Anticipating the arrival of something new and probably big can be exciting and sometimes unnerving because of the numerous wild ideas that will be struggling for space in your imagination.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young couple preparing for and anticipating how things will be on their wedding day.
What about the couple expecting their first baby? When, finally, the day comes and the event has taken place, there is a kind of feeling not matched with the anxiety and excitement associated with the long wait.
A few years ago when South Africa was given the honour of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the whole continent shared in the excitement and waited expectantly for the day to come.
South Africa 2010 is now history and at best we can only look back with some painful memories at the penalty miss by Asamoah Gyan which deprived us of the historic opportunity of going into the semi-finals and, who knows, beyond.
Asamoah Gyan, the player who made us cry in South Africa, has gone on to earn the admiration of many and crowned a year’s sterling performance with the award of the BBC African Footballer of the Year 2010.
Beyond that, South Africa 2010 is a pale shadow in our memories just six months after it ended.
In June 2007, an elated President John Agyekum Kufuor, with cup in hand, announced to the joy of the nation the discovery of oil in commercial quantities offshore around Cape Three Points in the western part of the country. No sooner had that historic information been allowed to soak into our system then the long wait and calculations began.
Even though it was generally agreed that the oil find was in the Western Region of Ghana, there were skirmishes by some tribal chiefs to claim the portion of the vast ocean where the discovery was made, apparently for purposes of claiming royalties in future, if there would be any.
There were still others who felt the story was too sweet to be true. They took our minds several years back into history when a similar announcement about the discovery of oil was made but which faded into nothingness. We were, therefore, advised to treat the new announcement with cautious optimism.
As the days rolled into weeks and months, it became increasingly clear that Ghana was heading towards becoming a major oil producer, a realisation which brought with it its own anxieties. That was because oil news is not always good news.
Apart from the environmental hazards which oil production entails, there is the bigger question of how to share oil money. We have always made reference to Nigeria because it is a close neighbour who offers one of the best examples of how a country can be so rich in oil resources but cannot produce enough to fuel local industries and fill the tanks of its vehicles.
Many Ghanaians may not have heard of an organisation called MEND – the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. This organisation has gone beyond a pressure group to become a full-fledged fighting force battling the Federal government over oil revenue in Nigeria.
The 1967-70 civil war in Nigeria, which saw the birth of the short-lived Republic of Biafra in the former Eastern State of Nigeria, had more to do with oil than anything else. So when MEND was formed, it was to retrace the footsteps of Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu’s secessionist movement of the 1960s.
Nigeria’s experience apart, there is the Cabinda Province of Angola where secessionist instincts are high because of the belief that with oil, the people of Cabinda can lead independent and prosperous lives. The people of southern Sudan, led by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA,) for years fought for autonomy mainly because much of the oil in The Sudan is on their territory. Incidentally, for religious and racial reasons, most parts of the south are seriously under-developed.
Now that the south, under a peace agreement signed in January 2005, is to determine autonomy or unity with the north in a referendum in January 2011, the whole world is waiting with some kind of apprehension for the outcome, for on one side, it means full control of vital natural resources which were denied in the past, while on the other side, it means the end to a limitless access to free flowing oil.
So you see, oil can bring disparities and internal conflicts or serve as preys to predators as were the cases of Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf, which became attractions to major western powers and contributed greatly to the Iran/Iraq war of 1980/90 and the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies under the guise of dismantling Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
With all these as a guide, it was not strange that everybody became an adviser overnight in oil matters, especially on how the revenue of Ghana’s oil should be managed. Incidentally, the politicians, who actually pose the greatest danger to the security of the country’s oil resources, are the most vocal in providing the magic formula for the management of the revenue from this natural resource.
The people of the Western Region, led by their chiefs and youth, did not hide their determination not to be outsmarted by anybody when they came out with their own calculations and settled on 10 per cent of the Ghana’s share of the oil revenue to be paid into a special account for their use as they deem fit.
You cannot fault them if even you think their demand was outrageous and has the potential to create serious problems for a unitary state like Ghana. They have history to guide them. They have seen enough of their timber, cocoa and mineral wealth vanishing without anything on the ground showing that the region is after all, not a desolate area.
Not only is the region poor in infrastructure, but beyond their region, they could see the poverty in Obuasi, once reputed to be one of the richest gold mines in the world. They could see the emptiness of Akwatia, Kade and other diamond-rich areas where the people are hanging only on hope for survival. So they saw the discovery as the last opportunity to redeem what they have lost over the years.
For some of us, the chiefs and people of the Western Region are making a strong case for the whole country. Never should we allow a few greedy vampires, parading as political leaders to enter into alliances with foreign interests to siphon away our national wealth again. But for bad political leadership, this country should not be where it is today, and be making desperate noises about oil discovery.
The long wait came to an end on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 when President John Evans Atta Mills turned a wheel to symbolically open the valves to allow the oil to flow. This time, people are not just ready to sit and watch. The debate is still going on. How do we manage the oil revenue so that we do not end up being paupers in the midst of plenty? Who takes control of what?
The politicians on both sides of the divide are doing their best to justify their positions. How sincere they are can only be a matter of time. Ghanaians will, however, do well for themselves if they avoid falling into the traps of partisanship in their discussions.
We may be talking today as supporters of one political party or another. What we may not know is that when they begin to cart away our oil as booties the rest of us will remain on one side and the rapists on the other side, no matter their political colour.
Our President has turned the wheel, and the rest of us have shouted hurray. Let us not drop guard. Let us not reduce the debate to a National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a New Patriotic Party (NPP) affair. It is our life and our survival. It is our life today and tomorrow.
For years we have made a lot of noise of being major producers of cocoa beans, timber, gold, diamond, manganese and others. There is nothing in our lives as a people to reflect the wealth these natural resources have given to this country. That is why we should not fight among ourselves over oil. We need to join forces to watch over those who claim they are leading us so that we are not swerved again.
We have said the first hurray to welcome the first flow. Let us wait for the big roads, the schools, the medical facilities and housing estates, the uninterrupted electricity service and the cheerful smiles. Then we can say the second and third hurray.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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