Expert Fears For Ghana’s Oil

Posted: Daily Guide |dailyguideghana.com
hursday, 14 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Even before Ghana pours its first oil, many people have warned the country’s managers to avoid the Nigerian and Chadian experience since these countries have struggled for several years to overcome the various challenges in the oil and gas industry.

Tax Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEB), Dr Joe Amoako-Tuffuor has called for prudent management of revenue that would accrue from the oil industry.

Speaking in an interview with DAILY GUIDE after a roundtable discussion put together by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on the theme, ‘How Ghana plans to manage its petroleum revenues:

A step towards transparency, accountability and governance standards,” he urged the leadership of the nation to be cautious about the way they handle the oil resources and other issues.

“We have to be very cautious; we have to seek national consensus in every decision that we make because this is a collective asset,” he warned.

He stressed the need for revenue that would be generated from the oil proceeds to be invested into productive investments.

Dr Amoako-Tuffuor also talked about the Ecuador experience where they wanted to share the oil revenue among the citizenry depending on their abilities, noting, “They earmarked so much that the Ministry of Finance had nothing else to manage the economy.”

“If you rush… the oil will settle the economy, and before you know it agricultural will collapse and food will be a problem.

Nigeria used to produce cocoa, groundnut and even before they knew it, nobody was not growing cocoa anymore,” he noted, emphasizing that “Nigerian became a net food importer because oil money can be easy to get… so why do you want to go and grow cocoa?”

He warned the managers of the Ghanaian economy against over-dependence on oil as the main source of revenue for the country.

Dr Amoako-Tuffuor said Ghana should therefore learn lessons from countries such as Norway and Trinidad and Tobago which have managed to use oil and gas as a basis for development and good planning, disclosing that Botswana, which was so poor, has managed to use its diamond to break themselves to become a middle-income country.

He also talked about how Norway had successful used the oil revenue to transform its economy, adding, “What I like about Norway is their sense of prudence and caution.

They’ve been very methodical in planning and in the way they have managed their resources; even the way they have managed their national oil company is exceptional.”

He said, “All politicians in Norway have come to understand that when it comes to oil money the rules are very clear, everyone must follow the rules. You don’t have to debate it anymore.”

For this reason, he stressed the need to build consensus in Ghana to manage revenue that would be generated from the country’s oil.

“It is not up to politicians alone to decide, the whole society must build consensus and put down the framework along which everyone would walk,” he said.

Obed Roots For Konadu

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Thursday, 14 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Dr Obed Asamoah
Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, former chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who was compelled by very bitter circumstances to leave the party, has ridiculed the credentials of President Atta Mills, with regard to leading the NDC for a second term.

He believed the law professor, who is also the sitting President, had contributed very little or virtually nothing to the development of the NDC as a party and therefore did not come anywhere near the achievements of former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, who from all indications, was ready to snatch the position from Mills when the party goes to congress.

Dr Asamoah, who was the Attorney General in the Rawlings regime, believed that the former First Lady was more qualified to lead the NDC as its flagbearer than Mills.

He made the analysis when he spoke on Adom FM’s ‘Adwaso Nsem’ morning show yesterday, indicating that Mrs. Rawlings’ role in the country’s politics and the development of the NDC remained unquestionable since she had been crucial to the sustenance of the party up till date.

The veteran politician, who left the NDC to form his own Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), however declined to make any categorical statement on whether or not the former first lady would defeat the sitting president when the party goes to congress to elect a flagbearer next year.

This, he said, was because Nana Konadu had not formally made clear her intentions to run for the position, except for speculations in the media.

On the controversial issue of whether or not Rawlings was the founder of the NDC as some elements in the NDC had sought to portray him, Dr Asamoah, who played a crucial role in the formation of the party, said, “At the time the NDC was formed, Rawlings was still in the army and under the constitution he could not have been the founder of the party.”

He noted with emphasis: “He was not the founder of the party. In fact, his name being linked with the founding of the party did not arise until later, after his term of office was coming to an end and we felt that [look] let’s find a role for him after he left office…”

For this reason, he insisted that “he Rawlings cannot claim to be a founder as per the political party’s law”.

Contrary to this fact, he said the constitution of the NDC was amended to indicate that the party was founded on the ideals of former President Rawlings, adding that “it was founded to promote his ideals. But he was not a founding member in the sense of the political party’s law.”

