Wontumi Is Guilty. But Will Ghana Be Consistent?

On 20 July 2026, an Accra High Court delivered a judgment that immediately travelled beyond the courtroom and into Ghana's national political conversation. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party and a prominent figure in Ghanaian politics, was convicted in connection with unlawful mining activities involving Akonta Mining Limited and its concession at Samreboi in the Western Region. The court sentenced him to twenty years' imprisonment with hard labour on each of two counts, to run concurrently, together with financial penalties. The judgment is significant. But its greater significance may lie not simply in what happens to one man. It lies in what Ghana does next. Illegal mining — galamsey — has damaged our rivers, forests, farmlands and communities for years. Governments have condemned it. Political parties have campaigned against it. Traditional leaders, journalists, civil society organisations, religious bodies and ordinary citizens have repeatedly demanded action. Yet one question has stubbornly followed almost every anti-galamsey campaign: Will the law reach everyone? That is the question the Wontumi judgment must now compel Ghana to answer. THE CASE FOR THE RULE OF LAW There is an important principle that must come first. No Ghanaian should be above the law. Not a regional chairman. Not a minister. Not a businessman. Not a traditional ruler. Not a financier. Not a political party supporter. And certainly not somebody simply because his party happens to control the machinery of government. Chairman Wontumi was brought before a court of competent jurisdiction. Evidence was presented. His lawyers mounted a defence. The court considered the case and delivered judgment. Whatever anyone's political sympathies may be, a democratic society cannot reject a judicial decision merely because the person convicted is politically powerful or popular. If Ghana wants to defeat illegal mining, there will inevitably come a day when politically connected people must face the law. Perhaps that day has arrived. But there is another side to the national concern, and it deserves equally serious attention. THE QUESTION OF SELECTIVE JUSTICE Illegal mining did not begin with one political party, and it does not belong to one political party. Our polluted rivers do not carry NDC water and NPP water. Our destroyed forests do not distinguish between government supporters and opposition supporters. The environmental consequences of illegal mining are politically colour-blind. The law must be the same. That is why the Wontumi conviction creates a responsibility extending far beyond Wontumi himself. When a prominent opposition figure receives a severe sentence under a government controlled by his political opponents, citizens will inevitably watch what happens when allegations involve people associated with the governing side. That concern should not automatically be dismissed as partisan propaganda. Neither should it automatically be accepted as proof of political persecution. The answer must come through consistent enforcement. A conviction may be legally justified while the wider enforcement system is still capable of being selective. The proper response, therefore, is neither to attack the judiciary because Wontumi has been convicted nor to celebrate as though Ghana's galamsey problem has suddenly been solved. The proper response is to insist that the same law now travel everywhere. THE REAL TEST BEGINS AFTER WONTUMI Chairman Wontumi has the right to challenge his conviction through Ghana's appellate judicial system. That right must be respected. But while the courts deal with his individual case, the Republic faces a larger institutional test. Will investigators pursue other illegal-mining networks with equal determination? Will politically connected operators be investigated regardless of the party they support? Will financiers, concession holders, facilitators and officials who enable unlawful mining face comparable scrutiny? Will enforcement continue when the accused person is politically inconvenient to the government of the day? These questions matter because justice must not only punish wrongdoing. Justice must establish confidence that wrongdoing will be treated alike wherever it is found. If enforcement ends with political opponents, public suspicion will deepen. If enforcement crosses party lines and reaches allies and opponents alike, confidence in the Republic will grow. That distinction is fundamental. GHANA NEEDS INSTITUTIONS, NOT OCCASIONAL CRACKDOWNS Our struggle against galamsey cannot continue as a succession of emergency task forces, political declarations and spectacular arrests. Illegal mining is too serious for episodic government. It requires permanent institutions. Ghana should therefore move towards an enforcement architecture built around three principles. First, independence. Anti-galamsey investigation and enforcement must be sufficiently insulated from partisan direction so that a change of government does not determine who is investigated and who is protected. Second, transparency. Mining concessions, licences, beneficial ownership information and significant enforcement actions should be accessible to citizens through a modern, searchable public system, subject to legitimate legal protections. Technology should make it increasingly difficult for illegal operations to hide behind administrative confusion, political influence or public ignorance. Third, consistency. Comparable offences should attract comparable enforcement, regardless of political affiliation, wealth, ethnicity, social standing or proximity to power. This is how institutions become stronger than personalities. THE STANDARD WE SHOULD SET There is a danger in allowing every major prosecution in Ghana to become another NDC-versus-NPP contest. When that happens, the accused person's political identity becomes more important than the alleged offence, and the Republic loses sight of the principle at stake. We must learn to say two things at the same time: Let the law take its course. And: Let the law take the same course for everyone. Those statements are not contradictory. Together, they are the foundation of equal justice. The Wontumi judgment should therefore not become an occasion for political triumphalism on one side or automatic rejection of the judicial process on the other. It should become something more important: a national test of whether Ghana is finally prepared to make political power irrelevant before the law. OUR RIVERS HAVE NO PARTY CARD Chairman Wontumi's legal journey is not necessarily over. The appellate courts may yet be called upon to examine the judgment, and their constitutional role must be respected. But Ghana's responsibility cannot wait for the conclusion of one man's case. Somewhere today, a river may still be turning brown. Somewhere, farmland may still be disappearing. Somewhere, another illegal operation may be continuing because somebody believes political connections will provide protection. That is the greater case before Ghana. The accused in that case is not Chairman Wontumi. The accused is our system of governance. Can we build institutions strong enough to prosecute wrongdoing when the suspect is our opponent — and equally strong enough to prosecute it when the suspect is our friend? Can we defend the environment without turning environmental enforcement into another instrument of partisan warfare? Can we establish a Republic in which political connections neither convict a person nor protect one? That is the Ghana we should be building. NDC, NPP, independent or politically unaffiliated, the rivers belong to all of us. The forests belong to all of us. The Republic belongs to all of us. And ultimately, much of what we are struggling to protect belongs to generations of Ghanaians who have not yet been born. The rule of law becomes truly national only when no citizen needs to ask which party is in power before knowing whether the law will be enforced. That should be the enduring lesson of the Wontumi case. And that is the standard Ghana must now prove it is prepared to uphold.