Here’s the rub: NDC traded galamsey outrage for votes, now they’re too scared to face the gold-fueled monster

Let’s face it, galamsey’s not some newfangled curse dropped on us by the gods. It’s been brewing for centuries, twisting from a humble hustle into a full-blown hydra tearing at our rivers, forests, and soul.

As of now, under John Mahama’s NDC redux, we’re still drowning in it, despite their campaign promises to slay the beast. This is the story of how we got here, and why the NDC’s victory lap feels like a stumble in the mud.

Pre-Colonial Roots to Colonial Cage

Gold’s been our birthright since the Akan kingdoms swapped nuggets with Arab traders pre-15th century. Back then, it was artisanal; families panning rivers, digging shallow pits with tools you’d laugh at today. No mercury, no machines, just sweat and a bit of luck.

The British rolled in, dubbed us the Gold Coast, and by the 1870s, they’d caged the big mines in Obuasi and Tarkwa under colonial law, leaving locals to scratch at the edges. Post-1957 independence, Kwame Nkrumah kept the split: industrial giants got the lion’s share, while small-scale miners, highly unregulated, faded into the bush.

The ’80s flipped the script. Under Jerry Rawlings, the economy was in shambles, cocoa crashed, inflation soared, and folks turned to gold to afford their daily bread. The 1989 Small-Scale Gold Mining Law (PNDCL 218) tried to legalise it with licences for Ghanaians over 18, but the red tape was a joke, and enforcement was non-existent.

By the ’90s, galamsey (“gather and sell”) was free-for-all: jobless youth, broke farmers, even chiefs with a wink and a nod. Gold output crept up to 1.6 million ounces by 2016, but the real boom was coming.

The Chinese Invasion and Mechanisation

By the 2000s, China’s miners hit the scene, and galamsey went feral.

They brought excavators, dredgers, chanfans and other equipment our grandpas never dreamt of and turned artisanal digs into industrial scars.

By 2013, under Mahama’s first term, 50,000 Chinese had flooded in, per the South China Morning Post, partnering with locals who knew the land. A 2009 collapse in Dompoase killed 18 people, mostly female porters; crude, deadly, and a sign of things yet to come.

Then-president Mahama’s task force deported 4,500 Chinese that year, a flashy win, but the locals kept at it and 85% of small-scale mining stayed illegal. The damage? Rivers like Birim turned brown, mercury levels hit 20 times safe limits by 2023.

NPP’s Reign: A War Lost in the Pits

Nana Akufo-Addo’s NPP took over in 2017, swearing to end galamsey or put “my presidency on the line,” he roared.

Operation Vanguard rolled out, 400 troops or so, police, burning excavators like it was a bonfire party. Result? Utter bollocks. Sites tripled by 2024, gold hit 135 tons yearly of which 55 tons was pure galamsey loot, while 2 million hectares of forest vanished since 2001.

The Pra, Ankobra, Tano, 60% of our water bodies, became toxic sludge; cocoa farmers lost harvests to flooded pits. Reports indicate about 1,600 licences were issued, some allegedly forced “from above”; chiefs, MPs, cops reportedly took cuts. A 2022 tax cut on artisanal gold from 3% to 1.5% curbed smuggling a bit, but the big fish swam free.

By October 2024, we’d had enough; #StopGalamseyNow protests rocked Accra. The NPP was toast, with 54% inflation, $55 billion debt, and galamsey as the final nail in their coffin.

Mahama and the NDC smelled blood, and they pounced.

NDC’s Galamsey Gambit; From Campaign Fire to Governing Fizzle

Let’s not mince words, the NDC didn’t invent galamsey, but they rode its stinking carcass straight back to Jubilee House (or Flagstaff House) in December 2024.

After Nana Akufo-Addo‘s NPP botched the fight, John Mahama’s crew turned a national disgrace into political gold. Now, three months into their reign as of March 24, 2025, the fire seems to have gone out.

How’d they pull it off, and why’s it looking like hot air already?

The 2024 Election: Galamsey as a War Cry

By mid-2024, the NPP was a sinking ship; galamsey sites had reportedly tripled under their watch with 60% of our water bodies trashed. The #StopGalamseyNow protests weren’t just noise—thousands marched in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, and unions like the Ghana Medical Association joined.

The NPP’s “war” against galamsey included Operation Vanguard and Forward Operating Bases, but they promptly collapsed; seized excavators were back in pits within weeks.

Mahama pounced. His August 2024 manifesto promised a “Restore Ghana Initiative”: land reclamation, mercury-free tech, and a Gold Board to license small-scale miners.

NDC spokesman (and now head of PMMC) Sammy Gyamfi hit the air waves, slamming Akufo-Addo’s “eight years of failure.”

The election results showed the strategy worked: mining zones—Ashanti, Western, Eastern—flipped hard. About 60% of Western Region votes went NDC, up from 47% in 2020, clinching 183 of 276 seats and Mahama over Bawumia.

Galamsey wasn’t the NDC’s baby; it was their battering ram used to smash the NPP out of power.

Questions linger about whether NDC cut a deal with galamseyers. Mahama’s 2020 pledge to “resource” miners for jobs raised eyebrows as potential vote-buying in galamsey hubs. By 2024, he’d changed his tune, claiming AI, drones, and bans would be his government’s remedy.

