Legal and policy analyst, Kofi Bentil has cautioned President John Mahama against underestimating the fight against illegal small-scale mining (galamsey).

He stressed the need for more concrete action beyond mere rhetoric.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Bentil reiterated that past efforts to curb galamsey have fallen short because the issue is far more complex than a mere law enforcement problem.

"Gold is a spirit, and from time immemorial, it makes men mad. If you know the stories of the Wild West, people killed and died for gold. So when you see people risking their lives to go after this, and we think that we can just treat it as a simple law enforcement issue, that’s where the problem is," he said on February 8, 2025.

His comments come in response to President Mahama’s renewed public commitment to eradicating illegal mining, a promise the President reiterated earlier this week.

Kofi Bentil pointed out that people are willing to kill and die for gold, making the fight against galamsey more dangerous and complex than acknowledged.

He expressed concerns over the hazardous conditions miners expose themselves to, citing reports of workers handling toxic mercury with their bare hands, unaware of the devastating health consequences.

"People are doing things in pursuit of this gold that will affect them, their children, and their grandchildren. People don’t appreciate the kind of dangers they themselves are involved in. We should take this thing more seriously than we have done so far and deal with it," he urged.

Mr Bentil also criticized Ghana’s lack of attention to land restoration efforts, arguing that stopping illegal mining should not be the only focus. Instead, he called for a long-term national plan to restore polluted lands and water bodies affected by illegal mining.

"We have not taken recovery seriously enough. We are treating stopping galamsey as the main thing to do. Maybe we will not stop galamsey in the next 10 years, but we should have a national plan for the recovery of these lands," he stated.

The analyst called for a holistic strategy involving tougher enforcement, environmental rehabilitation, and economic alternatives for those dependent on illegal mining.

While Bentil expressed his best wishes to the President, he insisted that the new administration must take a more aggressive and comprehensive approach to ending galamsey if it hopes to succeed where past governments have failed.