Musah Superior writes;
Broken Promises: Part 1:
Mahama Government’s catastrophic failure on galamsey.
When John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) returned to power in 2025, they did so on a wave of public anger over illegal mining, or galamsey. For years, they had chastised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for failing to stop the destruction of rivers, cocoa farms, and forests. The NDC promised to be different — bold, ruthless, uncompromising. Eight months into office, however, their words have proven empty.
In opposition, NDC leaders were unrelenting. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, now Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, once declared on social media: “There can be absolutely no excuse for allowing the destruction and contamination of rivers because of galamsey. We must reset Ghana to save our environment and end this mass suicidal madness!”
Sam George, today Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, was just as fiery. In 2020, he tweeted, “Galamsey is a national security threat. The destruction of cocoa farms and water bodies cannot be justified under any government.” Four years later, in the heat of opposition, he added: “The man who is paid to be President has the ultimate power to end this in a week if he wants. He is Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, for Christ’s sake.”
Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of NDC and now CEO of the Gold Board, thundered at an April 2023 press conference: “Galamsey poses an existential threat. The complicity of government officials has made it worse. We will ruthlessly end this menace.”
These statements weren’t isolated soundbites. They were central to the NDC’s opposition brand: the righteous alternative, ready to cut where the NPP had compromised. Their 2024 manifesto sealed the message, vowing to “ruthlessly end the menace of galamsey, ban mining in forest reserves, reclaim degraded lands, and establish a structured framework through the Gold Board to regulate small-scale mining.”
Eight months on, the contrast between rhetoric and reality is staggering. Galamsey remains rampant. Rivers such as Pra, Ankobra, and Offin are still clogged with mud and chemicals. Forest reserves continue to be stripped. Despite clear promises, no significant prosecutions have been carried out. Instead, reports suggest illegal mining operations thrive, sometimes under political protection.
The much-hyped Gold Board, touted as the regulatory masterstroke, has so far disappointed. Far from the transformative institution Sammy Gyamfi once called “the framework that will sanitise the small-scale mining sector,” it has become another bureaucratic contraption: Politically driven and lacking credibility. Instead of ending chaos, it has added another layer of dysfunction.
The NDC’s performance reveals a troubling pattern of harsh condemnation in opposition but hollow action in government. The very voices that once echoed against galamsey; Ablakwa, Sam George, and Sammy Gyamfi, have fallen silent. Their pledge for the NDC government to prosecute offenders has evaporated. The initiatives, including the Gold Board, look more like smoke and mirrors than solutions.
For ordinary Ghanaians, the result is devastating. The poisoned rivers remain, the cocoa farms are still being destroyed, and communities continue to suffer. The change people voted for has not materialised. Instead, they have been handed continuity — failure wrapped in new promises.
This is more than political hypocrisy; it is a crisis of trust. A government that promised to be ruthless has instead been toothless. A party that campaigned on ending galamsey now presides over its persistence. The NDC cannot run from its own words forever. Eventually, Ghanaians will judge not the fire of their opposition rhetoric but the emptiness of their governance.
John Mahama’s government still has time to act, but the window is closing fast. Galamsey is not just an environmental issue; it is truly “an existential threat” to livelihoods, agriculture, and national survival. Anything short of decisive action will cement the NDC’s reputation as just a Party of Deception.
