THE sweetness of a pudding, it is said, lies in the eating.
Yesterday, December 15, 2010, will go down the annals of the country’s history as one by the most memorable following the visit of President John Evans Atta Mills to the offshore Jubilee Oilfield in the Western Region where he turned the wheel for the first official flow of oil from that field.
With that feat, the country has been ushered into a new era, both as a producer and an exporter of crude oil (see front page).
That the nation has, about three years after the discovery of the oil in the area, been able to assemble the huge array of complicated and very expensive infrastructure and skilled manpower to enable it to commence the commercial production and export of oil is an eloquent testimony to the keen sense of co-operation that exists among the main partners — the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tullow Oil, Anardako, Kosmos and the E.O. Group.
For many, including even industry players, this is a feat worthy of parading.
We find in yesterday's ceremony a classic display of national unity, a sense of common belonging, the acknowledgement of credit and good working attributes which, for decades, have been missing in our national political, economic and social discourse.
The very presence of three important personalities — President Mills and former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor — who, at different times have led and still lead governments in the management of the affairs of state, even for its symbolism, added beauty, colour and a sense of national pride to the event.
What we even found more heart warming was the profound sense of humility, candour and political astuteness demonstrated by President Mills in, among others, paying glowing tribute to his predecessors for laying a strong foundation and opening the way for the commercial production and export of oil.
In a society where political adversity is taken for enmity and where zero tolerance for the recognition and according of any credit to the opponent is the rule, this speaks volumes of the desire of President Mills to chart a new and positive political course for the country where credit due will be given and criticisms and corrections, where necessary, will also prevail.
The President's pledge to ensure that proceeds from the oil accruing to the state would be used judiciously and appropriately utilised to ensure maximum benefits for the people and thus make the oil find a blessing rather than a curse is also very re-assuring.
As a people with vested interest in this new resource, we have a bounden duty to assist the President to realise the duty he has placed on himself and all other officials to be guided by a keen sense of honesty, transparency and accountability by ensuring these important tenets are followed.
We wish to reiterate our position that the most important concern of the people is not so much about how the funds are utilised, including the vexed issue of whether to collateralise them or not, but what the funds are used for, whether there is value for money and whether such expenditure impacts positively on the lives of our people, especially those in the deprived and poverty-endemic areas.
The pledge of the government to ensure that significant resources, not only from the oil but others as well, will be devoted to an accelerated infrastructural improvement, including building more and better roads, clinics, schools, provisding good drinking water, etc in the Western and other regions must have gone a long way to assuage the feelings of the chiefs and people of the area who had earlier demanded 10 per cent of the oil revenue for development of the area.
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