Ebo Buckman, a member of the Movement for Change, has issued a powerful open letter to President John Dramani Mahama, warning that Ghana is sitting on a “ticking time bomb” disguised as illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
In the strongly-worded piece, Buckman pleaded with Mahama to view the issue not through a partisan lens but as a national emergency threatening the country’s future.
“Permit me to write to you not as a partisan, but as a deeply concerned citizen who, like millions of others, is alarmed by the ticking time bomb we seem to be sleeping on—environmental destruction masked by the aged, almost sympathetic term ‘galamsey,’” he wrote.
Buckman traced the roots of galamsey to its humble beginnings, when jobless Ghanaians improvised with “gather am and sell” as a way of surviving in the face of economic hardship.
“In those days, men and women ventured into abandoned pits to pick up remnants of gold-bearing rocks… It was illegal, yes, but it was more an act of survival than a deliberate act of national sabotage,” he explained.
But in a blistering shift of tone, Buckman declared that the situation today is far worse and must no longer be called galamsey.
“Let’s not deceive ourselves anymore. What we’re witnessing today is no longer galamsey—it is environmental terrorism,” he charged.
He pointed fingers not at the young men typically arrested at mining sites, but at powerful forces operating from the shadows.
“The real perpetrators are not the struggling youth we often see at the mining sites.
“They are the shadowy figures behind the scenes: foreigners, politicians, businessmen and women who exploit the desperation of innocent young people to amass illegal wealth,” he said.
According to Buckman, these actors are well-organized, heavily resourced, and protected.
“This is a well-organized criminal enterprise, armed with sophisticated weapons, equipment, mercury, political protection, and in some cases, foreign financiers,” he warned.
“These actors are not gathering and selling; they are invading and obliterating.”
