Mining assuming dangerous proportions

Mining for minerals has been going on in Ghana for decades. In fact, the record shows that the then Ashanti Goldfields Corporation (AGC) started operating its Obuasi Mine, which is believed to have some of the world’s largest gold deposits, in 1897. The Obuasi Mine is also among the 10 largest in the world. In 2004, the AGC merged with AngloGold to become AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s second largest gold producer. Other minerals that have been mined extensively in the country are diamond, bauxite and manganese. Under normal circumstances, judging from the volume of minerals taken out of this country since colonial times, Ghana should have been brimming with mineral wealth just like South Africa. But, alas, this is not the case and the search for wealth from the bowels of the earth continues. If in the past only a few well-established mining companies operated in the country under appropriately defined rules and regulations, today the sector has become a free range where mining activities are going on in a lawless and careless manner. There are many factors that have contributed to this state of affairs. First, mining has not brought any visible improvement to the lives of the local people nor the physical development of the communities. Rather, mineral wealth has largely remained the monopoly of the shareholders in Europe, the United States and a few chiefs and local politicians who feast on the crumbs that fall from the table of the millionaires cocooned in the comfort of the major cities of the world. Obuasi, for example, has nothing to show for its accolade as one of the richest gold mines in the world. Meanwhile, Obuasi has made millionaires out of many Europeans, while the local people only enjoy the luxury of being identified with the precious metal while not benefiting from its wealth. Having waited impatiently in vain for decades for the gold wealth to spread and cover them, the local people, mostly the unemployed youth, have decided to go to the depths themselves to take what they could get, damn the risk and legal consequences. In the past, galamsey, as illegal mining is known among the populace, was restricted to a few concessions in the Obuasi area and was carried out discreetly, not with the flagrant impunity we see today. Unfortunately, galamsey is now the norm, not the illegal and clandestine vocation it was years ago. It may still remain illegal, but the spread, the numbers involved and the sophisticated equipment deployed in the business have clothed it with a garb of normality. Those colonialists who were quick to name our coastline the Gold Coast will be astonished to hear that the whole land mass of Ghana is pregnant with gold, from the beaches to the Savanna grassland of the north. First, our governments thought they could flash the galamsey operators from business. When that failed, they introduced a scheme to register and license the small-scale miners, so that their operations could be regulated and supervised, which was a good idea. Strangely, the small-scale miners have refused to operate within the rules and are now operating everywhere, anyhow. Mining generally has its environmental challenges, whether operating legally or otherwise. The obvious ones are forest degradation, water and noise pollution and the destruction of farmlands and crops. At least, while the major mining companies put in efforts to minimise the side effects of their operations, the illegal operators have no such plans and the result is the environmental degradation being experienced all over the country. The local people are beginning to take the law into their own hands to protect their heritage and the country will head for a major civil strife if care is not taken to deal decisively with the menace. A few examples will suffice. About a month ago, the people of Akyem Saaman in the Eastern Region rose up against the operations of the Kibi Goldfield Limited/Solar Mining Group. The residents blamed the mining firm for polluting their source of drinking water — the River Birim, the River Akusu and the River Anoma. They also complained of the removal of the vegetation cover along the banks of the said rivers, resulting in siltation and sedimentation during rainfall, and also the destruction of their cocoa farms through mining activities. Not even a visit by Mr Victor Smith, the Eastern Regional Minister, to calm nerves could satisfy the residents. What it means is that there is potential threat to peace, and this has dangerous consequences. Things were more violent at Gbane in the Talensi-Nabdam District in the Upper West Region where there was a violent confrontation between the youth of the community and workers of Shaanxi Mining Company Limited, a subsidiary of the China Gold Resources Group Company Limited. Four of the Chinese were said to be seriously injured in that confrontation, while mining equipment belonging to the firm was vandalised. The case of the people was that 527 of their compatriots who are farmers had been displaced, while 3,000 economic trees, mostly shea nut trees, had been destroyed. Illegal mining operations are no longer just a threat to the environment but also a breeding ground for hooligans who are prepared to confront lawful authority or even fight among themselves over territory. A case in point was the clash at Tutuka, an Obuasi suburb, among rival galamsey operators which left many of them seriously wounded. A new phenomenon which has muddied the already polluted waters is the arrival of Chinese experts in illegal mining. They do not operate with shovels, pickaxes and pans but deploy bulldozers and other heavy machinery. It appears they operate at the fringes of the law and it seems the police have been compromised and, therefore, cannot do anything. They are not only on the spree, leaving destruction in their path, but also invading the concessions of the mining companies. The latest reports have it that some of these illegal Chinese miners have invaded the concessions of AngloGold Ashanti at Kwanwireso, near Obuasi. Some of them are said to be heavily armed and could cause havoc to anyone trying to destabilise them. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

