RE: GHANA TO TAP INTO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S RICH EXPERIENCE IN THE OIL INDUSTRY

Opanin, reference your comment on the http://www.ghanaweb.com// general news web page story of of Friday, 1st August 2008, with the above title.


Well, hopefully, you aren't one of those "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons!

But, anyhow, Opanin you miss the point: we don't need lessons from Uncle Toms, who are lackeys of neo-colonialism.

We must ensure that this timely gift from Providence is used to turn our country into Africa's equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.

And to ensure that, we need to follow the example of the Irans; the Saudi Arabias; the Mexicos; and the Venezuelas - and nationalise our oil and gas industries.

For that simple strategic objective for the long-term good of a nation blessed with depleting resources such as oil and natural gas, we need not be enthralled by, or beholden to, any Caribbean Uncle Toms, please, Opanin.

Once we seize control of the industry (and naturally, we will pay fair compensation to the foreign companies now drilling for oil here: but since we are not fools, it will not be payment with cash, but with sovereign bonds!), we will then invite the best-resourced of the resource-hungry state-owned oil companies of India and China, to set up 80/20% (in our favour, naturally: since we aren't fools!) joint venture partnerships with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

And and for that privilege (us being so generous as to give them a 20% stake i.e.!), we will ask them to provide all the required working capital, till kingdom come.

And if they insist on us coughing up our share, well, because we are Africans full of self-belief, and aren't clueless Uncle Toms, we will boldly tell them to loan us some of the billions they have in reserves - against our sovereign bonds!

Opanin, let us be absolutely clear about this: under no circumstances will ordinary people in Nkrumah's Ghana today, allow the grand larceny that has taken place elsewhere with the oil reserves of Africa's oil-rich nations, such as Gabon (which after all these years, still has less than 1000 kilometers of first class roads, despite its huge oil revenues over the years), to happen here, too. Period.

We will never allow our oil and natural gas revenues to either enrich the shareholders of private foreign oil companies in the name of "foreign direct investment", or any crooked Ghanaian politicians, ever.

And that, Opanin, is a none-negotiable bald fact on the ground - over which we will never compromise!

And if any too-clever-by-half politicians think they will be setting up offshore companies to syphon off our oil wealth, as General Sani Abacha, that big armed-robber-in-chief from Nigeria did, in his time; well, they had better revise their notes very quickly.

For, we will swiftly bring the 4thRepublic to an abrupt end and usher in a new and truly democratic 5th Republic, to replace it, were we to spot any "Ntikuma-style-economics" and "kokofu-football" tactics being attempted by them.

And that, dear sir, is not a threat - it is a solemn promise. And some of us are even prepared to die to make that happen! Hmm Ghana - asem ebaba debi!

May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!