Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, has criticised Ghana’s approach to tackling illegal mining, saying the country has wasted years “pretending to fight galamsey.”

Speaking on the maiden edition of Prime Insight on Joy Prime on Saturday, August 16, Mr Bosu said the fight against illegal mining has been characterised by half-measures, broken promises, and a lack of genuine commitment.

“I think that if you look at where we came from and the promises made, we really wasted a lot of effort, not only that, wasted a lot of resources, wasted a lot of time pretending to fight galamsey,” he stressed.

Mr Bosu argued that both the current and previous governments had sufficient information and resources to deal with the menace but failed to act decisively.

“When we knew the people, when we knew the issues that would have been dealt with right from the word go… we failed blatantly to implement the provisions of the very laws we passed,” he said.

He also highlighted contradictions in policy, noting that while initiatives such as Operation Vanguard and a year-long moratorium on small-scale mining were introduced, illegal mining persisted.

“In the same period that we said there was a moratorium, that was when we also had more exports of gold than ever. Even when we said we were clamping down on these miners, people were still in the pits,” Mr Bosu observed.

According to him, the outcomes prove that the efforts yielded little impact.

“By the end of the eight years of the previous administration, we were really back to nothing. A lot of sentiments and commitments, and promises were just thrown away because people still wanted to do galamsey,” he stated.

Mr Bosu stressed that the tragedy of the August 6 helicopter crash, which claimed eight lives during an anti-galamsey mission, should compel the nation to reflect.

He extended his condolences to the families of the victims, adding:

“That moment of reflection brings all of us to maybe ponder a bit more on what we do to address galamsey going forward.”

He urged that Ghana must move beyond rhetoric and act with urgency.

“It’s not about the structures you put in place, but about the results and the outcomes. Right now, what we need to be talking about is that it failed; it wasn’t successful. We must face that truth and do better,” he said.