Ghana as an oil nation

Ghana, in the next four years, will be among the petroleum exporting countries in Africa.

This is regardless of whether petroleum will be exported, or will solely be for local consumption only. However, as the country's ruling class and some members of the international business community are eager to commence business, there is the fear that much work has to be done.

There have been various articles in newspapers and magazines, suggesting how to utilise the new found wealth of the country. What has been lacking however is how to remove the nation from being in the League of Nations most westerns will like to term, “The wealth of Africa is more of a curse, than a blessing.”

The reason, for this term by most Western nations, has root from the abundance of conflict that ravages the continent, especially Sub-Sahara Africa. A careful study will indicate that most conflicts in sub-Sahara Africa are fought in nations with vast amounts of natural resources. The lists of these nations are endless, to mention just a few, Nigeria (the Niger Delta crisis), Democratic Republic of Congo (Dr Congo), Congo, Sudan, Chad and Cote d'Ivoire.

What is Ghana going to do to avoid being a member of this group? Here a few answers are provided: the first thing is to allow the above cliché to become a norm in international circles and to avoid this. The nation's leaders must learn form the Niger-Delta crisis in neighbouring Nigeria, where successive governments allow the oil or petroleum communities to wallow in abject poverty. The result of this singular sin is what Nigeria and the world have termed the Niger-Delta crisis. In truth however, the communities are suffering from the exploration activities of multi-national companies, without being compensated in one way or the other. Most of these communities are riverine in their geographical composition, hence the number one occupation is fishing. The exploration activities have damaged their main source of livelihood.

This means, for Ghana as a new petroleum producing nation, it must ensure that petroleum producing communities in the country are properly developed, and that all international standards are applied in protecting these communities against the hazards of exploration activities that normally occur in the petroleum industry. A step Nigeria failed to take.

Another issue of conflict in most wealthy African nations has to do with the issue of so-called 'Sit tight leaders'. Chad is a perfect example as the country discovered more natural resources. Two things happened, one was a military coup, and the second was the military leader changing over his uniform to become a civilian president for more than 10 years. The result is internal conflict, i.e civil war with over seven rebel groups claiming to be fighting for the poor, as well as its liberation from the hands of the present president, Diaby. This has often led Chad to accuse its neighbour Sudan, of assisting rebels groups in Chad, and the latter also accuses Chad of the same thing.

What is the lesson for Ghana here? That whichever political part is in power must not even attempt to hang on to power as if it belongs to them. Whether the New Patriotic Party (NPP), or National Democratic Congress (NDC), the two main political parties in the country must complete their respective terms in office and leave. This is a way of portraying to the rest of the world that Ghana will not belong to the group of nations that have internal and external conflict, because of its wealth.

La Cote d'Ivoire, in some quarters, is regarded as the number one exporter of cocoa to the world from Africa, but they had a silent problem for years, which was not addressed. This was the problem of marginalisation of its Northern population.

No wonder despite being a peaceful country that it was over the years, it erupted into civil war about five-six years ago. Not surprisingly, the conflict came from the northern part of the nation. The repercussions were ghastly - Rape, looting, ethnic cleansing, mutiny in the military and recruiting children soldiers among others. On the political front was a succession of two coups, one which led to the death of General Guie.

Again, it is a lesson for Ghana's political class not to try and alienate the communities where this wealth is coming from. It might just lead to something worse than that of Liberia and Serria Leone, because of the political divide in the country. Cote d'Ivoire is still trying to pull itself back together again, after five or six years of civil war and expensive peace negotiations.

When the oil industry starts to generate the much-needed foreign exchange for the country, let the politicians know that upholding the principles of good governance will ensure that development is spread evenly among other regions of the country, including other sectors of the economy. This will ensure that the military generals and their sympathisers, do not generate and nature unhealthy plans to stage a coup, because coups, when successful, drag a nation back 10 years of its development. Ask the rulers of Congo, whose capital is Brazzaville, they are in position to talk better on this.

We all can only hope that the politicians and their friends, both local and international, will not allow this so-called 'Peaceful nation' to go the normal route of most Sub-Sahara African nations that have wealth-created conflicts. Most conflicts can be avoided either in the past or present, if the principles of sound management of the country's natural resources are upheld, including equity and good governance.

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