Reserve The Oil Industry's Supplies Services Sector For Ghanaian-Owned Companies

I have often wondered what the history of Africa would have been, if our pre-colonial ruling elites had understood the implications of the essential nature of the first Europeans who set foot on African soil.

Perhaps if the traditional rulers of our part of Africa, for example, had understood the nature of the underlying ruthlessness, which drove those who came to our shores seeking gold (in what eventually became known as the Gold Coast), those leaders would have proceeded differently.

They would rather have exercised a great deal of caution in all their dealings with those first Europeans: and would never have allied themselves to them – simply for the short-term gain of consolidating their own power as coastal states in their relationships with rival tribal powers in the hinterland.

It was the naiveté of our traditional rulers, whose greed made them only too happy to accept leftovers from the whiteman’s dinner table (speaking figuratively), which made it possible for Europeans to gradually end up occupying our country, and eventually succeeding in imposing colonial rule on us – and finally gave them unfettered access to the abundant natural resources that providence blessed us with.

They, of course, never forgot why they came to our shores: to take away as much of our wealth to their own countries as was possible, without any hindrance from local people – whiles our leaders jostled each other for the privilege of dining with those who in effect had come to bleed our nation dry and condemned it to a slow and painful death: by emasculating it, and, like vampires, feeding on the very lifeblood of our country: its cornucopia of minerals and timber.

That is why I had a sense of d’jevu that made me shudder recently, when I saw a front-page photograph in the Daily Graphic, of a beaming president happily shaking hands with an oil company executive, who had led a delegation of his colleagues to call on the president at the seat of government, the Osu Castle.

I could not help thinking that nothing much had changed since those first Europeans came on a similar mission and were also happily welcomed by our leaders then, with beaming smiles.

The attraction for leftovers still remains strong amongst our ruling elites: and is the main reason why despite many years of governing ourselves, the proverbial “pull-him-down-syndrome” still underpins our system.

Sadly, that unfortunate affliction, which affected a majority of our pre-colonial ruling elites, and was responsible for the downfall of Africa, does still rampages across the continent, causing havoc to the living standards of our people – as our leaders literally give our wealth away, out of ignorance.

It is one’s constant prayer to God that our leaders will finally grasp the full extent of the potential power of a resurgent Africa – a reawakened giant in which the spirit of enterprise will spread right across a continent that is brimming with well-educated men and women with self-belief: who are driven by the can-do spirit.

One also hopes that those who now lead Nkrumah’s Ghana will focus on using the power of the Ghanaian nation-state to seize the commanding heights of our economy for Ghanaian entrepreneurs – by providing market-based incentives to both state-owned entities and those in the private sector, for example.

That will mean that rather than merely admonishing Ghanaian entrepreneurs to position themselves to take advantage of the many opportunities available in the oil industry (to paraphrase the current vice president), more importantly, the government will ensure that parliament passes a law that stipulates that only companies with a majority Ghanaian shareholding will be allowed to participate in the oil industry’s supply services sector: and that that new law is passed as quickly as it is practicable to do so.

We must not let the same old lack of self-belief that manifests itself in Ghanaians treating each other worse than they do foreigners (whom they invariably bend over backwards to help), rear its ghastly head when production starts in our oil and natural gas industries.

I was horrified to learn that that same old “pull-him-down-syndrome” had been at play in the drawing up of the terms of the agreement Ghana signed with the company of that brilliant, hardworking, and patriotic Ghanaian oil tycoon, Quincy Sintim-Aboagye – whose private oil company is drilling for oil in the Saltpond oilfield. Yet, that innovative oilman has trained (and is still training) hundreds of Ghanaian oil-sector professionals in various disciplines.

In addition to that, being a patriot, he also keeps his money here – and is creating jobs with decent pay for young Ghanaians.

The question is: Has it ever struck the government of the day, to seek advice from that knowledgeable and apolitical gentleman, who loves his country and isn’t ashamed to say so wherever he goes – as to how best our nation can ensure that its interests are protected from sundry foreign carpetbaggers now flooding our oil sector (and who, incidentally, are as ruthless as those first Europeans who came here looking for gold, and getting it for as cheaply as they possibly could: by taking advantage of the ignorance of our rulers then)?

Although he never says a bad word about anyone, it is instructive that the previous stooges for neocp-colonialism, into whose greedy hands Nkrumah’s Ghana fell for eight disastrous years, did all they could to cripple Quincy Sintim-Aboagye’s oil business – whiles they bent over backwards to enable greedy and ruthless foreigners to rip our country off (by drawing up those absurd agreements with them, which were so clearly inimical to our country’s interests), for short-term personal gain for themselves: and at the expense of the long-term interests of ordinary Ghanaians and their nation.

My humble advice to the brilliant and patriotic Quincy, is to contact Liam Casey (known as Mr. China)of PCH International, who can put together a consortium that will enable him move into deeper-sea fields in the shortest possible time-frame (certainly quicker than he had originally envisaged), and with suitable funding support from the world-class Chinese partners that Casey can easily bring on board for him in a mutually-beneficial joint-venture.

Quincy, more than anyone else in the industry, deserves to gain from the coming oil boom – because he will definitely spread the wealth he makes amongst Ghanaian businesses and Ghanaian workers.

In talking to Liam Casey, he must also think about the possibility of leveraging the synergy involved in adding world-class Chinese companies that build giant windmills for renewable-power generation, as joint-venture partners: and add that to his core business. As a fellow patriot, I wish him well.

Finally, one humbly appeals to our present leaders to make sure that a law is passed as soon as possible to reserve the oil industry supply services sector for majority Ghanaian-owned businesses only – to ensure that Ghanaians actually benefit from that industry.

They must also ask US President Barrack Obama to give Ghana’s navy six oil tankers from the mothballed fleet of the US Navy, when he visits Ghana – so that the lifting of oil for export from Ghana will be the Ghana Navy’s exclusive preserve.

That is a sensible insurance policy against fraud in the export of oil from Ghana – and in that regard, they would be wise to send the high command of our military on a fact-finding mission to Egypt: to see how Egypt’s military has its tentacles in many areas of the Egyptian economy, for the mutual benefit of the Egyptian people and the Egyptian military.

We must use our military for certain vital national economic undertakings, so as to prevent revenue leakage in a system that is specifically designed to be manipulated by self-seekers for their personal benefit: and at the expense of the Ghanaian nation-state and its people.

The water sector and the operations of the STC bus company, are perfect examples of state-owned business entities that ought to be in the very capable and corruption-free hands, of the Ghana Armed Forces.

A visit by the military’s top brass to Egypt will enable them produce the relevant recommendations to government as to how best they can help protect our nation’s vital economic interest by using the military to undertake certain tasks in the economic sphere: such as the oil and natural gas industries.