By Nii Armah Kweifio-Okai

refer: NDC Presidential candidacy ballot, Sunyani Congress, 8-10th july 2011.

A bit like cyclonic winds gushing past your ears in a few minutes and then you asked - what was that?

Nana Konadu lost the NDC Presidential candidacy ballot because

- the tradition of allowing a first term President to automatically represent his/her party at a subsequent election is a tradition that cannot be broken easily and at first attempt

- to break that tradition requires extraordinary circumstances, a case Nana Konadu was unable to make to persuade the majority of delegates who voted

- election of Nana Konadu would have created an awkward situation whereby a sitting President would be running the rest of his term of 1.5 years while the presidential party candidate, with whom there was disagreement, would be campaigning for votes. No amount of political sophistry would avoid the problems this would create in campaigning on a unified party message.

- the current international political climate could not be less conducive to a Nana Konadu victory. In fact the West would have destroyed Nana Konadu had she won. With the economic downturn in the West and the failing states of Europe, the North Africa uprisings with the Libyan revolt unresolved, the subsided crisis in neighbouring Ivory Coast, and the oil fuelled conflicts in neighbouring Nigeria, the West is in no mood to tolerate uncertain leaders of resource rich countries in our part of the world.

Seen this way, the victory of Mills was unremarkable. On the other hand, a Nana Konadu victory would have been remarkable.

Mills must not ignore the sentiments expressed by Nana Konadu supporters. He would ignore them at his peril come election 2012, because the 4% Nana Konadu obtained at the congress grossly underestimates the support for some of her sentiments.

There are those who say that the topmost priority of Mills post Sunyani is to unify the party. I insist that the unity of the NDC is not as important as high performing governance. But the Mills Government can kill two birds with one stone. By tackling head on some of the sentiments expressed by Nana Konadu supporters, Mills would be able to neutralise disaffection among some in the ranks and make it easier to unify the party to fight the election in 2012.

There is high rate of unemployment and underemployment, particularly among the demographically expanding youth; there is suffering among significant sections of the community; there is perception of financial abuse among some Government appointees; public utility services are average; the educational system is under severe stress.

Then there are issues about the style of governance, particularly one that is not effusive. That may be the Prof’s way of doing things, in some ways more effective even if inadequately articulated, but it creates a negative perception of a Government not on top of the job and raises questions about Government’s capacity to deal with the myriad of problems facing the nation.

Government must be up there with industry best practices in regulatory frameworks for managing our resources, managing the proceeds of those resources and ensuring a long term and viable ownership of those resources and the associated industries and services they generate.

Most of Government attention has been distracted by the NDC internal disagreements. Now that the Presidential candidacy ballot has been settled, Mills should aim at putting or adding runs on the board, to use cricket parlance. It must use it’s communications machinery more effectively in articulating what it is doing. The strategy must be proactive and not always reactive. It can no longer use the excuse of fending off internal dissent. It has only 1.5 years to election.

On ownership or active involvement in industries necessitated by the oil production that just came on board, I elaborate with a recent complaint by a Ghanaian industrialist and a report of a new oil refinery.

On 13 June 2011, Alhaji Asuma Banda, Chairman of the Antrak Group of Companies, warned of collapse of local airlines as a result of over- liberalization of the aviation industry to the disadvantage of indigenous operators. See http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/ 201106/67425.asp

He stated: “ (The over-liberalization policy), allowed some foreign firms to adopt unfair tactics to deny local operators, such as Antrak Air, service contracts. The oil companies were deliberately putting impediments in the way of local operators by constantly raising the bar on standards. The South Africans have dominated all the oil industry, there is a big company in South Africa moving here --. If you go to an oil company and say you want to provide them a service, they will say ok, ‘we want to audit you’ and then they go and bring the South Africans who are doing the business to come and audit us. They will obviously fail you; no Ghanaian has ever passed. The Government of Ghana must learn from the Nigerian experience where the entire oil service sector has been taken over by foreign companies leaving the indigenes poor. That mistake must not be repeated in Ghana”.

Comment: I will be here all day citing examples of legislative measures worldwide that protect local jobs or ensure local advantage over foreign ones.

Another example in the oil associated industry involves a second oil refinery.

On the 5th June 2011 (see http://business.peacefmonline.com/news/ 201106/46978.php ) GNA reported: “The management of New Alpha Refinery-Ghana, a South African based company with a subsidiary in Ghana is undertaking feasibility studies to establish a tank farm and second refinery in Ghana. The refinery will be located in the Western Region in addition to the establishment of a power-generation plant using gas turbines. Mr Merlyn Julie, Executive Chairman of New Alpha Refinery Ghana said management was equipping itself to train personnel for the oil and gas industry (and) envisaged providing jobs for about 4,800 to 5,000 people”

A month later on 8th July, African Business Source reported the following under “New Alpha Refinery (Ghana) Ltd to Build Largest Oil Refinery in West Africa" (see http://www.africabusinesssource.com/articles/industry-news/new-alpha- refinery-ghana-ltd-to-build-largest-oil-refinery-in-west-africa/ ): “New Alpha Refinery (Ghana) Ltd., A South African Company has been awarded a $6 billion contract to build the largest Oil Refinery in West Africa. Executive Chairman Merlyn Julie told Reuters the refinery would initially produce 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), with first production seen by 2015, signed a memorandum of understanding, expected the first fuel to be produced in 2014 or 2015, added the capacity of the refinery, to be situated on 1,000 acres in central Accra, could be expanded to 400,000 bpd".

Comment: there is something called putting all eggs in one basket.

Nii Armah Kweifio-Okai

The author is a native of Ghana, resident in Melbourne, Australia