Open Letter To The President: Galamsey Is Dead; What We Face Now Is Environmental Terrorism, Crash It Now

Your Excellency,

Permit me to write to you not as a partisan, but as a deeply concerned citizen who, like millions of others, is alarmed by the ticking time bomb we seem to be sleeping on, environmental destruction masked by the aged, almost sympathetic term, galamsey.

The word galamsey, as you are aware, was born from the desperate improvisation of the jobless and the poor – “gather am and sell.” In those days, men and women ventured into abandoned pits to pick up remnants of gold-bearing rocks. They crushed them, washed them, and hoped to find enough to buy a meal. It was illegal, yes, but it was more an act of survival than a deliberate act of national sabotage.

But let’s not deceive ourselves anymore. What we’re witnessing today is no longer galamsey; it is environmental terrorism. The real perpetrators are not the struggling youth we often see at the mining sites. They are the shadowy figures behind the scenes: foreigners, politicians, businessmen and women who exploit the desperation of innocent young people to amass illegal wealth. This is a well-organised criminal enterprise, armed with sophisticated weapons, equipment, mercury, political protection, and in some cases, foreign financiers. These actors are not gathering and selling, they are invading and obliterating.

Mr. President, these environmental terrorists are poisoning our rivers, turning our forests into lunar wastelands, and wiping out the food chain with reckless abandon. And we continue to call them galamseyers, as if they are harmless hustlers. The deception must stop. Words matter. Let’s name the menace for what it truly is.

Your government has taken commendable steps in the fight against illegal mining. The deployment of task forces, the burning of illegal mining communities and equipment, and the arrests are all positive signs. We applaud the stabilisation of the economy, the renewed energy in tackling corruption, and your continued efforts at good governance. In these areas, Mr. President, your leadership has clearly surpassed that of your predecessor’s. Like Oliver Twist, however, we ask for more. The current scale of destruction threatens not just our development, but our very existence.

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Let’s face it: as a nation, we revere our democracy. So much so that we have no qualms defending it, even to the death. We criminalise coups and threaten treason for any attempt to overthrow the Constitution.

I am a firm and unapologetic believer in democracy as the most noble form of governance ever conceived. Though our system may be flawed and far from its ideal, I will stand by and defend any bold, lawful action taken to safeguard it. For me, the survival of our democratic values is non-negotiable.

But here lies the painful irony: we can survive without democracy, but we cannot survive without clean water, clean air, and good food, all of which these environmental terrorists are poisoning and destroying in real time.

I dare ask, Mr President, if death is the price for endangering our democratic order, should it be any less for those who endanger our continued survival as a people with impunity? Isn’t it time we took a critical relook at our mining policies, laws, and punitive measures, and made them stringent enough to decisively deter this escalating wave of environmental terrorism?

It is either we accept that environmental terrorism is truly an existential threat, and so deal with it with the urgency and brutality that existential threats demand, or we pretend it isn’t, and sit idle as our people begin to fall ill, our water becomes undrinkable, and our lands become barren. For how long should we continue to burn the oxygen tank and hope to breathe through democracy? The choice is ours. History will judge us either way.

Mr. President, one of your greatest opportunities to affirm your commitment to environmental justice is to repeal and replace the controversial Legislative Instrument (LI) 2462. The outcry from civil society groups and ordinary citizens was not a rebellion; it was a plea for responsible stewardship. I humbly appeal to you to honour the spirit of your promise and reintroduce a stronger, more transparent regulatory framework that protects, rather than endangers, our forest reserves and water bodies.

To permanently safeguard our natural heritage, forest protection must be removed from political hands. I humbly propose the creation of an Independent Forest Protection Ombudsman or a Green Czar – a constitutionally empowered, apolitical institution to act as the firewall between our forests and the bulldozers of corruption and political blackmail. Politicians must be free from the impossible choice of pleasing constituents or defending the environment. Let professionals lead this charge, backed by law, insulated from interference.

Mr. President, we also urge you to look into the proposals outlined in your good friend Alan Kyerematen’s Great Transformational Plan (GTP), which provides a clear path to convert the youth, who are mostly used by the bigwigs, into responsible, licensed, small-scale miners. Instead of chasing them in circles, let’s channel their energy and skill into legal, monitored mining clusters backed by business support, access to equipment, and sustainable practices.

In conclusion, let me say that this is not just about trees and rivers. This is about whether Ghana will exist as a livable country in the next 20 years. This is about defending the very soul of the nation – our land, our water, our food, our future.

Mr. President, posterity will remember your legacy not just by the roads you built or the numbers in our reserves, but by whether you chose to confront the greatest threat of our time with courage, clarity, and conviction.

You have started well. Legacy beckons. The people are watching. History is watching. And nature is taking notes.

God bless our homeland, Ghana!

Respectfully,
Ebo Buckman
A Concerned Citizen

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