Security analyst Professor Kwesi Aning has called for greater transparency and data-driven accountability in Ghana’s fight against illegal mining and environmental degradation, stressing that public access to verifiable information is the only way to measure real progress.
Prof. Aning urged key state institutions to make environmental data readily available to the public.
“Let Ghana Water Company publish daily turbidity levels, and let the Forestry Commission issue monthly forest-status reports.
“Then we will know whether things are improving or not. That is the only way we can benchmark our success,” he stated on Joy FM’s Newsfile.
He argued that the lack of measurable and publicly available data has allowed government claims and political rhetoric about progress in environmental protection to go largely unchallenged.
“People can sit in Accra and say the fight is succeeding, but if the rivers remain brown and the forest canopy keeps shrinking, then it is only talk,” he said.
“We must move from rhetoric to evidence. Accountability must be grounded in facts that every Ghanaian can see.”
According to Prof. Aning, transparency is not just about reporting, but about empowering citizens to hold leaders and institutions accountable.
“Without clear metrics, corruption and disinformation thrive,” he added. “Once the numbers are public, there will be no hiding place for those manipulating the system.”