And Mubarak wept

On Saturday, June 2, 2012, Hosni Mubarak, former President of Egypt, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators in last year’s uprising which toppled his government. It was a pity seeing Mubarak brought to court on a stretcher throughout his trial. Old age and poor health were manifestly evident and one could guess the mental turmoil Mubarak was going through as he listened to the charges made against him. Court officials were not moved a bit. They handed down a life sentence to the former strong man and even this did not satisfy many Egyptians who were calling for a death penalty. According to media reports, Mubarak cried when he was put on a helicopter destined for a prison hospital on the outskirts of Cairo. He was said to have cried in protest and resisted leaving the helicopter, insisting he should be sent to a facility where he spent most of his time in relative luxury during his trial. After about two hours or so, Mubarak caved in and finally left the helicopter to begin his life sentence, that is if there is any life left in him. There are many who would cry if they should find themselves in Mubarak’s position. From the monarch of all that he surveyed; a man who for 29 years ruled one of the most powerful and influential countries in the Arab world without opposition to be reduced to an ordinary convict, -- from GLORY to IGNOMINY – and you cannot blame Mubarak for shedding copious tears like a baby. But should Mubarak blame anybody for this shameful end to his life? Mubarak came to power on October 14, 1981 when he succeeded President Anwar Sadat who was shot and killed at a military parade on October 6, 1981, which was seen as the work of radicals who saw his peace agreement with Israel in 1979 as a betrayal. Mubarak who was Vice President at the time took over and quickly consolidated his hold on power. Throughout his rule, Egypt was under emergency law (Law No. 162 of 1958), which was briefly lifted in 1980/81, and re-imposed after the assassination of Sadat. The emergency law cleared the path for Mubarak against any opposition because police powers were extended, constitutional rights suspended, censorship legalised and the government had the right to arrest and detain individuals for any period of time and for no reason. By a restriction in the Egyptian Constitution, only the People’s Assembly nominates presidential candidates for endorsement in a referendum. Mubarak, therefore, had no challenger to his high office until in 2005, when the first multi-candidate presidential elections were held. Even that one came with a casualty when Ayman Nour, the man who contested Mubarak and challenged the election results was arrested, tried and convicted for forgery and jailed five years. It became obvious that Mubarak could not be removed from political office through any constitutional means so opposition became clandestine. He survived several assassination attempts including a deadly one in June 1995 when he was in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, for an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit. Before the Arab Spring which toppled him, it was widely rumoured that Mubarak was grooming Gamal, one of his sons to succeed him, copying from General Gnansigbe Eyadema of Togo and Omar Bongo of Gabon. When the protests began in January 2011, Mubarak was caught on the wrong foot and his reaction was slow. As the protests persisted and intensified, he started giving concessions which came too late. First, he declared he was no longer going to contest after September, 2011. Then he said he was not going beyond 2011 when the next election was due. He also promised constitutional reforms and gave the assurance that his son will not succeed him as was being speculated. Mubarak’s fate entered another phase when his Vice President, Omar Suleiman, announced that Mubarak had resigned from office and handed over to the military. Maybe he miscalculated the currents of the people’s power, otherwise he could have chosen the path of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian leader who was the first casualty of the Arab Spring, who quickly opted for exile and escaped the wrath of the protesters. If Mubarak thought the military would protect him, he was wrong. At 82, Mubarak should have been relaxing coolly at a beach resort with his grandchildren but here he is in jail with no sympathy from the people he had ruled for 29 years. He was not as lucky as other dictators like General Eyadema and Omar Bongo who died in office. Even Col Muamar Gaddafi and Gen Mobutu died nobler deaths, because they did not suffer the embarrassment of imprisonment. Those who are still hanging onto power through fair or foul means must learn from Mubarak’s experience and revise their notes. I hope good old Robert Mugabe and Gen Omar Al-Bashir and the rest are listening. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

Turning tragic history to advantage

