ACCRA, 2 JULY 2026
First came the image: “Government organizes National Prayer Session for Ghana to pray over floods.”
Because we’ve seen this before. Not in Accra, but in Tarkwa, in Manso Nkwanta, in the Eastern Region. For the past three years, convoys of clerics – pastors, prophets, mallams – have been matching to galamsey pits and riverbanks. They anoint the Pra. They pour oil into the Birim. They command “the spirit of greed” to leave the land.
They pray. And galamsey increases.
So when a National Prayer Session is announced for floods, Ghanaians are right to ask: *Is this necessary at this point? Or is it just the Accra version of what we’ve been doing at galamsey sites?*
1. The Floods and Galamsey Are Twins – Same Father, Different Crimes
The Odaw floods because we built on waterways and choked drains with plastic. The Pra, Ankobra, and Birim are dying because we dug where gold sleeps and choked rivers with mercury.
Both are man-made disasters. Both are illegal. Both have laws to stop them – Act 925 for waterways, Act 703 and 995 for mining.
And both now have prayer as the first state response, not bulldozers.
We are a nation that will host a prayer vigil on the banks of a river at 10 AM, and by 2 PM the changfangs will be back in the water. We will hold a National Prayer Session for floods in July, and by August a new warehouse will go up on the Korle buffer.
We are not praying against problems. We are praying to delay solving them.
2. The Theology of Galamsey Prayers
Since 2023, there’s been a pattern in mining districts:
Step 1: Illegal mining destroys a river. The water turns brown. Fish die. Kids get skin rashes.
Step 2: Clerics arrive. Not to name the financiers. Not to demand arrests. But to “cleanse the land.” They pray against “spiritual pollution.” They break “generational curses.” They declare the river “healed in Jesus’ name.”
Step 3: The excavators return. Sometimes the same week. Because the chief who hosted the prayer took GHS 50,000 from the galamsey kingpin the night before. The DCE who attended knows who owns the excavator. But nobody mentioned names in the prayer. Only “principalities.”
The result? The Ghana Water Company says 60% of our water bodies are now polluted. Turbidity levels in the Pra hit 14,000 NTU in May 2026. The safe level is 5.
You can’t pray 14,000 NTU down to 5. You need to arrest 14,000 illegal miners and seize 5,000 excavators.
God doesn’t do our law enforcement for us.
3. Why Prayer Without Prosecution Is Failing
a. It gives cover to criminals
When a well-known galamsey financier kneels at a riverbank prayer event, cameras rolling, he’s not repenting. He’s rebranding. The prayer becomes his CSR project. The pastor becomes his character witness. Try arresting him next week – his boys will say, “But the man of God prayed with him.”
Same with floods. The politician who signed the permit for that building on the Odaw will be on stage at the National Prayer Session. He’ll quote Amos 5:24 – “Let justice roll down like waters.” Meanwhile, he blocked justice and let actual water roll into people’s homes.
b. It replaces accountability with amen
After the 2022 galamsey prayer in Denkyira, the District Police Commander said, “We leave it to God now.” Three weeks later, two boys drowned in an uncovered pit. God didn’t dig the pit. A man did. And another man was paid not to fill it.
If the National Prayer Session for floods ends with “we leave it to God,” expect Circle to flood again in June 2027. Because the guy with the plot at Avenor is listening. And he just heard that nobody’s coming for his wall.
4. What the Clerics Won’t Say at the Galamsey Pit – Or at the Stadium
Real intercession names sin. Not just “sin” in general. Sin with an address.
At the galamsey site, that means saying: “The MP’s brother owns that excavator. The regional minister took a pickup. The nananom sold the land. We bind them by name.”
At the National Prayer Session for floods, that means saying: “The Works Engineer who approved that church on the Korle buffer must be sacked today. The AMA officer who took GHS 200 to allow dumping must be in court tomorrow.”
Until prayer gets that specific, it’s theatre. And the rivers know it. The Odaw knows it.
5. So Is the National Prayer Session Necessary?
Yes – if it’s a prayer of repentance by the powerful, followed by arrests by the state.
Let the President start by confessing that his government has not jailed one major galamsey financier since 2021. Let the IGP repent for every police officer who escorted excavators at night. Let the Chief Justice pray, then set up 10 special courts for waterway and mining cases with 30-day trials.
Then let the Bishops, Imams, and Chiefs pray. But pray with a list.
Pray: “Lord, expose the men in this stadium who took money to destroy rivers.”
Pray: “Lord, give the MCE of Accra the courage to demolish his in-law’s warehouse on the Odaw.”
Pray: “Lord, strike with unemployment every officer who will take a bribe after this prayer.”
That kind of prayer is necessary. That kind of prayer got Nineveh to change. Because the king stood up, tore his robes, and issued a decree. He didn’t just call a fast.
The River and the Drain Have the Same Verdict
The Pra doesn’t care how many bottles of oil you pour in it. It cares how many milligrams of mercury you stop pouring in.
The Odaw doesn’t care how loud the amen is. It cares whether that foundation in the buffer is gone by Monday.
We have prayed over galamsey pits for three years. Galamsey is worse.
We are now praying over floods.
If we do the same thing – prayer without policy, anointing without arrests – we’ll get the same result. More floods. More poisoned water. More funerals.
Faith without works is dead. Ghana without enforcement is drowning.
And no prayer session will change that until we change what we do after we say “Amen.”
The writer covers environment and governance. He has reported from galamsey sites in Amenfi East and flood zones in Odawna. He saw the same pastors at both. The water was brown in both.
What to watch at the National Prayer Session: Count how many times they mention “illegal structures” vs “marine spirits.” Count how many officials on stage have galamsey or flood permits in their districts. That’s your answer on whether this is necessary.
Alexander Afriyie, Supervising Editor, Ghanacrimereport.com and Ghanatalk.com