Kan Dapaah replies Tony Aidoo

Former Minister of Energy and New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Afigya Sekyere West, Albert Kan Dapaah, has labelled President J.E.A. Mills as the real nation wrecker and not the NPP when it comes to whether to collateralise the country’s anticipated oil revenue.

According to Mr. Kan Dapaah, it was President Mills, Vice President John Mahama and the whole Cabinet of the ruling National Democratic Congress government that put an inhibition clause in the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill that prevents revenue from the oil operations from being applied as a collateral so they, rather than the NPP, should be labelled as nation wreckers and not the NPP which had nothing to do with its drafting in the first place but merely expressing its support for that clause.

The debate over whether Ghana’s petroleum revenue should be collateralised or not has been raging for a while with the NDC in full support while the NPP is opposed to its approval.

At the weekend, outspoken NDC stalwart, Dr. Tony Aidoo waded into the debate, hitting out at the NPP and calling them nation wreckers who do not want the progress of the country. He was contributing to a debate Alhaji and Alhaji, on Radio Gold.

However, speaking on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Ns?m on Monday, Mr. Kan Dapaah said Dr Aidoo’s name calling is flawed and ultimately futile because the NPP had nothing to do with drafting that clause so he should rather turn his attention to his own people in Cabinet who came up with it, discussed it extensively and approved it before it was brought to Parliament.

He added that all that the NPP is doing is expressing their agreement with and approval of what the President and his Cabinet has stated because the party is all for safeguarding the revenue from the oil for use by future generations so they should not be insulted.

He also said he does not understand why the government is doing an about-face on the very clause they put in the Revenue Management Bill in the first place, asking what has now changed for every member of the government to suddenly be against it, adding that if it had been NDC members of Parliament who had disagreed, then he would have understood their position but it is the very Cabinet that came up with the bill that is calling for it to be changed and that does not sit well with him at all.

Mr. Kan Dapaah therefore called for Dr. Tony Aidoo to tone down on his pronouncements saying there is the need for the Bill to be discussed in a rational manner devoid of insults so that Ghanaians can benefit from the revenue.

He stressed that the NPP is not against collateralisation as a concept because in some cases it has proven to be very good, but in the case of petroleum, a deliberate decision has been taken that the revenue would be treated differently and not as normal revenue, which is why a law is being prepared to govern its usage.

He further stated that what was good in the past should not necessarily be good for the future as far as it relates to petroleum revenues, saying the argument is not about whether collateralisation should be supported or not but should rather be about whether it makes sense to identify one particular source of revenue and say it should not be collateralised.