THE Jews have a tragic past. They call it the Holocaust. It was the time when the murderous persecution of the Jews by the Nazis got to its peak. From 1933 onwards, there were isolated cases of violence, sometimes resulting in death among the Jews in Germany and other places with German influence. A German doctor, Josef Mengale, was notorious for using Jews, including children, for his medical research. On November 7, 1938, a German diplomat, Ernst von Roth, was assassinated in Paris by Herschel Grunspan, a Jew. That unfortunate incident was used as a pretext to launch full-scale physical onslaught against Jews in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Lithuania. In December 1939, during the Second World War, mass extermination of Jews by gas was introduced. Mass killing centres in concentration camps were built in parts of occupied Poland, including, Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Jasenovac, Majdanek, Maly Trostenets, Sobibor and Treblinka. By the time the mass murder, euphemistically described as the Final Solution, came to a halt after the end of the Second World War, an estimated six million European Jews had been killed. Before the Holocaust which was visited on Jews, another monstrosity had taken place between the 16th and 19th centuries. That involved the purchase and transportation of Africans to North and South America to work as slaves on cotton, sugar, tobacco and cocoa plantations and rice fields for their masters. Some worked in the mines, while others cut timber for the construction of ships. The lucky ones worked as house servants. Since these slaves became the properties of their owners, they were treated like other goods and sold as such on open markets. Conservative estimates indicate that Africa lost over 12 million strong and energetic members of its population in what became known as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Slavery, which some scholars prefer to describe as the African Holocaust or the Holocaust of Enslavement, did not only deprive the continent of its human resource also but stripped Africans of their identity and self-esteem and reduced them to mere objects who are still trying hard, with very little success, to rediscover their true selves. While the two holocausts remain two of history’s most human tragedies, the victims have reacted differently and that is the subject of this article. The Jews came out of the Holocaust of 1939-45 with one resolve — to never again succumb to the enemy, suffer such humiliation or put their fate in the hands of other people. It is this resolve, call it a vow, which is serving as the heartbeat pumping blood into the Jewish system. From a small population of about 300,000 when the Jewish State was created in 1948, the population of Israel, which became the home of Jews after the war, has gone up to over seven million. This is because more Jews in the Diaspora are encouraged to return home, while those in foreign lands continue to support the Homeland with anything, including cash, political support and military accoutrements, which has made that small country one of the most powerful nations in the world. Israel has remained defiant against strong world opinion by maintaining occupation of Palestinian lands and building new settlements by the day. You may condemn the Israelis for swimming against the tide of international opinion, but you cannot blame them because they know their history. They know they may not have a third chance if they should slip back into subservience and are, therefore, prepared to challenge and disregard UN resolutions if that will keep them together as one. So while the Jews came out of the Holocaust tightly united and determined not to suffer any form of annihilation again, Africans emerged from the Holocaust of Enlargement and landed in the Holocaust of Colonialisation. For over 200 years, the African continent was cut into pieces and shared among European powers, including France, Great Britain, Germany and Belgium. Any hope that Africa would come out of slavery with a strong resolve to avoid the humiliation of the past crumbled under colonialism. Africa lost its human resource and dignity under slavery, lost its land and natural resources under colonialism but, worst of all, lost its mental independence. In spite of slavery and colonialism, Africa could still have restored itself to its natural glory. It remains one of the most endowed continents on earth. It still has the human resource, both on the continent and in the Diaspora, to harness for development. Africa emerged from colonialism not united solidly to rebuild itself and restore respectability as others had done. In spite of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which spearheaded the liberation struggle, and the African Union (AU), which succeeded it, Africa has largely remained fragmented along colonial lines. Africa can only rebuild itself if it can learn one valuable lesson from Israel — together we stand, divided we perish. Like the Jews, Africans should realise by now that their destiny lies in their own hands and, therefore, they have to chart an independent path, even if that should run parallel to that of the rest of the world to achieve this. It is easy to know who is encroaching on your land or who is trying to dispossess you of your physical property. Political independence is only an attempt to regain physical possession of colonial occupation. Unfortunately, the continent is yet to recover from mental slavery which the two holocausts — slavery and colonialism — have inflicted on the continent. China shocked the world when, on the blind side of the rest, set its development agenda and stormed out of backwardness and poverty to the amazement of those who had declared that country a back-water case. Today, the West can whimper about human rights but the Chinese know their own survival and economic progress lie in the hands of China. Africa must begin to think in similar way. Even the slave outposts, which yesterday were centres of humiliation, could be developed as tourist attractions to recoup from the same Europeans who yesterday gained from our human labour. The excitement with which some of our leaders announce the signing of loan agreements gives some of us the feeling that they are now imbued with nationalistic fervor and are not in a hurry to cut themselves free from the apron strings of the slave and colonial masters. There is nothing exciting about a country such as Ghana chasing foreign loans everywhere when everything is here for the taking. It is time we said enough is enough. Slavery bled the continent of its rich human resource which went to build the industrial empires in America and Europe, while colonialism provided the cheap raw materials for industrial Europe. These two evils did not come by accident. Under the guise of foreign aid and international trade, a third calamity is going to befall Africa unless we learn from the first and second and resolve not to be an appendage of a foreign power again, no matter the form it takes. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

