By: Prof. Lungu and Andy C. Y. Kwawukume
“…Without doubt, this is the most consequential Ghanaian public policy question since the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah…During the last 5 years alone, Ghana has lost over $6 billion though the illegal oil contract scheme the basis of which is illegitimate concession laws…now, tweaked into the Mahama Oil Hybrid System (MOHS) for Ghana…Mr. Mahama must now answer the simple but important questions…directly…Is Ghana receiving now, and is Ghana going to receive tomorrow, Fair-Share Oil?….”.
To Whom It May Have Any Interest:
We are writing to you because we believe that in so far as we all are paying taxes in Ghana and/or contributing to the development of our hometowns and Accra through our remittances and the property boom, our righteous outrage is permissible against the callous and dismissive attitudes of many Ghanaians and opinion leaders with respect to the Mahama Oil Hybrid System (MOHS) foisted on us unceremoniously.
The Parliament of Ghana, by wantonly passing the colonial-era concessionary oil bill on anonymous voice (YEA/NAY) vote, effectively transferred ownership of the continuing oil revenue loses and debacle to Mr. John Dramani Mahama, from whose Executive arm the predatory that Bill took seed in the first place.
And so, Mr. Mahama, as surely as he may still be able to look himself in the mirror, now has a new baby: The Mahama Oil Hybrid System (MOHS) for Ghana.
Mr. Mahama must now answer the simple, but important questions his NDC Government has never answered directly:
Is Ghana receiving now, and is Ghana going to receive tomorrow, Fair-Share Oil, and how?
Dear ready, the recent back and forth between Andy and two gents on the Okyeame Forum reminded us also of the other fella.
This fella actually took time to write to us to advise us to preface the name of the Speaker of the House, Mr Joe Adjahoe, with “Honorable” on the FTOS-Ghana Petition before he would assist with getting one of our papers to the Daily Graphic for publication. Then, when we made the changes and sent the document to the fella, we never heard from him again.
It’s been more than 10 months, since!
Mr. Kwame Mfodow and Mr. Ernest Agyepong!
And here we have two gents, one an accountant and the other a lawyer.
The lawyer actually admitted not too long ago to working with Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata to frame Ghana’s oil agreements using the world standard Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) system during the Rawlings era. After all the barrages of articles from the FTOS-Gh Campaign, the accountant still wanted more substance, but this time in super-suppliant, bending-knee tones before they’d consider giving support to the campaign for the PSA for Ghana’s oil. The PSA, the lawyer had already confessed, formed the basis of PNDC Law 64 and 84, which, of course, we already knew as fact and have been saying so for more years than we can remember.
During the last 5 years alone, Ghana has lost over $6 billion though the illegal oil contract scheme the basis of which is illegal concession laws, the so-called Ghana Hybrid System, and now, tweaked into the Mahama Oil Hybrid System (MOHS) for Ghana.
Sadly, there ain’t no good health associated with Mahama’s MOHS for Ghana’s oil.
So, should our lawyers not be in court challenging the illegality of the Jubilee and Ten Fields Oil contracts, as well as others not backed by the existing laws?
What is wrong with so many of Ghanaian lawyers who have had so many blessings and benefits?
We are not equivocating, but merely making a point of fact here!
We just checked the FTOS-Gh/PSA Petition at Change. Org. As of this writing, 166 people living in Ghana, and some, living in other parts of the world, have signed the Petition. That has been since 20 November, 2015, almost 12 months. (Check the PSA Countdown Clock ).
On the other side of the world, another online petition recently started to save a dog from being euthanized by a government Council in the UK has thus far garnered 300,000 signatories, and still counting.
Whine to your heart’s content about some Caucasians in other parts of the world loving their dogs more than Blacks, and to your utter shame!
What about mourning the apparent hatred of Ghanaians and Black Africans of even themselves, and of each other, for the loss of their own oil revenues for international oil corporations, beyond any measure?
The FTOS-Gh/PSA signatories, all those selfless people, among them Ms. Samia Nkrumah, are surely no idiots. Nor, can we assume they did not have anything important to do with their time when they signed the Petition for the PSA for Ghana.
No, rather, those are Ghanaian heroes and selfless Ghanaian supporters. Like Abou Ben Adhem, their names are written in the book of those who love their fellow men most.
Strictly in the public interest, they are assisting us work this out, the most consequential Ghanaian public policy question since the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah. If you take time to read their collective comments at Change. Org, you will no doubt realize that the Signatories, as a group, represent the best Ghana has for development of all her people.
On the contrary, the comments from the 2 persons (Kwame Mfodow, the lawyer, and Ernest Agyepong, the accountant) are precisely the type that create super-large rat holes for government officials (and they themselves, sometimes), to hide and evade important questions of public policy.
So, we’ve always wondered: Why should GIGS, FTOS-Gh organizers, and the Signatories to the Campaign give the government the benefit of doubt when the Government never provides complete and adequate information and data about what the Government wants us to know is the “truth” with respect to Ghana’s oil revenues?
The NDC government line and lie, we have been told repeatedly, is that the Concession or the variant now dubbed Ghana Hybrid System, is adopted by countries emerging into petroleum exploration.
BUT, has NDC government identified and named a single country in Africa that has adopted a concession system for its sovereign oil within the last 2 decades?
We want to think it is great to be part of those types of entities, Okyeame, GLU and Yahoo Groups, etc., if only to know what people think about issues that have important public policy implications.
But there are Groupthink effects, we can see!
To be continued…..
NOTES/SOURCES
1. PSA Countdown Clock for Ghana. Fair-Trade Oil Share , (http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?msg=Countdown%20to%20Production%20Sharing%20Agreement%20%28PSA%29%20for%20Ghana&p0=4&swk=1&year=2015&month=11&day=30&hour=0&min=0&sec=0).
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