Private Legal Practitioner, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, has urged individuals and organisations calling on President John Mahama to declare a state of emergency as a measure to fight the illegal ming menace, to be measured in their demand. According to him, declaring a state of emergency has its own ramifications. “The way to deal with an existential threat is not necessarily to declare a state of emergency, because when you declare a state of emergency, it is to enable you do something which you will not otherwise be able to do. If you can deploy troops or mobilise community support to fight galamsey, why not? Let’s not behave as if nothing has been done in relation to galamsey… I have to say that sometimes people should be careful what they wish for,” he said on September 30 on TV3’s Agenda. Calls for President Mahama to declare a state of emergency have intensified following reports that food crops are being contaminated by metals in the soil due to the effects of galamsey. The Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey, Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Echo Conscious Citizens, Arocha Ghana among others have called for the declaration immediately. However, Mr Tsikata urged caution. “The easiest thing is for the President to say I’m declaring a state of emergency. It is a declaration that he can make according to the constitutional provisions. But even after you make that declaration, how are you going to implement your enforcement capabilities. What is the capacity that you have in terms of the state of the economy, the resources that are available to the government to be able to deploy in this manner? He quizzed. Mr Tsikata warned that, “Declaring a state of emergency, and you will notice that in the constitution, emergency powers are dealt with in the chapters that have to do with human rights, When you declare a state of emergency, it actually gives powers to the President to do things which in the normal course, he will not have the ability to do. So, I think that people should be careful about some of the demands about state of emergency. Because you ask yourself, do you really want the President to have unusual powers that he can use in the state of emergency? In my view, I can’t see the real justification for a state of emergency.”