A piece of shoddy job

Last week, one of the dailies carried a story about the arrest of a Nigerian-registered vehicle carrying fake Ghanaian currency notes in GH¢20 denominations amounting to GH¢1.096.240.00. According to the report, the police, upon tip-off, trailed the vehicle until the driver went to park at a hotel at Ada and left for an unknown place. The story said after waiting overnight in vain for the return of the driver, the police drove the vehicle with registration number GH409-LND to the police headquarters in Accra while still looking for the driver. The question is, why were the police in haste to drive away the vehicle? The world is for those who have the patience to wait and in crime investigation you need a lot of patience and tact to achieve your objective. What happens if no one shows up to claim ownership of the vehicle? What happens if someone surfaces to report of the loss of his vehicle and deny knowledge of the fake currency, since it was allegedly found in the vehicle in his absence? It should be obvious that the police have bungled an otherwise useful operation because they have failed to exhibit one of the cardinal principles of a good predator – patience. If members of the anti-armed robbery squad of the Ghana Police Service knew they could not wait long enough to effect the arrest of the driver, why didn’t they arrest the suspect anywhere along the road from Aflao and Ada? Very often, the police are in haste to announce a successful operation when in fact the reverse is the case. In this particular case, the police could have withdrawn the physical presence at the hotel while patiently maintaining strict surveillance on the vehicle to see what happens next. It could take hours, days, weeks or even months but surely the driver or any other person will surface after mistakenly believing that the police have lost interest in the vehicle. Second, no lives were at risk so there was no need for haste in this case. Sometimes in their haste, the police only succeed in arresting the “Aplanke” and not the master. This has been seen in many drug cases where small couriers are paraded as big catches while the barons escape justice. Perhaps we need to cultivate the professional expertise of others who have the patience to wait until their prey surfaces. The arrest and prosecution of Eric Amoateng, a former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, is a case in point. Amoateng had earlier forwarded seven boxes of pottery to Newark Liberty International Airport from London which were found to contain 136 pounds of heroin with a street value of $6 million. The US security monitored Amoateng and his accomplice, one Nii Okai Adjei, when they arrived in that country, took delivery of the goods and sent them to a self-storage facility at Staten Island. The security officials did not rush. They waited until the following day, when Amoateng showed to collect the goods, before he was arrested. Amoateng was convicted on drug charges and jailed 10 years on December 15, 2007. About a year or so ago, the police claimed they had arrested a dressmaker who had been designing and sewing special dresses for drug couriers. What was to be gained in that arrest, if the police could not do a more meticulous work by arresting the customers of the dressmaker? As recent as April, this year, officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) arrested a Moroccan woman, Fatima Elouardi, at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), with 2.7 kilogrammes of what was suspected to be cocaine. This woman is known to be working for Youssef Salloum which is no secret to the security agencies. But again they were very enthusiastic in arresting the agent and allowed the main man to escape arrest because of pure carelessness. Our security agencies had earlier been given intelligence information about the movement of the Moroccan woman and her cargo. They could have done a better job by monitoring her movement when she arrived at KIA and continue to do so until she clears her luggage and deliver it to her contractor before making an arrest. But as stated earlier, NACOB officials were overzealous and like in similar cases jumped the gun by arresting the courier and left the baron off the hook. Some of these blunders are so amateurish that some people are casting doubts on the integrity of some of our security agents. Events which preceded Fatima’s arrival and arrest at the KIA on April 5, 2012, clearly indicate that Salloum her accomplice was to meet her at the airport and possibly collect the luggage. So why should our security agents give Fatima that hint that she was being monitored? Is there anyone within the security apparatus who might have warned Salloum about the trap in wait for him? These are not just operational failures but smack of collaboration with the enemy by some unknown people within the set-up, more so, when it was revealed that Salloum had a narrow escape in another drug case a year or so earlier. As it is now, the country might have lost another opportunity to get to the bottom of the drug business which is spreading its tentacles on the west coast of the continent. In the same vein, the anti-armed robbery squad may have a long wait in their hands looking for the gang that had brought in fake currency to dilute our financial regime, something that could have been avoided with a more professional approach to duty. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

Are we losing the battle on the road?

