A former Minister of Roads and Highways and former MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, is urging the government to make an immediate declaration of a state of emergency over Ghana's forests and water bodies, citing the devastating environmental degradation caused by illegal mining activities.
Speaking on JoyNews on Saturday, April 26, 2025, Fuseini said that more delays in taking a stringent action could have serious political consequences for President John Mahama's administration, potentially undermining public confidence and the government's environmental credibility. "The level of destruction is no longer tolerable.
If there's anything that will affect us as a government in this term of , it will be our ability or inability to fight illegal small-scale mining," he stated.
He also argued that a state of emergency would empower the government to suspend all mining rights - both legal and illegal - to allow for a comprehensive cleanup and restoration of damaged ecosystems. "When you declare a state of emergency, you freeze all rights.
