IT was the legendary Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory, the Founder of Ghana, who made the poignant observation that though the African continent was the richest in the world, Africans were the poorest.
What a paradox!
It is not in doubt that Africa has enough natural resources to support a qualitatively higher standard of living for its people if only it can attain and maintain some significant degree of access to and control of those resources.
Ghana, for many decades, has exploited an array of minerals, ranging from manganese through to diamond to gold. The huge quantities of these minerals exploited and the colossal earnings accruing from them have not reflected in the lives of the vast majority of the people, not even the majority of the indigenes of the areas where these resources are exploited.
Today, as Ghana stands on the threshold of producing oil in commercial quantities, this vexed question of just how much of a benefit this resource will be to the majority of the people has reared its head.
In a bid to hit the iron when it is still hot, the chiefs of the Western Region are demanding that 10 per cent of the value of oil extracted in the area be given to them and their people to prosecute their development agenda.
They have served notice of their desire to be actively involved in determining how the oil wealth generated from their area will be distributed (see front page).
Ideally, one cannot quarrel with the chiefs for making this demand, for, as custodians of the assets and heritage of the people, they have a bounden duty to protect and promote their interest and aspirations, including enhancing their standard of living.
However, the situation in which we are is far from ideal.
For a start, the exploitation and control of the oil is, to a very large extent, in the hands of the state or the government. An overwhelming percentage of the shares in the oil is held by private companies with commitments and loyalties to nations other than Ghana.
Second, the relatively small share the state has stands in the name of the whole nation and millions of our compatriots are looking up to it as the panacea for their economic woes. The government, from its inexhaustible list of needs and wants, has to struggle to make use of this oil money and other limited funds to meet these wide interests of the people.
Thus while the chiefs of the Western Region are entitled to make their claim, the reality of the control structure of our resources and the demands and expectations of the generality of Ghanaians call for a moderation in these demands and the urgent introduction of dialogue between the government and all the major stakeholders to address this and other nagging matters on the oil front.
We wish to caution that in a bid to assert our right to make just demands for our share of resources, we must remain mindful of the fact that we are still operating within a monolithic, sovereign and unitary state, the government of which has a bounden duty to the equal and fair distribution of the national cake, which also includes its resources.
In the face of this development, we believe the state had a justifiable basis for increasing its share or control of the oil and we, therefore, applaud the wisdom of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in seeking to buy out the Kosmos share. This is a venture worthy of the support of every patriotic and well-meaning Ghanaians.
Another way out, we believe, is for the government to increase resource allocation for the purpose of building more economic and social infrastructure in the Western Region and also empowering those with employable skills in the oil sector to be absorbed into the oil industry.
We wish to urge Ghanaians to be moderate in their expectations of this oil find, as it is by no means a panacea for our economic difficulties.
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