IN our yesterday’s editorial on making the exploration and exploitation of our oil resource a blessing instead of a curse, we alluded to the need for the government, as custodian of the people’s resources, to be committed to the principle of redistributive justice in which the well-being of the mass of the people stands paramount.
That said, it is important to note that one must first have something before any talk of sharing can take place.
For the country to break the back of the abject poverty which many of our people have all these years had to contend with, the state, represented in international transactions by the government, needs to have some significant shares and control in bodies undertaking the exploitation of these strategic national resources.
We acknowledge that individual private companies which have invested in the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons need to recoup their investments and also make some profit. That is a fair arrangement.
However, any arrangement in which the state or the government does not have a significant stake in or control of the entities or processes dealing with the exploitation of these resources and in which it cannot, therefore, procure a significant portion of the benefits accruing to improve the well-being of the people cannot be said to be in the national, let alone the people’s, interest.
We have had many examples of oil-rich nations producing millions of barrels of oil a day but with the mass of the people living in abject poverty. One can just take a look at some of our-oil rich neighbours.
While corruption and greed among the political elite of these nations may be cited as the causes of such an unhealthy state of affairs, lack of effective control over the resource is a contributory factor.
In our own country, we have had the experience of mining gold in Obuasi, Tarkwa, Prestea and other places but the state of those areas and the lives of the vast majority of the inhabitants are nothing to write home about.
This is again partly attributable to the fact that the bulk of the wealth derived from these mines is exported out of the country by the multinational mining companies and their highly paid expatriate staff.
The royalties and other entitlements paid pale out in significance to what is repatriated outside the country.
It is for these and other reasons that we believe that for us to derive the optimum benefit from our oil resource, the state must at all cost have a significant stake in the exploitation of the resource.
This will enable the government to rake in more resources than it would otherwise have done and also exert the requisite level of vigilance and control in the tempo and quantum of the exploitation of the resource.
That is why we endorse the assertion of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to the effect that it is fully positioned to buy the Jubilee Oil Fields from Kosmos Energy, as two expatriate oil giants, ExxonMobil and British Petroleum (BP), struggle over the same resource.
According to the GNPC, in taking that step, it was primarily motivated by the need to protect and promote the supreme interest of the country (see front page story).
We believe that in the legitimate pursuit of the national interest, we ought to take full advantage of opportunities that can offer the nation greater stake and control over our oil, albeit in conformity with the agreement binding the parties.
Once the legal provisions are adhered to and the respective obligations met, we should be on course to realising greater returns which alone can position the government to attain the requisite level of resources to meet the high expectations of our people.
This is legitimate business, not forced take-over, and we must build consensus to protect this resource of ours not only for the benefit of Ghanaians living today but also generations yet unborn.
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