Oil Producing Ghana Must Avoid The Pitfalls Of Nigeria

The discovery of large oil and gas deposits in most non-oil producing countries along the coast of West Africa has a potential of making the region a hub of economic activities thereby improving its fortunes.

The significance of petroleum in global energy consumption and the possibility of a hydrocarbon rich future brings great expectation of economic resurgence for these emerging oil and gas producing nations.

However, existing environmental and growing security challenges in some parts of the West Africa may have hampered the dream of exploring and exploiting the vast opportunities linked with this new found resources in these countries.

The Center for Peace & Environmental Justice (CEPEJ) has indicated that the need to translate oil and gas wealth into sustainable and human-centered has been a critical and major challenge for an experienced oil producing giant such as Nigeria.

Comrade Sheriff B. Mulade(PHF), America IVLP Coordinator, Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ) explained that the numerous challenges and successes recorded by the Nigerian oil industry will provide good learning points for emerging oil and gas producing nations such as Ghana in its quest to harness her new found resources, whilst avoiding the pitfalls associated with the oil industry.

The Center, in pursuance of its objective to promote sustainable peace, effective security, sound environmental practice and environmental rights through advocacy for justice, decided to plan a multi-stakeholder conference in Accra to address the many challenges associated with the oil industry.

The Speakers highlighted current trends in the emerging insurgency oil spillage, illegal mining, oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and illegal refinery, sea piracy and maritime insecurity with a view to making recommendations that would assist in addressing issues in the oil and gas industry.

The CEPEJ Ghana 2014 confab under theme “Challenges Confronting Oil and Gas prospecting/Producing Countrues in Africa- Nigeria as a Case Study,” brought together industry think-tanks from Nigeria.

Professor BenjamenOkaba of Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria noted that the economy of Nigerian is not well articulated in the sense that oil and gas sector remains the prime concern of the government whereas other sectors such as agriculture, health, education among others are abandoned.

Michael Gonzalez, Peace building Technical Advisor, USA during a presentation mentioned that Nigeria is currently facing two serious upcoming challenges thus 2015 elections and end of amnesty.

To prevent the possible occurrence of incidence, the country must create a network of peace agents for early warning/early response, providing training in conflicts analyses, peace building, advocacy and mediation, the potential modules for Ghana.

According to him, incidences of violence are increasing in the Niger Delta, the hub of Nigerian's oil, which are attributed to group grievances. He suggested that people must be placed to see the link between peace and economic opportunity.

The speakers indicated that Nigeria has the worst record for oil spillage in the world attributed to equipment failure and leakages.

They indicated that Nigeria also contributes approximately 16.0% to global emission from gas flared creating chaos in the Niger Delta region.

According to the speakers, Ghana must fight the battle to avoid the pitfalls of Nigeria and strengthen the fiscal regime of its oil sector.

But must come up with a capital investment intensive mechanism that will be diversified into other sectors of the economy.

CEPEJ is a philanthropic Non-Governmental Organization established and initially called Niger Delta Re-operation Project (NDRP) in 2001, later registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with its new name Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ) on January 15th 2010 with headquarters in Delta State, Nigeria.