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Former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, has called on President John Dramani Mahama to immediately declare a state of emergency over mining activities in water bodies and forest reserves, warning of escalating environmental destruction and public health risks.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM, Fuseini stressed that the scale of environmental degradation caused by illegal mining requires urgent and decisive action. He argued that a state of emergency would give the government the legal authority to suspend all existing mining rights and licenses to facilitate the reclamation of damaged areas.
“When you declare a state of emergency, you freeze all rights. So the accrued rights are frozen, and then you can go into the forest to deal with the people who are there. We need to protect the environment,” he stated.
Fuseini warned that any delay in addressing illegal mining could have severe political consequences for the Mahama administration, pointing out that the government’s performance on this issue could define its legacy.
“If there’s anything that will affect us as a government, more in this term of John Dramani Mahama, it will be our ability or inability to fight illegal small-scale mining,” he emphasized.
He also reminded Ghanaians that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), while in opposition, had pledged to declare a state of emergency on illegal mining and to repeal Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2462, which permits mining in forest reserves. He insisted that fulfilling this promise is a matter of “moral integrity” and welcomed the government’s recent steps toward repealing the law.
Fuseini highlighted the human cost of environmental degradation, linking polluted rivers to rising cases of kidney disease and birth defects. He warned that the continued destruction of water bodies and forests could lead to a national health crisis and irreversible damage to Ghana’s landscapes, drawing parallels with other countries that have suffered desertification due to environmental neglect.
He passionately called on all Ghanaians to protect forests and rivers, stressing the principle of intergenerational equity — the responsibility to preserve the environment for future generations.
Recalling his active participation in past environmental protests, Fuseini suggested that swift presidential action could calm rising public anger.
“The demonstration may not become necessary anymore,” he remarked, urging the Mahama-led government to swiftly honour its environmental commitments to the Ghanaian people.
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