The figures are staggering and continue to increase, thus making road travel one of the most dangerous enterprises in the country. In the first quarter of this year alone, 3,591 accident cases have been reported out of which 3,464 were injured and 565 lives lost. Who knows, the figures could be higher since not all cases are reported to the police and not all accident victims die on the spot or soon after the accident. These days when schools reopen, parents are on tenterhooks until they hear about the safe arrival of their children in school; the same way when schools vacate, parents only heave a sigh of relief after their children have arrived home safely. Parents who have the resources and can afford it prefer to send their children to and from school since that gives them a bigger guarantee of safety. Similarly, husbands whose wives are traders and have to travel long distances to buy or sell will tell you the mental turmoil they go through until they see their loved ones again. Such is the unpredictability of road transportation in the country these days that seeing off a relation or friend embarking on a journey may seem like bidding the person a final farewell. And it happens very often. Why should this be the case? We have come a long way as a nation to have been able to surmount certain challenges including road accidents. Our roads are not the best but the number of accidents recorded on some of the best roads in the country including the Accra-Tema Motorway and the George Bush Expressway are pointers to the fact that it is time we confront the real issues. We can sum up our national calamity in four words — Carelessness, Negligence, Irresponsibility and Corruption. There are state institutions charged collectively to ensure safety on our roads. One way or another, these institutions have failed us. Our problems start at the ports, when vehicles that could be best described as metal carcasses, through some dubious means are given clearance and allowed into the country. From there, the pattern is followed until these vehicles finally find themselves on our roads. We have also ignored certain fundamental issues about road safety for selfish gain. For instance, certain vehicles are designed purposely for carrying goods or cargo. These vehicles enter the country without passenger seats but somehow, they are sent to Suame Magazine and similar workshops where fabricated seats are installed in them. They are given the final blessing by the licensing authority to carry passengers and the consequences are obvious when an accident occurs. This brings into question how effective and efficient the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) is in delivering its mandate of ensuring that only roadworthy vehicles are licensed to ply the roads, and perform the tasks they have been designed for. The DVLA is also to ensure that those who sit behind the wheels as drivers are trained, qualified and literate enough to read and understand road signs. Curiously enough, not all vehicles are roadworthy. Without even subjecting these vehicles to any technical test, one would realise by casual observation that some vehicles are death traps and should not have been allowed on the roads, let alone carry human beings. It is also common knowledge that there are many drivers who cannot read or write, have not undergone any formal training in driving, and do not possess valid driver’s licence are also driving on the roads. Some also have the licences but were not examined by the issuing authority. Is it any wonder that majority of accidents involve commercial drivers who drive more of their legs and hands without necessarily using their heads? The next in the chain is the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service which also has a great responsibility to ensure road safety in the country. The MTTU may be described as the enforcement wing in the road safety chain They are to take over from where the DVLA’s mandate ends and even check the omissions and commissions of the DVLA. The MTTU must ensure that vehicles plying the country’s roads meet acceptable standards and have certificates to that effect issued by the DVLA. Even in situations where a vehicle owner possesses a valid roadworthiness certificate from the DVLA, the MTTU has the power to act appropriately if in its estimation and judgement that vehicle is not fit to carry passengers or be on the road. The MTTU is also by statute to ensure that drivers have valid driving licences issued by the DVLA and observe all the motor traffic regulations. These include driving with caution, driving within the acceptable speed limits, not driving under the influence of alcohol or any prohibited drug and taking cognisance of other motorists and pedestrians. The big question is: ‘Have personnel of the MTTU been able to deliver their mandate to the letter?’ Before we attempt to answer that, we must first admit that the Ghana Police Service in general and the MTTU in particular have their human and logistic challenges. The MTTU has inadequate human resource and lack the tools for effective policing of the roads. They lack vehicles and other accoutrements of their trade such as radar guns to check speeding, breathalysers to check alcohol levels of drivers suspected to be driving under the influence, tow trucks to remove broken-down vehicles from the roads and ambulances to convey accident victims to the nearest medical facility. We are aware that the police have had to rely on donors for basic items such as flashlights and reflective jackets for their work. These are serious challenges which place limitations on their performance and reduce their efficiency. Notwithstanding these challenges, there is a general consensus that the MTTU could still have done better than they are doing now. We are talking about inadequate human resource, so why should MTTU personnel, sometimes numbering about 10, congregate at one place just to check ‘papers’ of drivers? Despite these checks, there are still many people driving without driving licences or using expired ones. People still drive rickety vehicles enveloped in thick smoke that impairs the vision of others but the police are unable to