The ‘Regularisation’ Fallacy*
The KNUST don warned that while politicians trade talking points in air-conditioned studios, ordinary Ghanaians are paying with their lives, citing bioaccumulation of toxic heavy metals – mercury, lead, arsenic and cyanide.
He said renal dialysis centres at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and other facilities are completely choked and overwhelmed by an influx of young patients dying of acute kidney failure, with heavy metals bioaccumulating in municipal water, cassava roots, yams and freshwater fish, driving spikes in spontaneous abortions and congenital deformities.
He described as appalling the statement issued on 23rd October by the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners in agreement with the GoldBod CEO’s assertion made during the 23rd March meeting in Kumasi regarding ‘regularising illegal mining.’
“Both the government and GNASSM perpetuate a dangerous delusion: stamping an official certificate onto an illegal pit magically transforms ecocide into responsible mining. A piece of paper does not change the laws of chemistry, nor does it stop an excavator from churning river mud into toxic soup,” he stated.
He argued that the physical activities of so-called licensed small-scale miners – diverting river channels, stripping buffer banks and washing gold with mercury – are virtually indistinguishable from unregistered galamseyers.
*Bipartisan Talkshops and Verdict*
Prof. Abavare accused the ruling NDC and opposition NPP of being locked in an unprincipled blame-shifting carousel, viewing mining enclaves not as ecological disaster zones requiring immediate cessation but as vital voting banks to be appeased with mining amnesties and GoldBod purchase schemes.
He concluded that Ghana cannot regulate its way out of ecocide through paper certificates and GoldBod trading licenses while heavy machinery remains lodged in riverbeds.
He called for an immediate, unconditional total ban on all mining within 200 metres of water bodies; permanent confiscation and public crushing of nocturnal excavators; criminal prosecution of party financiers regardless of political affiliation; and an end to cosmetic regularisation talkshops.
“If the NDC government fails to halt this carnage, it will be remembered not as the protector of the people, but as the administration that presided over the biological death of the republic,” he warned.