Share Sale of Jubilee Holdings Must First Be Critically Examined

There may be far more to the alleged decision by the Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to sell 50-percent shares of stake in Jubilee Holdings Limited (JOHL) to PetroSA than any of the reported Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) protesting the proposed deal may be privy to or may have been informed about by Akufo-Addo Administration insiders who may not be happy or comfortable with the aforesaid deal (See “GNPC – PetroSA Deal: Sack Freddie Blay, GNPC CEO! – 29 CSOs to Government” Ghanaweb.com 5/24/23).

Consequently, rather than call for the prompt and summary dismissal of Mr. Frederick “Freddie” Blay, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GNPC, and Mr. Opoku-Ahweneeh (Ahwenee?) Danquah, Chief Executive Officer of the GNPC, it would be more productive and constructive for civil society establishment watchdogs like the Economic Governance Platform and the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) to demand a Parliamentary Inquiry into the proposed deal.

Now, the fact that the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, is alleged to be vehemently protesting the proposed deal, in of itself, does not tell us, members of the general Ghanaian public, much that can be meaningfully used to stop the deal from going through. You see, the leaders of these so-called Civil Society Organizations, such as Mr. Abdul Karim Mohammed and Prof. Henry Kwesi Prempeh, Executive-Director of the Center for Democratic Development, may not necessarily be fully armed with all the details and the facts that they may need to make the most cogent case or argument against the proposed deal.

So far, all that we have been told is that PetroSA had not contributed any capital investment towards the kind of capital-intensive research and prospecting that led to the discovery of the oil wells and/or fields currently controlled or owned by Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. So, naturally, what we presently need to do, as patriotic and concerned Ghanaian citizens, is to find out precisely what contractual package of responsibilities and liabilities the principals and prospective stakeholders or coequal partners of Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited are bringing to the table, as it were, not mere the darn too superficial fact of PetroSA’s being ceded a 50-percent share or stake of this GNPC subsidiary.

And then we will be able to make the proper evaluation and determination of whether, indeed, the proposed sale of the 50-percent stake or shares of Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited is one of which any progressive-minded Ghanaian citizen or even a patriotic permanent resident could comfortably be a subscriber or a party to. Then also, we need to juxtapose this proposed deal against any other similar deals that our leaders and politicians have signed onto or struck with other foreign entities and principals, bearing squarely in mind the fact that the Post-Apartheid South Africa that we are presently dealing with is a bona fide Black-African nation integral to the long-anticipated organic unification of the proverbial Primeval Continent that many of us advocates and proponents of Pan-Africanism have been fiercely fighting to achieve for as long as any of us can remember.

At any rate, not all the dividends that result from every successfully brokered deal are bound to be fundamentally a sheer matter of dollars and cents. There may also be the even far more lucrative dimension dealing with the invaluable acquisition of mining and other technical and technology-oriented skills and know-how that may very well serve us in good stead down the pike, as it were, and the bond of mutuality of everlasting kinship bonds. Plus, the equally relevant need to bear in mind the fact that if, indeed, the oil wells being currently held or controlled by Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited were that massive and profitable or lucrative, as some of these Civil Society Organizations’ leaders would have the rest of believe, how come Ghana still continues to be heavily reliant or dependent on the twin Bretton-Woods establishments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The World Bank (IBRD) for economic support and sustenance?

At any rate, what are the principals or the Executive Board Members of these two biggest multinational global lending institutions saying about this proposed deal? I am quite certain that the key operatives of the IMF and The World Bank are well aware of this proposed deal. I guess what I am simply trying to say here is that as a people, we need to be faster thinkers and slower speakers. A word to the wise…

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
May 24, 2023
E-mail: [email protected]