do anything about it. There more unregistered vehicles on the roads now even though there are regulations that are supposed to check those things but these are being ignored by the police. Motor riders do not wear crash helmets and ride past police personnel with impunity. The presence of the police does not evoke any fear in motorists because they know what to do to escape legal sanction. It is, therefore, not strange that our roads have become killing fields and on daily basis, lives are being lost and people being maimed through arbitrariness, carelessness, drunkenness, disrespect and irresponsible behaviour. Lawlessness has become a national canker which has turned this country into a jungle and nowhere is it exhibited more than on the roads. The carnage may not end soon and sermonising in the form of public education campaigns will fetch very little unless we take the bull by the horns and make the laws on road safety work. The MTTU must be well-resourced in terms of human capacity and logistics. The personnel must be disciplined, dedicated, committed and alive to their responsibilities. They must be made to realise that they are not only checking papers for its sake but they are in effect protecting life and property. Road safety, it is agreed, is a shared responsibility, therefore, individuals also have their role to play towards this end. However, the DVLA and the MTTU have a greater responsibility to keep and maintain the safety of road travel. If the DVLA, at the point of registering vehicles and issuing roadworthy certificates and driving licences will be meticulous and the MTTU will enforce the law without other considerations, that battle would be more than won. In short, if we can get rid of the four cankers — Carelessness, Negligence, Irresponsibility and Corruption — from the system we will realise that travelling by road can be not only fun but also exciting. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

One by one they go

ON April 26, 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC) sitting in The Hague in The Netherlands announced its verdict in the case in which former Liberian President Mr Charles Taylor was being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr Taylor was found guilty on 11 charges, including terrorism, rape, murder, sexual slavery, pillage and conscripting and enlisting children under 15 into the armed forces. There were those who applauded the verdict, which they said was to serve as a lesson to other dictators who might want to go the Mr Taylor. There were many others, especially in Africa, who saw the whole trial and verdict as an affront to the independence of the continent and a betrayal of a compatriot. Nobody could hold brief for Mr Taylor for what he was accused of doing. The issue is about the morality of those who accused him and sponsored his trial in The Hague. In August 2003, under a peace deal brokered under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the then President Taylor offered to step down and seek asylum in Nigeria if that would bring peace to a country that had suffered more than 14 years of violent conflict. Based on this agreement, Mr Taylor exited the Executive Mansion in Monrovia and went into exile in Nigeria. His exit also fulfilled the expectations of Liberians in particular and ECOWAS as a whole when peaceful elections were held in 2006 and a new government under Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was formed. What amounted to a betrayal and playing subservience to foreign powers occurred in the same year when Mr Taylor was arrested by the Nigerian authorities on orders from President Olusegun Obasanjo and handed over to the UN War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone. The trial took more than five years and the verdict was given on April 26, 2012. Judgement will be given on May 30, 2012, but already prosecutors are asking for a sentence of 80 years for Mr Taylor. Without trying to exonerate Mr Taylor from any of the charges, there are many who believe that he is a victim of circumstances or going the way other leaders who lost favour with the United States after their services had become redundant. Remember that in 1985 Taylor managed to escape from a US prison and there were doubts as to how he could have succeeded in that and leave American soil without official assistance. There were strong suspicions that agents within the US Administration might have played a critical role in that escape to prepare Taylor for the rebellion against President Samuel Doe who had become an object to be dispensed with. Those who know the story of Manuel Antonio Noriega of Panama will tell you that he was, for many years, a collaborator of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US. The US used him extensively to channel funds and weapons to the US-Contra rebels who were fighting the Sandinista Movement in Nicaragua. Relations between Noriega and his American allies turned sour when he threatened to abrogate the Panama Canal Treaty which allowed American soldiers to be stationed in Panama and defend the waterway. Incidentally, Noriega himself claimed that his refusal to provide military assistance for the Nicaraguans as demanded by Lt Col Oliver North of the US Marine Corps provided the ground for his ouster. In 1989, US troops invaded Panama and captured Noriega, flew him to the US and charged him with drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering. In January 1991, the US and its allies launched ‘Operation Desert Storm’ to smoke out Iraqi soldiers who had invaded Kuwait. Iraq had invaded Kuwait which Saddam had claimed was part of Iraqi territory and that invasion had not come as a surprise to the US and its allies. There were reports that the US gave its tacit agreement to that invasion so long as the operation was carried out swiftly without any serious damage to Kuwaiti oil installations and so long as the oil supply lines were kept intact. Later event proved that it was apparently a trap and Saddam fell for it. While the restoration of the sovereignty of Kuwait might have been the proclaimed motive for the US-led invasion of Iraq, the US and its allies had other