2025: Early Moves, Early Stumbles

Mahama was sworn in on January 7, 2025, with galamsey as his first test.

January 18, a clash near Obuasi killed seven miners, army versus armed diggers; he ordered a probe.

January 30, he banned government officials from mining, promising “swift and severe sanctions” for violators and pushing for arrests.

February 21, he swapped burning excavators for seizures, aiming for a “scientific” approach to clear forest reserves. A Minerals Commission audit began, targeting 1,200 illegal leases from the NPP era.

Sounds promising, right?

But honestly, nothing’s changed. Where’s the Gold Board? The drones? The AI? Three months in, its small fry nabbed; 40 arrests by March 1, by my count; while big fish swim free. The NDC’s campaign venom has gone soft; why?

NDC’s Cold Feet and Galamsey’s Gangster Turn

NDC’s galamsey fight, once a campaign war cry, is limping like a wounded goat. John Mahama’s crew swore to slay this beast, yet we see about 100 sites thriving in Western Region.

Why has the momentum stalled, and why’s galamsey starting to look like a bloody crime syndicate?

Truth is, this isn’t your grandpa’s galamsey; it’s a REAL syndicate now, and we’re sleeping on a powder keg. Excavators, chanfans, AK-47s don’t smuggle themselves into the country; bosses run this with cash and muscle. January 18’s Obuasi clash with seven miners dead and our army battered wasn’t a scuffle; it was a turf war.

Reports claim around 200 armed guards protect top sites in Ashanti; these are hired thugs, not kids, and as all parties profit, the menace appears “unstoppable.”

We should be worried when looking to our regional neighbours. Nigeria’s Boko Haram started as a 2002 preaching sect in Borno; by 2009, they were bombing, funded by smuggling cattle and cash across borders, with 500 deaths that year alone.

Mali’s Tuareg rebels in 2012 tapped gold and heroin in the Sahara, spawning AQIM offshoots, resulting in 2,000 people killed by 2015.

Galamsey has the same ingredients: gold at $2,000 per ounce (up 20% since 2023), lawless territory, and massive profits, around $500 million yearly, per a 2023 UNODC estimate. Left unchecked, we’re not just losing rivers, we’re breeding warlords who’ll shoot before they talk.

This isn’t chaos; it’s a racket; hierarchies, payoffs, firepower. Ignore it, and we’re not far from Mali’s mess, gold-funded militias thumbing their noses at Accra.

China’s Strings, Our Numbness, and NDC’s Last Stand

China isn’t just a bystander, they’re the fuel in galamsey’s engine. The 2000s saw 50,000 Chinese miners flood in with chanfans and cash, by 2011, they ran 70% of illegal sites in Ashanti, according to a 2016 African Studies Quarterly study.

We literally lived through the drama of notorious Chinese immigrant Aisha Huang, whom we passionately called “Galamsey Queen.”

Recent estimates suggest that the Chinese migrant population in Ghana is between 10,000 and 30,000, primarily working in infrastructure (construction), mining, commerce (trading), hospitality, and agriculture.

Reports indicate over 10,000 Chinese are overstaying visas in mining zones. Why no crackdown? Soft power is the answer; China’s $1.9 billion slice of our $55 billion debt, 400km of roads, dams like Bui; and it keeps us tethered.

Beijing’s gold hunger means they’ll push equipment our way, legal or not.

A 2024 Chatham House paper warns China’s Belt and Road loans often dodge environmental oversight; Ghana’s $2 billion bauxite-for-infrastructure deal in 2018 skirted forest rules. Bust their miners, and loan terms might tighten, or more dredgers slip through Togo’s border.

The NDC remains silent on the foreign players. It’s not ignorance; it’s fear—China’s a creditor we can’t afford to vex, especially considering our positioning in the Eurobond market and with the IMF.

Our Sad Surrender: Apathy’s the Real Killer

We’re losing the plot, and galamsey’s rot is settling in like a bad tenant.

NDC has one shot. They need to stop faffing and fight.

First, hit the kingpins: raid the politicians involved, drone-map the armed sites. Second, confront China: ban chanfan imports, deport overstayers, debt be damned; they’re not allies, they’re exploiters. Third, deliver the river guards (hire 5,000 youth, as per your manifesto, and equip them well) and establish the Gold Board (start licensing 10,000 miners by June). Fourth, level with us properly; Mahama’s “gold is holding Ghana” statement is spineless; admit it’s a war, not a negotiation.

China’s rigging the game, we’re too numb to care, and this isn’t mining any more; it’s a gangster takeover with terrorist potential. All talk, no bite? That’s what Mahama’s administration is showing so far, campaign warriors but governing wimps who are still blaming the erstwhile NPP.

You won 183 seats on this promise; don’t bottle it. Akufo-Addo’s NPP flopped with PR stunts; your silence is worse. Act, or we’re not just broke; we’re broken.

Galamsey is a twisted hydra that the NDC wielded to gut the NPP, but now they’re scared to chop its heads.

We defeated Bawumia for this; don’t make us regret it. Wake up, or galamsey will be our epitaph, etched in mud and mercury.

The post Here’s the rub: NDC traded galamsey outrage for votes, now they’re too scared to face the gold-fueled monster first appeared on 3News.

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