That notwithstanding, he said Mr. Rawlings and other elements in the PDNC were not in favour of the formation of a political party, noting that “but people like myself felt that we should form a party…NDC was formed largely through the ideas of some of us.

The question arose as to whether we should just leave the scene and allow political parties to be formed or whether, in fact, there was something in the revolution itself which needed to be preserved.”

According to him, there was therefore a justification for setting up the party to promote some of those ideals of the revolution which he said became a matter of disagreement among members of the government of the day.

“I was virtually in charge of the party even though there were officials occupying various positions,” he noted, stressing that the relationship between him and Rawlings turned sour when the former president did not like the idea of another person contesting Mills for the presidential slot, as he (Obed) chose to support Dr. Kwesi Botchway.

He stressed that he supported Mills’ candidature when the man was chosen as the running mate to Rawlings in 1995 and therefore had no problem with him.

He said his tenure as the chairman of the NDC was difficult because he was constantly under attack by opponents.

“People who did not want to see me as the chairman of the party were doing anything to undermine my authority.”

Diplomats Visit Mayhem On Ghanaians

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Saturday, 09 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE CASE of 39 year old construction supervisor, Pierce Tay in which he was verbally and physically abused and assaulted by a project manager of the World Food Programme (WFP) under the United Nations Humanitarian Depot (UNHRD), Jimmy Green may be one of several which go unheard in the workings of the diplomatic community.

It also raises questions over how some foreign diplomats take undue advantage of their ‘diplomatic immunity’ to perpetrate all sorts of inhumane things against their Ghanaian hosts.

Somewhere last year, specifically April 28, 2009, Green who used to work under the WFP Depot Manager in Ghana, Martin Walsh was said to have made very despicable and racial comments against Pierce who was then supervising the construction of a UNHRD depot at the project site near the Kotaka International Airport in Accra referring to him as a “black monkey.”

It did not end there; he was also alleged to have used words such as stupid and idiot on his victim and eventually said “even animals are better than you” and proceeded to physically attack him.
Obviously offended by the use of such disparaging words on him, Pierce lodged a complaint with the Airport police who issued him with a hospital form to go for treatment.

Subsequently the police arrested Green and questioned him about the issue which he denied in his caution statement.

The police thus granted him bail with the WFP Depot Manager, Martin Walsh standing as the surety and Green being asked to report to the police periodically.

On several occasions, Green failed to honour his commitment to report to the police and when the police managed to reach Walsh (the surety) for him to produce the suspect, he had the guts to tell the police he was not answerable to them but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and thus asked the police to contact the Ministry if they needed him for any reason.

These were all contained in a police report filed by the Airport District Police Commander, Superintendent A. Ofosu Ackah dated July 8, 2009.

Later, a hospital report from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and signed by one Dr Daniel Lamptey on February 26, 2010 indicated that Pierce was first seen at the accident and trauma centre of the hospital on March 24, 2009 “with a history of inability to walk, abrasions and swelling on both knees as a result of an assault by a fellow worker.”

The injuries he sustained included abrasions on both knees, swelling at both knees and what the doctor said was a slight shift of the left knee cap.

It was later learnt that Walsh had managed to arrange for Green to sneak out of the country to Ireland in order not face prosecution since indications were that he was not covered by ‘diplomatic immunity’.

A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Progressive Nationalists Forum (PNF) which has Richard Kwesi Nyamah as its spokesman took the issue up and wrote two separate letters to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni for him to take action in the case but has since not heard from his office.

It later wrote to the WFP head office in Rome, Italy who promised to investigate the issue but has since not heard from them three months down the line.

Meanwhile, the PNF says it has received a complaint to the effect that Mr. Walsh had illegally connected electricity to his residence.

It thus managed to secure a copy of a debtor’s ledger on Walsh’s electricity meter from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) which confirmed the report.

For this reason, a Ghanaian house help at Walsh’s residence was sacked on suspicion that she might have leaked the information about the illegal connection.

PNF thus reported the issue of the lady’s involvement to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) since it thought it was an abuse of her fundamental rights considering the fact that she was only paid a month’s salary when she was sacked but CHRAJ indicated that they could not handle the case due to Walsh’s diplomatic immunity.

The Labour Commission also said same when PNF petitioned it to take action on the lady’s plight.

Meanwhile, the poor and innocent lady who was sacked by Walsh and his wife for supposedly leaking information about the illegal connection is struggling to cater for her daughter who attends one of the universities in the country.

She thus wants the authorities to take up the issue to enable her take care of her daughter.