Feature Article : "The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com."

In the wake of Ghana's oil find in commercial quantities, the President has stated that “our oil find must be appreciated as a national asset whose management must be above sectional interests.” This is well said and we have to commit to this statement in all sincerity. In addition, Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development who recently visited the country also said, “It is important to accept that the revenue from oil belonged to the people and not the politicians or businesses.” In this regard, every Ghanaian must feel the positive blessings of our new found fortune (oil wealth). Even the new born must feel that it has been born into a living environment, where children do not die before their fifth birthday.

Nigeria, a leading producer of oil, is the 10th largest producer of crude oil in the world and the fifth largest supplier of oil to the US since its oil discovery in 1956. As of January 2007 Nigeria had 36.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. To date Nigeria has made about $650 billion in profits but has very little to show for it. Despite the oil profits, 70% of the 130 million Nigerians live on less than $1 a day with life expectancy barely topping 50 years (www.zmag.com). In the Niger Delta where most of the oil reserves are found, “the rivers have been polluted. The fish in the local rivers used to be one of the main sources of food for the poor. Now, that is gone. Agricultural land has also been heavily polluted and can no longer grow food.” (www.marxist.com). Research information has it that Shell has shipped oil from Nigeria for over 50 years, leaving the Niger Delta undeveloped and in worst condition than it had found it in. According to Ken Wiwa, the son of the late Ken Saro Wiwa, Nigeria earns about $30Billion a year from oil (from 1990 to 2000), but the country has somehow managed to amass an external debt of $40 billion without much to show for it in terms of capital investment or infrastructure. Sadly, despite being a heavy weight in the oil production, Nigeria's refining capacity is currently insufficient to meet local demand with queues forming everyday in a country awash with oil reserves. Ironically, Nigeria now imports petroleum products

The above is an indication that Ghana needs to be very circumspect with how it handles the emerging oil boom. Most importantly, the government must make sure that the oil companies take business and social responsibility seriously in order to avoid any social costs, such as pollution and land degradation, accruing to the people of Ghana. A little of the social costs has already taken place in Ghana where cyanide spills have occurred in local rivers as a result of the activities of mining companies. In addition to avoiding social costs, the oil companies must address the provision of social benefits such as the provision of roads, water, clinics, hospitals, schools, scholarships, computer, jobs, etc to improve the lot of the local communities.

From a moral standpoint, in order to safeguard our oil revenue, churches have to preach against the squander of public funds to stem such behavior. The public should also stop adulating those who misappropriate public funds for themselves, their families and their friends. Heavy punishment laws must be enacted to fight corruption. Our justice system must be emboldened enough to bring such crooks and recalcitrants to book irrespective of the person's social, economic, or political standing. In addition, our national security apparatus must be streamlined and strengthened for the economy to develop within a peaceful atmosphere and ensure maximum stability required for a harmonious socio-economic development, translating into sustained, concrete, incremental, and equitable development.

The expected oil windfall is an opportunity for the government to take pragmatic and

concrete steps to reverse the brain drain permanently. The country will need the entire

Ghanaian technocrats in all fields in the diasporas to come home and offer their

specialized knowledge and services to support the local ones in the harnessing of our

capabilities towards the quantum take off of the Ghanaian economy: technocrats in the

oil industry, the banking sector, the technology and communications sectors, the medical

sector, the management sector, the transportation (roads, ports and harbors), the civil

engineering sector, the health sector, academia, environmental specialists, must all be

enticed to come home and lend a helping hand as has happened with India and Singapore.

We must take advantage of this technology transfer which is readily available at our

disposal now and start to train new and additional personnel and technicians in all these

fields with immediate urgency.
This is the opportune time to set bold, challenging, but doable benchmarks, barring

Sub-standard parameters, by planning religiously within laid down time lines against

which we will compare our development progress to make sure we are being effective in

our development objectives. But being merely effective may not be enough. We must

make sure that that our development progress is also efficient, in that, we use the least  Continued    Source: Gabriel Ayisi, Dr.

"The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com." To have your articles publish, please submit them to editor@modernghana.com.

Other Articles by Gabriel Ayisi, Dr.