“I would choose to fight with integrity and die than being corrupted in this dangerous world that will destroy all of us”-Land and Natural Resource Minister
There was something strangely reassuring about the silence along portions of the Ankobra River last Thursday. For years, the banks of the river had been anything but quiet.
They had become bustling workshops for illegal mining, dotted with makeshift structures, mining equipment and changfan machines.
Men worked with the confidence of people who believed nobody could stop them. But last Thursday, the scene was different.
The banks were largely deserted. The makeshift structures and equipment that once defined the landscape had disappeared, leaving behind an eerie quietness that, at first glance, could easily be mistaken for that of a cemetery.
For a journalist who had witnessed the same river barely a year earlier in the company of the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, and personnel of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), the transformation was difficult to ignore. It was a striking reminder that the fight against illegal mining may finally be turning a corner.
Exactly a year ago, the Ankobra presented a depressing picture. Illegal miners had virtually taken over sections of the riverbanks, operating their makeshift mining workshops and shelters with apparent impunity. When NAIMOS personnel approached, some of the miners would disappear into the surrounding vegetation, only to return after the security personnel had left.
It was a frustrating cycle.
The enforcement teams would arrive, illegal miners would flee, and the riverbanks would return to their old ways once the operation ended. Today, that script appears to be changing. The difference is the permanent presence of NAIMOS.
Instead of making periodic appearances on the river and leaving afterwards, the enforcement team has stayed. They have made the river their operational home, living and working around the very areas where illegal miners once operated freely.
And that sustained presence appears to have delivered what sporadic operations could not.
The changfan machines have disappeared
The makeshift structures have been cleared. The illegal mining workshops that once occupied the riverbanks have been dismantled.The silence is no longer the silence of impunity.
It is the silence left behind after an illegal occupation has been removed and cleared.
During the latest 16-kilometre tour of the Ankobra with NAIMOS and the Minister, I could not help but reflect on the contrast between what I saw last year and what stood before us this time.
For Hon. Armah-Kofi Buah, the change is evidence that the government’s strategy is beginning to produce results.
He disclosed that close to 3,000 mining machines had been removed from the Ankobra, Pra, Birim and other rivers, while more than 237 arrests had been made, including 144 foreign nationals.
More importantly, he argued that government had moved away from sporadic raids to permanent, intelligence-led operations.That shift is perhaps the most important development in the current fight against illegal mining.
Galamsey has survived previous enforcement efforts partly because illegal operators knew that security personnel would eventually leave.Now, the calculation is changing.The message from NAIMOS is no longer simply that it will come. It is that it will stay.
And that is giving renewed hope to those who have watched Ghana’s rivers deteriorate for years.
The Minister himself appeared visibly encouraged by what he saw. He acknowledged that the country was not yet at the point where the Ankobra and other degraded rivers could be restored to the clear blue waters Ghanaians desire.
But he maintained that the progress was substantial. His optimism was not based merely on official reports. He had joined the 16 kilometer water tour and seen the difference himself.
The Ankobra, he recalled, was previously virtually a workshop for changfan machines and other equipment used in illegal mining.
Now, those machines and the armed groups that once intimidated enforcement officers have largely disappeared from the sections visited.
That transformation has also created another development worth watching: some young people who were previously involved in illegal mining are reportedly moving into organized and responsible small-scale mining programmes.
This is important because winning the galamsey war cannot be achieved through enforcement alone.There must also be a credible alternative for people who depend on mining for their livelihoods.
And this is where the Ellembelle Legislator cum Minister for Lands and Natural Resources approach appears to be taking shape — enforcement on one hand, and efforts to promote responsible and sustainable mining on the other.
Yet, at the heart of the Minister’s campaign is something that has become increasingly important in the difficult battle against illegal mining: personal integrity.
Those who know Mr Armah-Kofi Buah closely describe him as a man who places considerable value on honesty and principle.His own words during the Ankobra tour were revealing.
He made it clear that he would rather pursue the fight with integrity than allow himself to be corrupted by the enormous interests surrounding illegal mining.
“I would choose to fight with integrity and die than being corrupted in this dangerous world that will destroy all of us”, he said. What an assuring and reassuring word from the sector Minister Armah Kofi-Buah.
That declaration matters because galamsey is no longer simply a fight against men operating machines on riverbanks. Behind the machines are financiers, sponsors and influential interests capable of sustaining illegal operations even after equipment is destroyed.
The Minister has therefore signaled that the next phase of the battle must go beyond the machines and reach those who finance and benefit from the illegal trade.
For now, however, the Ankobra offers a rare reason for optimism. A riverbank that once looked like an industrial estate for illegal mining now stands largely deserted.
The machines are gone. The makeshift houses are gone. The armed gangs are gone. For a journalist who saw the Ankobra last year and returned again last Thursday, that is not a small change.
It is perhaps the clearest sign yet that the fight against galamsey can be won and we are winning — provided the country does not relent. The Ankobra is not blue yet, but it is breathing again.
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