Kwesi Pratt Jr, the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, has described the approach to the fight against illegal mining by successive governments as a joke.

Speaking on the dangers posed by illicit mining on Pan African TV’s ‘Alhaji and Alhaji’ on March 22, 2025, he outrightly condemned the populist treatment of the menace by successive governments.

“Occasionally, we see some labourers paraded before cameras as culprits of illegal mining, and you wonder, can these people afford the outrageously expensive excavators and Chang Fangs?

“Clearly, our top politicians and businessmen are the financiers of these damaging activities, and yet we go around chasing small boys in the guise of fighting illicit mining? Even the reports on galamsey fight are a joke!” he lamented.

He criticized the recent reports on the canker, stressing that it avoided the crucial details needed to tackle the problem from the root.

“What became of the report by Prof Frimpong Boateng. Go and read WACAM reports from over the years. It exposes how even the big mining companies are making fortunes at the expense of the poor communities they mine in,” he said.

We demanded that mining be guided by policies that prohibit private persons from profiting from mineral extraction.

“Until mining as private enterprise is curtailed, this fight will continue to fail! The NPP failed woefully in this fight, and I hope the NDC will do things differently,” he said.

He called for an all-hands-on-deck approach and a firm resolve by the government to review policies on mineral extraction to immensely benefit the people of the country and protect the environment.

VPO/EK