Why Dr. Ben Asante Must Be Rejected As CEO Of Ghana Gas – Nzema Youth Association

The Nzema Youth Association (NYA) could have said,” no response” to the spurious responses by a groups purported to be surrogates and lobbyists for Dr. Ben Asante – caretaker CEO of Ghana Gas, to an ‘issue based’ petition put forward by the NYA.

The NYA in their petition never attacked Dr. Ben Asante person, neither did they advocate against his tribal background rather, raised cogent issues based on his track record as the technical director and a consultant and the role he played at Ghana Gas from the very beginning of the Early Phase Gas Infrastructure Project of which he (Dr. Ben Asante) himself admit in his resume and take credit as the brain behind the Gas Master Plan. Interrogating the issues that his surrogates opined in their rebuttal, further raises a great degree of absurdity for which the NYA would like to react once more.

To begin with, when did judging someone on his stewardship become a crime and a tribal issue in this country? Is it not a fact the Dr. Asante was a leading member of the Gas Master Plan? Has the NPP then in opposition led by some of it leading members including Hon. Boakye Agyarko – then NPP spokesperson on energy, and now Minister of Energy and Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, not spoken about the rot and the technical bankruptcy in Ghana Gas? Was Dr. Asante not the technical advisor and a consultant to Ghana Gas? Is it not a fact and on record as contained in his CV that he was the person who came up with the Gas Master Plan and eventually became the consultant to the project? Is he running away from his record? Or simply put, does he want to pick and choose and for that matter take the credit for all the good things in Ghana Gas and heap all the rot on his paymasters – Dr. Sipa Yankey and the NDC administration?

Doesn’t it sound of a hypocrisy of the highest order on the part of Dr. Ben Asante? Perhaps, the NPP administration should tell the people of Ghana and the world that Ghana Gas did a fantastic job and like the ostrich, everything they said or raised against Ghana Gas during the campaign and the issues we have raised now and then was for political propaganda?

In fact and for the record, the NYA is not an affiliate of any political party and neither do they engage in any political arm-twisting but a credible issue-based association for the development of our people with a track record. For the doubting Thomas’s, it is the same Association which in 2011 during the relocation of the Gas Processing Plant, vehemently protested against the then NDC administration and had audience with President Atta Mills of blessed memories at the castle. Was Dr. Ben Asante not introduced to us at the Western Regional House of Chiefs as the technical advisor and a consultant at Ghana Gas? Didn’t Dr. Ben Asante at the then charged meeting with the Chiefs at the Regional House of Chiefs indicated to us that some of them have put their lives on the line and will make sure that the Government succeeds in its relocation effort? Was the Paramount Chief of Western Nzema Traditional Area, Awulae Annor Adjaye 111, not interrupted unnecessarily and hooted at? Today, it is the same issue and perhaps much deeper ones which when well interrogated exposes some of the actions and inactions of GNGC that is hunting Dr. Asante.

Our humble advice is that he must behave as a man and forthright defend his track record at GNGC and desist from the pick and choose, hypocritical attitude.

Interrogating further, the NYA would like to examine Dr. Asante stewardship in Ghana Gas for the fact that he himself claim in his CV, that he masterminded the master-plan of the Early Phase Gas Infrastructure. Did we hear him right? And on his record? If so, then our interrogation will commence by finding the dictionary meaning of a ‘Master-plan’. According to Google, synonyms for master plan are: arrangement, blueprint, design, game plan, road map, strategy etc. Also, according to the English Dictionary, a Master Plan means ‘a comprehensive document that sets out an overall strategy’ (http:/enwiltionary.org/wiki/master plan). Granted this definition, how would Dr. Asante having provided a comprehensive document of the gas project and thereafter appointed a consultant and a technical advisor to a lawyer – Dr. Sipa Yankey on the execution of a technical project be so innocent on the project’s shortfalls? Is this not hypocrisy at the highest order?

The NYA cannot sit idle for someone like Dr. Asante who occupied such a pedestal at GNGC to become so innocent of the inequities of Ghana Gas and turn round to play the ostrich? We cannot stop talking until reasonable answers are provided to our concerns and the concerns of many Ghanaians if indeed there were rots at GNGC. Again, was the Gas Master Plan which Dr. Asante spearheaded and subsequently supervised its implementation devoid of the relocation baggage?

Was it devoid of the Prestea pipeline baggage? Was it devoid of the delays and baggage in the construction of the LPG Loading Bay paving way for the construction of the Anorkyi Quantum Terminals LPG Bay? Was it devoid of an early tie in to the West Africa Gas Pipeline? Was it devoid of the baggage in the excessive expenditures in the backfill jobs at Atuabo? Was it devoid of the land grabbing baggage for the construction of the GNGC head office at Ebi Bokazo in the Ellemble District? We can go on and on but for want of space we will pause.

The NYA, is of the strong belief that His Excellency, the President of the Republic Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo will give a listening ear to the full content of our petition and bring on a neutral devoid of any ethnic and tribal bias but not Dr. Ben Asante which comes with a lot of baggage in terms of results.

Mr. President, we acknowledge your over-arching desire to do good for the Ghanaian people and your admonishing to all Ghanaians to be citizens and not spectators in the forward match of our nation building and we promise to stand by you in achieving your promise by exposing pretenders and saboteurs who come with load of credentials but deliver very little. Mr. President, the rot at GNGC is real and for that makes Dr. Asante unfit for the CEO Job. Perhaps, he can stay on as caretaker and eventually change him for a capable and loyal hand; for your Party (NPP) is not bereft of some of the finest brains.

Mark Asmah Arthur
(+233 20 811 0441)
Spokesman