It will not come as a great surprise to many honest students of our nation's history, to hear that the Minority Leader in Parliament, the Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, and his opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) colleagues on the minority side in Parliament (in a classic example of the kind of cynicism they have now become so notorious for!), have now latched on to the dangerous and short-sighted demand by some Chiefs in the Western Region, that 10 percent of oil and natural gas revenues should be allocated to their region.
Alas, if Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co had their way, Ghana would indeed be a loose federation of more or less sovereign tribal groupings - for that really is their (unspoken) political ideal: just as the tribal-supremacist Danquah & Co had always wanted the new and independent successor-state to the Gold Coast colony to be: and always threatened to secede if their demands weren't met.
If they genuinely want to help the Chiefs and people of the Western Region, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co, as patriots and Ghanaian nationalists, ought to discourage the said Chiefs from the Western Region from going down that potentially dangerous path - and rather point them in the direction of a far more beneficial route, financially.
Indeed, a far more beneficial route to securing value from the exploitation of the natural resources of the Western Region, exists - and Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co can do Mother Ghana a huge favour, by pointing that route out to the misguided Chiefs of the Western Region, making those unreasonable demands of the government of what is a unitary Republic of diverse-ethnicity.
The ends for which they seek 10 percent of the revenues from the exploitation of Ghana's oil and natural gas deposits, can actually be secured, by a far more beneficial route than the contentious one they presently seek.
It is intolerable that they demand special treatment that has never once been extended to any region in Ghana, in which any of our nation's natural resources are located, for the exploitation of same (and for very good national-cohesion reasons too!), since Ghana gained its independence - and we are not about to go down that dangerous road for Chiefs. Perish the thought - it simply won't happen. Period.
The most effective way that Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co can assist the Chiefs of the Western Region, is to devote their considerable energies to helping the government and Parliament draft and pass suitably empowering "local content" legislation, to act as a guide for all foreign participation in the oil and natural gas sectors of our national economy.
By so doing, they will enable the Chiefs of the Western Region to secure the ends for the unreasonable demands they are currently making - by the simple measure of setting up a holding company for the purpose (Western Holdings wouldn't be a bad name at all, incidentally) of securing stakes in all companies in that sector, which operate from their region.
It would be a special purpose vehicle, to enable them secure 10 percent shareholding, in all foreign entities seeking to participate in various stages of oil and natural gas production in Ghana and the ancillary services-sector businesses serving them, both upstream and downstream - for which communal land, held in trust for their people, by those Chiefs, is required: whatever purpose the said land is required for.
It is time Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co (and the majority side in Parliament, too!) focused on securing for Ghanaians, legislation that opens up the oil and natural gas sectors of the Ghanaian economy to local participation, on the basis that all foreign investors wishing to participate in the Ghanaian economy's oil and natural gas sectors, will be required by law to enter into joint-venture partnerships with Ghanaian nationals.
Setting up a holding company to take advantage of such empowering "local content" legislation, will enable the Chiefs to secure 10 percent stakes in all commercial and industrial undertakings in the region, for which communal land in the Western Region is required - no matter the size of the concern, land, or undertaking involved.
That is the best way for the region's Chiefs to influence businesses in those sectors of the economy that operate in the Western Region - to make them good corporate citizens of Ghana: who are socially and environmentally responsible.
Securing such an outcome will be a far better way for Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co to proceed - than the present mischief they are up to.
Additionally, if they still haven't done so yet, then to help the Chiefs and people of the Western Region further, Osei Kyei Mensh-Bonsu & Co should work with their colleagues on the majority side, to pass yet another law, that is more or less the same as that which the US put in place after the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster, to enable our country too, deal effectively with future oil spillages.
They must pay particular attention to fashioning a requirement of the law, which makes it mandatory for oil companies operating in Ghanaian territory (who should also be solely responsible for all clean-up operations when such spillages occur, by the way!), to pay up to even some US$20 billions, if necessary, into an escrow account immediately after a major spillage - to ensure that there will be sufficient money to pay for all aspects of cleaning up such pollution and returning the natural environment to a pristine state: as well as paying full compensation to all businesses and individuals affected by such pollution.
One hopes that Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co will listen to such well-meant advice - for Mother Ghana's sake: and forthwith cease making mischief whenever the opportunity to do so presents itself to them.
They must know that it was the view of many independent-minded and discerning Ghanaians that they were right to condemn the Majority in Parliament for irritating the Speaker, not too long ago.
And today, those selfsame individuals, feel that members of the Minority in Parliament are also wrong to seek to undermine the Speaker's authority, by any recourse to the Supreme Court - merely in pursuance of that pure nonsense on bamboo stilts idea, of allocating 10 percent of oil and natural gas revenues to the Western Region: as demanded by Chiefs there.
Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co must never forget that Chiefs in Ghana, were not elected by anyone to their positions, and owe their special status in our democracy to inherited privilege - which, as we all know, is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. They have no moral right to make such demands in a modern African nation-state of diverse-ethnicity. Period.
Finally, for their information, ordinary Ghanaians now demand a positive kind of politics from Ghana's political parties and politicians - and Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu & Co had better wake up to that reality quickly. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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