reasons. Between 1980 and 1988, the US and its European allies had equipped the Iraqi armed forces with modern and sophisticated weaponry to confront Iran, which itself was a US ally until the collapse of Shah Pahlavi. The Iran-Iraq War came to an inconclusive end in 1988, with the Iraqi military still bristling with modern and sophisticated weapons provided by the US, France and Britain and which had to be dismantled, lest they were turned on US allies, including Israel. The faulty move by Saddam to invade Kuwait offered that opportunity. President George Bush was in haste and could not cause enough damage to the Iraqi armed forces before withdrawing American troops from ‘Operation Desert Storm’. In March 2003, the US and its allies found another excuse to visit Iraq again. That time without a UN mandate, the US launched another attack on Iraq with support from its traditional, with the claim that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction which must be destroyed to save humanity from a megalomaniac. On December 30, 2006, Saddam was executed by hanging after being convicted of charges relating to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shites. The US was silent on the much-touted weapons of mass destruction because there were none. More than five years after the death of Saddam, Iraq cannot be described as a peaceful place. Meanwhile, the US campaign in Iraq had claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, maiming millions and displacing others from their homes. I started by questioning the morality of those sitting in judgement over Mr Taylor. In 1945, the US dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese are still living with the scars of those atrocities. All the military campaigns launched by the US and its allies since the Second World War (WWII) have caused the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children. From the jungles of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Grenada to the deserts of Iraq and Iran and the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, US troops have left in their trail death, destruction, desolation and despair, all in the name of fighting communism, defending democracy or removing dictators. If Mr Taylor and very soon Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire are to pay for crimes against humanity, what about those who have presided over the death of a countless number of people across the globe in their ambition to conquer and annex the resources of other countries? What about the perpetrators of the war in Iraq, which Pope John Paul II, before his death, had described as senseless and unjustified? What about those who triggered the war in Afghanistan, whose objectives could not be clearly defined, apart from bringing death and destruction on a daily basis to the people? Who answers for the cowardly act of dropping atomic bombs on civilians in Japan when the war itself was grinding to its logical conclusion? If the ICC is there to serve as a bulwark against high-handedness, excessive use of force and arbitrariness, then it must open its doors to receive all and discriminate against none. Whatever its intentions on paper, the ICC in its present philosophy could be described as nothing but another surrogate tool by the US and its allies to extend their authority over others and be answerable to none. We saw it lately in the invasion and destruction of Libya which has been dismembered, disorganised and sent many years backwards at the expense of the national interest of a few countries. Such arbitrariness is what the ICC must stand up against. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

Let's save TOR

Ghana is not as bad as Somalia, where, for over two decades, there has not been any functional government since the last President, General Siad Barre, fled the country in 1991. The country, like many other African countries, has suffered the trauma of post-independence political upheavals in the form of military coups and declaration of one-party states. However, it would be argued with some appreciable legitimacy that Ghana has done far better than most other countries especially those of the West African sub-region, having survived these upheavals without any serious damage to its internal stability. Thankfully the country has not experienced any external aggression either. Comparatively, Ghana has remained relatively stable, even under military regimes, and its national equilibrium has not seriously been undermined to result in violent confrontations in proportions registered in most of its neighbours. Immediately, one could recollect with sad feelings civil conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and lately Cote d’Ivoire whose wounds in diplomacy and political engagement are still trying to heal. The ripples of the Biafran War of 1967-70, which threatened the unity of Nigeria, arguably the sub-regional superpower, can still be felt as ethnic and religious differences continue to determine the political path of Nigeria. Apart from isolated and sometimes primitive voices of ethnocentrism, Ghana has largely remained intact as one country with a common destiny, thanks to a policy which underpinned the philosophy of the first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, at independence of building a strong, united country through the harmonisation of the human and material resources of a nation which was the first Black nation south of the Sahara to gain political independence. Ghana maintained the pace, when in 1992, the citizens voted to return to multiparty democratic rule by approving the 1992 Constitution with overwhelming vote. The transition was not without hiccups as accusations of vote rigging dominated the 1992 parliamentary and presidential elections which ushered the country onto a democratic path and which has since remained a beacon for others on the continent. Apart from maintaining its sanctity and national cohesion where others have faulted, Ghana is a country well-endowed in natural resources both material and human. For years, it remained the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans. It may not be holding that position now, but