Editorial: Must It Come To This, Obama?

Over the last few weeks the US federal government appears to have gone to war with Ghana or at least Ghana’s energy sector. The Embassy in Accra has successively denied visas to the Minister for Energy, the Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (also a former Minister of Fuel and Power and an influential Presidential Advisor) and a Principal Human Resources Officer at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The US has also apparently announced the cancelation of support for Ghana’s energy sector. At the same time at US Congressional Hearing on the Millenium Challenge Account Congressmen from New York have accused the Mills’ administration of corruption incompatible with continued receipt of MCA support (despite the insistence of the MCA CEO Daniel Yohannes that all is well with the programme) so no one should be surprised if MCA is next to go.

There is little doubt the issue at stake is the future of Ghana’s Jubilee oil field or at least the Kosmos stake in that field. The GNPC HR officer whose visa application was rejected was interrogated by an American embassy “Commercial Section” official about GNPC’s alleged anti-US bias.

Reliable sources also report that the US ambassador has also tied the “delay” in the GNPC Chairman’s visa approval to Government’s stance over Kosmos and in particular to remarks that Mr. Ahwoi made to officials of the US super major ExxonMobil, which have been deliberately and childishly misconstrued to justify a confrontation.

In explaining that ExxonMobil’s technical and financial strength notwithstanding their entry into Ghana’s oil sector through the illegal process initiated by Kosmos was unacceptable, Mr. Ahwoi is said to have used the analogy of the visa and remarked that
“Even if I was coming to the US to turn all your rivers into gold your government would insist that I first secure a visa. Without that I would not be allowed into your country. In Ghana too, we have laws that investors must comply with no matter how big you are. So take it like the visa. Exxon cannot get a visa through the Kosmos route”. ExxonMobil and the US embassy have sought to interpret this as GNPC threatening to deny US investors’ visas!
The US Embassy’s refusal of visas to two Ghanaians should ordinarily not be much news, since all sovereign countries have the prerogative of deciding whom to welcome or refuse entry into their countries.
However, when such decisions affect leading government officials of a country who have not committed any crimes, then the decision to deny visas cannot be assumed to have come from consular officers at the embassies, where such decisions on the surface appear to have been taken. It goes all the way up to the government of the deciding country.
It can therefore not be mistaken that the refusal of the US Embassy in Accra to grant non-immigrant visas to Ghana’s Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei and Mr. Ato Ahwoi, Board Chairman of the national oil company, GNPC, together with an official of the corporation, was based on a US policy directive.
The two have made several trips into the US in the past, with Ahwoi, a former student of Harvard, having made about twenty trips to that country in his lifetime, the most recent barely two months ago. The visa refusals, from all indications suggest arm-twisting being employed by the US to whip Ghana or Ghanaians into doing their bidding.

Considering that the two personalities are key decision makers in the oil industry, one cannot isolate the reasoning behind the refusal of visas. And also, if it were a mere coincidence, the withdrawal of support to the energy sector by that country should leave no one in doubt that the two actions cannot be isolated and that they constitute hostility.
More particularly, since the decisions cited came in the wake of discussions that had taken place at a section of the US Congress deliberations, it is important that Ghana restates the full circumstances under which Kosmos Energy found itself in the current imbroglio with GNPC and Ghana for that matter.
The Business Analyst has no doubt that these US actions are clearly aimed at embarrassing the government of Ghana in order to get Kosmos Energy, a US corporate citizen, to have its way in a purely commercial deal in Ghana, where its wayward conduct has slowed its desire for a quick exit.
The Business Analyst is not enthused about the softness with which the Government of Ghana had dealt with Kosmos Energy over its infractions of the laws of the land under the petroleum agreement governing their operations in Ghana.
If Ghana had dealt sternly with Kosmos Energy over its (mis)conduct here in Ghana, we are sure that the US Government would have thought twice before thumbing us in the nose, with its legendary bullying tactics, simply because Ghana is demanding respect for its laws.
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Kosmos Energy, violated Ghana/GNPC data rights, in clear breach of the confidentiality provisions of the agreement under which they operate here.
And because Ghana never sanctioned them for their earlier breaches, they have continued disregarding the terms of their petroleum agreement, without regard to Ghana’s interest, to the extent that they sought to determine for the partners in the Jubilee field and Ghana, who should come and replace them (Kosmos) in the production of the field.

The recent decisions by the US against Ghana also comes in the wake of propaganda being waged in the international media by persons whose interest are purely at variance with that of the national interest of Ghana.
The Business Analyst would like to encourage the Government of Ghana to stand firm and not bow to pressure, especially from internal collaborators, who continue to scheme in pursuit of their parochial interests.

We believe that if our sovereignty would be respected, there is no appropriate opportunity than what these veiled threats present to us.

The United States of America would never sacrifice the interests of a single corporate or individual citizen of theirs for any country in the world.
Any person or state that assumes that simply because President Barack Obama has African roots, the US will deal more favourably with this continent’s people must revise their notes.

Ghana must stand and be counted!