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Opinions of Sunday, 30 October 2016

Columnist: Lungu, Prof.

Congrats to CPP for policy to repeal Mahama's predatory oil contract law

By: Prof Lungu


"....the FTOS-Gh Campaign and all supporters of the movement, including signatories of the petition, among them Ms. Samia Nkrumah, hereby congratulate Mr. Ivor Greenstreet and the CPP for the bold, Ghana-centered position the CPP has taken with respect to Ghana's oil contracts...NDC's 2016 Petroleum...E&P law is at bottom the same NPP concessionary law with royalties and taxes the Mahama government has never been effective in collecting... instead of the NDC government critically reviewing and revising the old NPP according to the latest world standards for sovereign benefit and control,...PSA,...the NDC government merely compounded the problem through inaction and as a result, lost to Ghana over $6 billion....The 2016...law is still predatory because at its core it is based on colonial-era concession regimes long thrown out of the door by all sovereign, independent states...The lesson of history is instructive...This is not about what Jesus would have done...This is simply about what Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana would have done...", (Prof Lungu, 29 October, 2016).


We, the Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana (FTOS-Gh) Campaign and all supporters of the movement, many of whom have already signed the FTOS-Gh petition (https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa), hereby congratulate Mr. Ivor Greenstreet and the CPP for the bold, Ghana-centered position the CPP has taken with respect to Ghana's oil contracts.

Like most Ghanaians and Ghana supporters in Ghana and all over the world, the FTOS-Gh Campaign/Petition learned over the weekend (29 October) that the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), under Mr. Ivor Greenstreet, has adopted a policy plank against the current system of contracts for Ghana's Oil and Gas that the NDC government, under Mr. Mahama, have continued to foster on Ghanaians to the massive, and unequal, and unfair advantage of the foreign oil companies (among them KOSMOS and Tullow).

We, the FTOS-Gh Campaign and all supporters of the movement, including signatories to FTOS-Gh petition, among them Ms. Samia Nkrumah, hereby congratulate Mr. Ivor Greenstreet and the CPP for the bold, Ghana-centered position the CPP has taken with respect to Ghana's oil contracts.
Under Mr. Mahama's NDC, the so-called "Ghana Hybrid System" is practically the same fraudulent and predatory law engineered for the benefit of the oil companies that the NPP left for the NDC government nearly 8 years ago.

So, all major risks to the oil companies having been mitigated at the Jubilee Oilfield, instead of the NDC government critically reviewing and revising the old NPP oil law according to the latest world standards for sovereign benefit and control, (i.e, Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)), and consistent with the interests of Ghanaians in their oil for development of Ghana, the NDC government merely compounded the problem through inaction. As a result, the NDC lost to Ghana over $6 billion during than last 5 years alone.

Then, during the 2nd-3rd quarter of this year (2016), Mr. Mahama's NDC government went further in shame, absent-mindedness, and self-pithy. The NDC government has now passed a version of the NPP law, Ghana Hybrid System, so-called.

NDC's 2016 Petroleum Exploration and Production (E&P) law is at bottom the same NPP concessionary law with royalties and taxes the Mahama government has never been effective in collecting in the first place.

The 2016 Petroleum E&P law is still predatory because at its core it is based on colonial-era concession regimes long thrown out of the door by all sovereign, independent states with leaders who understand that their country will only develop when they receive a fair-share of their own natural resources and revenues.

Today, the lessons of history are instructive with respect to public policy!

This is not about what Jesus would have done!

Not!

No.

This is simply about what Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana would have done.

We, of the Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana (FTOS-Gh) Campaign believe that Dr. Kwame Nkruman would never, ever, have signed such a contract on Ghana.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana would never have approved for Ghana a predatory law that daily siphons millions of dollars of Ghana's oil revenues into the pockets of foreign oil companies, even as Ghana's children go hungry, attend school under trees, and roads and infrastructure in Ghana, from Accra to Kumasi, to Yeji, to Bolgatanga, remain poor to marginal, at super-unacceptable levels of service (LOS).

Congratulations, Ms. Samia Nkrumah, for having the vision, the courage, dedication to duty, and sense of self, for signing the FTOS-Gh Petition many months ago when others merely sat, watched, and some, strongly wished the FTOS-Gh Campaign would simply evaporate into nothingness.

Nice suppositions all around, we must say!

Congratulations, CPP, for standing up and demanding a fair-share of Ghana's oil resources for all Ghanaians!

Way to go, CPP!

Way to go, Ghana.



NOTES/REFERENCES:
Kasapafmonline.com, in Ghanaweb. General News of Saturday, 29 October 2016. CPP will repeal Ghana’s Petroleum Law – Ivor Greenstreet, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/CPP-will-repeal-Ghana-s-Petroleum-Law-Ivor-Greenstreet-481939).


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