it is still a major player in the cocoa production sector. Ghana has abundant mineral resources including Gold, Diamond, Bauxite and Manganese. It has abundant water resources for power generation and for industrial and domestic consumption. Ghana’s resources seem to be limitless. In December, 2010 it joined the league of oil producers. So, with its reputation as a major political force on the continent, its stock of natural resources and the relatively peace and stability it has enjoyed on a continent generally associated with rifts, conflicts and natural disasters such as drought and floods, one would expect Ghana to be far from where it is today. Incidentally, no one can tell where the problem lies, but it is abundantly clear that the cracking pace the country set after independence has slackened significantly and it appears we are finding it difficult to maintain the facilities that gave us a head start soon after independence. Ghana, sad to note, has not been able to capitalise on its relative peace and stability to develop its national resources and institutions to escape poverty and emerge from underdevelopment. Rather, most of the facilities and institutions put in place under the First Republic have either been sold out, abandoned or allowed to deteriorate. One of such facilities which succinctly epitomises that culture of retrogression is the Tema Oil Refinery, or TOR for short. This is a facility which came on line in 1960 as a private company solely owned by ANIC Societa per Azioni and AGIP Societa per Azioni, both of Italy, and was known as the Ghanaian Italian Petroleum Company (GHAIP). In 1977, the company changed ownership when the Government of Ghana became the sole shareholder. This was followed by a change of name from GHAIP to TOR in 1991. On paper, TOR has a capacity to refine 6,138 tonnes of crude daily. In reality, TOR’s performance has not been the best over the years for several reasons. One of them, and quite obvious, was the case of overage equipment and facilities. Almost every government has had an excuse to offer for TOR’s inability to deliver its mandate of refining crude and selling refined petroleum products for the domestic market but the right things have not been done to bring the required improvements. Two, governments will not allow TOR to deliver its core functions with as little interference as possible. So while governments want to have a major stake in the operations of this strategic installation, most of them in the main, have done nothing to solve the problems of obsolete equipment and inadequate funding. When the country went into commercial production of crude in 2010, there were expectations that TOR will undergo a massive rehabilitation to position it properly to play the expected crucial role in the country’s emerging oil and gas industry. It appears TOR’s problems are yet from over. The expectation of Ghanaians that with the commercial production of crude, the end has come for fuel shortages and hopefully high prices of the commodity at the pumping stations, fizzled out when according to technical reports, TOR’s facilities are not conditioned to refine the high-grade crude from the Jubilee Fields christened ‘Sweet Light’. Other technical opinions have since rubbished this claim. TOR, it was said, could only refine our ‘Sweet Light’ crude after undergoing retrofitting which may require an investment in the region of $1 billion. Apart from technical problems, TOR has been having serious liquidity overhangs arising from debt incurred as a result of government subsidy on petroleum products. Thankfully, the government has announced that it has paid all debts TOR owed the Ghana Commercial Bank amounting to GH¢1 billion as far back as December, 2010. If that were the case, why are we being told that TOR could not establish Letters of Credit in respect of crude imports to supply the refinery? TOR is still not healthy enough to play its strategic role in building Ghana’s economy and as a major player in the oil and gas industry. The question is: “What is happening to TOR?” The workers alleged on May Day that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had failed to deliver on its promise to recapitalise TOR with $200 million. They also complained of inaction and ineptitude on the part of the board and management. They also alleged that the company was losing a good number of technical experts who were migrating to the Middle East, where their services are in high demand. Whatever the case, TOR should not suffer the fate of other equally strategic institutions, facilities and installations this country possessed in the 1960s when it set itself a target of proving that the African and for that matter the Black person is capable of managing his own affairs. If there is any facility that must not suffer official neglect or strangulation at a time we are making a lot of noise of oil and gas, it is TOR. We cannot become like Nigeria, which produces abundant oil, but has to rely on fuel imports to oil its massive industry and for the domestic consumption of its huge population. Some of us were even expecting that this country should have more than one refinery by now, having started on a good note at independence. If in the past, we thought one was more than enough, there should be a new awakening and rethinking. This country cannot continue to rely on one refinery if there is any vision to transform this country into an African Tiger on the international stage. Whatever obstacles are holding down TOR should be removed as early as possible. Our governments should also begin to look beyond TOR and open the field for more refineries to satisfy not only the domestic market but the sub-region where there is a promise of a bonanza if we play our cards well. We have lost our national shipping line, our national airline and many others. We do not have control over our telecommunications industry. TOR should not go the way of Ghana Airways, the Black Star Shipping Line, Tema Food Complex, Ghana Film Industry Corporation and many others. If we cannot build another oil refinery immediately, let us protect the only one we have now. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com