Editorial: Why Is The Mahama Gov’t Refusing To Amend LI 2462?

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, according to myjoyonline.com report, is livid over the government’s failure to honour its promise to revoke Legislative Instrument (LI) 2462, describing the delay as a betrayal of citizen trust and a threat to Ghana’s forest reserves.

Speaking at a news conference in Accra yesterday, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, who also serves as Convener of the Media Coalition against Galamsey, recalled that President John Mahama and several senior government officials had made a “solemn vow” to scrap the LI, which is the regulation that permits mining in protected forest reserves.

“This was communicated through several public declarations by His Excellency the President himself, before and after the 2024 elections.

“In fact, as recently as May 8, 2025 Prof Jerry S.Y. Kuma, Special Advisor to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, unequivocally stated that the President had directed the LI to be revoked in its entirety.”

Despite these assurances, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey noted with disappointment that the promised revocation process has yet to begin, even though Parliament has resumed.

“To the best of our knowledge and belief, there is no order of business in Parliament capturing this critical item,” he reportedly said.

The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) has also issued a passionate and uncompromising call to the Government to immediately repeal the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (LI 2462) and to permanently ban all forms of mining in the country’s forest reserves.

In a strongly worded petition addressed to both the Presidency and Parliament, the Academy expressed outrage over the government’s recent amendment of only one clause, Regulation 3(2), despite its earlier public pledge to revoke the entire legislative instrument.

“A forest reserve is not a mine-in-waiting, authorising mining in these protected zones undermines the very reason forest reserves exist, threatens biodiversity, pollutes our water bodies and violates Ghana’s international obligations on climate and environmental protection.”

The Academy described LI 2462 as a dangerous legal, environmental and constitutional failure, warning that it provides unlawful discretionary powers to the Minister and the President, instead of the Minerals Commission as recorded in the constitution.

Illegal mining, as the name connotes, is digging the ground in search of gold and other minerals without a permit issued by any of the regulatory agencies.

Any mining company issued with permit to mine is under obligation to post a bond and also reclaim the land it has degraded.

The bond they post is meant to bring the degraded land back to its original state, should the mining company fail to do so.

Unfortunately, illegal miners are not interested in reclaiming the lands they destroy. Their aim is to dig the ground haphazardly, extract the gold and then abandon them.

In the end, rains will fall, fill these dugouts and set a trap for innocent people to fall into it. Apart from destruction of our water bodies and the environment as a whole, this is another deadly side of illegal mining and the reason why Ghanaians have always kicked against it.

In our opinion, illegal mining contributed substantially to the massive and embarrassing defeat suffered by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 elections. Despite the efforts put in place by the Akufo-Addo government to fight the menace, Ghanaians did not see it as strong enough because the turbidity levels of rivers in the mining enclaves were still high.

What even exacerbated the situation was the invasion of our forest reserves by individuals claiming to be holding permits, but in truth were actually destroying the forest. Most of our rivers take their sources from these forest reserves and destroying them will, therefore, spell doom for the country. This is the reason why pressure was mounted on the Akufo-Addo government to amend the controversial LI 2462 that allows mining in forest reserves.

Regrettably, the Nana Addo government did not respond positively to the calls made by civil society groups to amend this particular law before leaving office. Since President Mahama himself made a lot of noise about this particular LI, one would have expected that its amendment as being demanded by Ghanaians will be his priority, but alas that has not happened. His administration has only amended a portion of it and left out the major one that would have completely banned mining in our forest reserves.

This is unfortunate, but the battle has not completely been lost. Since parliament is current in session, The Chronicle expects President Mahama and his team to initiate the process to amend the law in the interest of mother Ghana. Should Mr Mahama fail to do this, people will start reading meanings into his lackadaisical attitude, including suggestion that some of the ruling party bigwigs also want to enter the forests to mine.

We hope he will prove us wrong.

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