State of emergency as a panacea for Galam state

Introduction

“Galamsey” (illegal gold mining and exploitation) has been around for generations, but it has developed through various stages and has now become a burden hanging around our necks.

It started as an accepted, traditional way of mining gold, but was criminalized when the rule came into being that all natural resources had to be owned by the head of state or president, on behalf of and under the control of the people of Ghana.

Over time it has evolved from a small-scale criminal activity to organized crime and now it is a transnational organized crime (TOC).

Organized crime consists of networks that work together within the territorial borders of a state and carry out various illegal activities for profit, usually by using violence, coercion and corruption.

However, as transnational organised crime, the planning and execution of these criminal activities, their consequences, the way in which the profits from these activities are realised and shared, and the actors involved, are cross-border.

Another feature is that state involvement is shifting away from security personnel operating in isolation and on a task-specific basis. ad hoc basis for the participation of state actors – the police and other security services, the judiciary, the prison system, etc. – as well as politicians and government officials in the practice in a coordinated manner.

A TOC is not just about criminality. It is about human rights violations, the destruction of the environment, the disruption of social demography, norms and practices of a community, the disruption of the economy, the disruption of respect for the rule of law or governance (leading to state takeover/deep state) and an unravelling of the security and stability of the state – contributing to the creation of a fragile state and ultimately a failed state.

Galamsey as TOC

Galamsey went from an organized crime to a transnational organized crime character around the year 2000 when foreigners from the sub-region and countries such as India, Italy, Russia and China, among others, entered the fray. Since then, the practice has become more entrenched, the actors more daring, the trials more complex and the efforts to stop the practice more complicated.

Declaration of a state of emergency on Galamsey

On July 24, 2024, students from the International Human Rights Law class of the University of Ghana at a press conference held at the auditorium of the School of Law of the University of Ghana indicated that the galamsey menace poses an existential threat to the very existence of Ghana. One of the recommendations they made to control the cancer was to declare a state of emergency in galamsey-affected communities.

It is heart-warming to see that this call is still loud and clear, also from the trade unions, UTAG, TUC, the clergy, the medical profession, social organizations and others.

Political parties united against state of emergency

Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the two main political parties are sitting on the fence and are not prepared to take this relevant, radical step to contain the menace because of the short-term benefits that accrue to the politicians, their political parties and cronies. What is sad is that they are not the biggest beneficiaries, but rather the campaign financiers, the gold smugglers and the manufacturers of the “changfan” machines. So for a crumb of bread, the politicians have sold their conscience and pawned the state to criminal gangs and are prepared to destroy the environment, violate human rights or ignore the violation of them and betray the people and the state.

National Patriotic Party (NPP)

In response to the call for a state of emergency, the Minister of Natural Resources earlier described it as “draconian” and “unnecessary”. He further argued that declaring a state of emergency would affect the jobs and livelihoods of those who mine legally. The government has also tried to mobilise force to go back to the galamsey pits to clear out the illegal miners. However, this is all déjà vu and a PR gimmick. We have seen at least four previous failed attempts to deal with the menace. The call by the vice-presidential candidate to sign an anti-galamsey pact with the NDC is part of the gimmick. When is that pact going to be implemented? Now or after the elections are over? As for his advice to the clergy to propose solutions to tackle galamsey, it is not clear whether he fell asleep when the clergy released a statement supporting the declaration of a state of emergency. Moreover, the NPP manifesto on galamsey is weak and pathetic.

National Democratic Congress NDC

In the case of the NDC, their presidential candidate has declared that he would grant amnesty to jailed “galamseyers” if he were to return to power. The manifesto is also very weak when it comes to tackling galamsey. Recently, the National Communications Officer issued a statement saying that “if the NPP could not tackle galamsey in 2,805 days (…) with Operation Vanguard, GALAMSTOP, etc., they certainly cannot tackle it in 86 days, irrespective of whether a state of emergency is declared.”

It is interesting to note that the NDC is adopting a holier-than-thou attitude and is presenting itself as if it has nothing to do with galamsey. Galamsey was on the rise under former President Mahama. Yet, during the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns, he relaxed the anti-galamsey struggle to play on the influences of the “big fish” in the galamsey network who were known to finance political campaigns. It was also to win votes from the “small fish” galamseyers who threatened to vote against the NDC if they were deprived of the opportunity to work in galamsey pits.

For this reason, when Nana Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017, he decided to risk his presidency to fight it. Unfortunately, he failed miserably because galamsey, which had become transnational, had introduced a new relationship between the “outsiders” and the “insiders” and between criminals and politicians. Galamsey provided a major means of financing political campaigns and other politically related activities or simply lining the pockets of politicians.

Ghana – a “Galam State”

At this stage of galamsey practice, state capture is evident. This is a setting in which the ruling elite, criminal gangs and/or powerful businessmen capture and manipulate policy formulation and formation and influence the decision-making process to their own advantage.

We also see a gradual descent of the state into a galam state. A galam state, like a narco state, is a state that has been captured and connected to a higher form of large-scale corruption.

In a galam-In the state, a galamsey practice is ‘normalized’ and the people are silenced or restricted to merely criticizing the negative practice, while this criticism is met with a counter-narrative (dressed in legal jargon and crude English), indicating that, compared to the previous regime, strenuous efforts are being or have been made by the government in power to address the menace.

A galam state is characterized by the types of state institutions (the legislative, executive, judicial, regulatory bodies, public works ministries) that are in the hands of large private companies, political leaders, high-ranking civil servants, and interest groups such as transnational criminal networks.

Also, in a galam state, there is a perfect mix between criminally minded politicians and politically minded criminal gangs, creating a hybrid form of governance. In such a scenario, the traditional role of the state to arrest, investigate, prosecute, settle cases, convict suspects and incarcerate or fine them – key ingredients of resilience factors or the ability to resist and disrupt TOC as a whole – is compromised. A weakened criminal justice system in turn promotes patronage and clientelism, the latter contributing to the creation of hybrid forms of governance

The next stage in the consolidation of the galam state would be the formation of mafia-style criminal gangs, whose typology consists of militias and guerrilla groups with identifiable members and territorial control.

Some galamseyers have already approached local leaders who are complicit in the practice of buying parts of rivers for galamsey. These groups are likely to form where gold resources – non-renewable resources and because of the primitive methods used to extract them – are depleted. Having become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, they will try to replace galamsey with other forms of TOCs, particularly drug trafficking.

State of emergency

The call for the declaration of a state of emergency does not ask the NPP to end galamsey within 86 days, as the NDC claims. It marks the beginning of a process that must be continued by the new government (whether NPP or NDC) that comes to power in 2025.

The NDC must support the call for a state of emergency. However, they feel equally threatened by the call because it will curtail their ambition to continue the galamsey loot if they come to power next year. There is also the possibility that they will lose the support of potential financiers who are waiting in the wings to replace the DCEs and MCEs and reform the DISECS and broaden and deepen the galamsey practice, thus taking Ghana to the next level of state capture; what is called the “Deep State”. From Deep State we will end up as a fragile state and then a failed state.

Conclusion

We cannot rely on a government in power to eradicate galamsey. Declaring a state of emergency is the surest way to break the back of the galam state. There will be resistance from the state. Therefore, the threat of concerted targeted actions and interventions by the citizens, civil society, organized labor, the media, the clergy, students and youth groups to organize various targeted actions to deal a fatal blow to galamsey is appropriate.