Time To Review All Ghana's Oil Agreements

Ghana needs to take a leaf from the book of the government of President Alpha Conde of Guinea - by taking a fresh look at all the oil agreements it has entered into thus far.

 President Alpha Conde's government set up a committee - shortly after it came to power as Guinea's first democratically elected regime - to examine all mining agreements,  entered into by previous regimes. In its final report, the committee recommended the cancellation of an agreement between the regime of the late military ruler of Guinea,  President Lansana Conte, and BSG Resources, a company owned by Beny Steinmetz, the Israeli billionaire.

Incredibly, that agreement granted two iron ore mining concessions for deposits worth billions of dollars,  beneath the Simandou mountains, to BSG Resources. During the committee's investigations, it  came to light that the agreement was obtained, as a result of the payment of bribes to a number of influential individuals, including Mamadie Toure, the late President Conte's wife, by intermediaries of Beny Steinmetz.

BSG Resources sold 51℅ of the huge Simandou mountains iron  ore deposits for US$2.5 billion to Vale of Brazil - after reportedly investing  US$165 million in exploration of the area.

 Most of the evidence against BSG Resources was gathered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), during investigations into the affairs of Frederick Cilins, an associate of Beny Steinmetz - who was being investigated by the FBI for breaching the foreign corrupt practices act. The FBI passed the information on to the Guinean government committee.

Cilins apparently paid US$3 million to Mamadie Toure in 2006. She also signed a contract to receive a further US$5 million in 2010. It is astonishing that massive  iron ore deposits worth billions of dollars, and the exploitation of which  could yield valuable revenue that could be used to improve the lives of ordinary people in Guinea,  were handed over a foreign entity - because a small group of powerful and greedy individuals in a corrupt African regime received a few million dollars as bribe money.

It is to the eternal credit of President Alpha Conde that this egregious rip-off of the people of Guinea has now been reversed.

If only our ruling elites were equally as nationalistic and honest - and  moved swiftly to demand a review of the rip-off oil agreements between Ghana and foreign oil companies: which the vast majority of ordinary people believe were fraudulently obtained as a result of the payment of  bribes to a few dishonest, selfish and greedy Ghanaians.

 As we all know, the late President Mills turned down the offer of a bribe,  from the executives of an American oil company,  who called on him at the Osu Castle - then Ghana's seat of government. So we can put two and two together - and draw our own conclusions.

It is an indictment of our ruling elites that over a thirty-year period, out of  oil and gas deposits worth some US$160 billions, all that  Ghana will receive is a paltry US$20 billions.

Yet, Ghana is  a nation that is desperate to find money to fund the provision of affordable housing for the not-so-well-off amongst its people; pay for the expansion and modernisation of its infrastructure;  as well as provide free healthcare, and free  education from kindergarten to tertiary level,  for its people.

Meanwhile, over the same thirty-year period,  foreign oil companies will receive some US$140 billions -  after investing no more than US$15 billion between them at the most.

How can that be - and why are our hard-of-hearing  ruling elites still not taking active steps to end this monstrous and abominable rip-off? It is intolerable that inimical oil agreements, deliberately entered into by a few Ghanaians because it benefited them personally, are being allowed to stand -  when the nation is in such dire financial straits. And we must not forget that Ghana also has a mountain of debt to pay off.

Do our ruling elites not realise that  production-sharing agreements that give Ghana 70℅, and 30℅ to the foreign oil companies,  could fund the transformation of Ghana into a prosperous African equivalent,  of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia - and end the unimaginable hardship being endured by  ordinary people in Ghana?

The time has now come for Ghana to review all the oil agreements it has entered into,  to date. The foreign oil companies must understand that no African democracy will survive if poverty remains the lot of ordinary people for decades. Revenues from the exploitation of our nation's oil and gas deposits must pay for ordinary people's share of the  democracy-dividend. Period.

The foreign oil companies need  to take a long-term view,  and accept that new production sharing agreements giving Ghana 70% of those US$160 billions that its oil and gas deposits are worth, will be fair to all parties - and in their own interest too. As sure as day follows night, if they do not end their greedy ways, a Colonel Gaddafi-type leader will eventually emerge in Ghana - and tear up all those inimical rip-off oil agreements and impose new ones on them: to popular acclaim.  A word to the wise...