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Press Release
GIGS
December 28, 2015
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT
Dear Mr. President,
PLEASE,
WITHDRAW THE OBNOXIOUS GHANA HYBRID
EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SYSTEM BILL!
Mr. President, as you are aware, the Petroleum Exploration
and Production Bill 2014 is currently in Parliament to be
passed into law to regulate the upstream Oil Industry in the
country.
Mr. President, to be honest and very blunt with you, no
country in this 21st century with a progressive and informed
leader who has the best interest of his country and people
in his mind and heart would make such an obnoxious law to
regulate her oil and gas resources, knowing very well that
oil and gas provide the energy for growth and development of
any nation currently in the world. We urge you to withdraw
that Bill without delay. It is a death trap to the economic
independence and development of Ghana!
Mr. President, what is disheartening is, South Sudan the
newest country in Africa has a better and robust Petroleum
Exploration and Production (PSA) law than what Ghana, “The
Star of Africa,’’ is proposing to pass: an exploitative and
economic slavery law being called ‘’Ghana Hybrid System’’.
Commentators and writers on the Upstream Petroleum Industry
all over the world are worried and surprised at what
Ghanaians are doing to themselves in this 21st century,
because no country in today’s world is signing such
agreements and contracts to exploit their oil and gas
resources under any form of concession or license.
Mr. President, even though the Bill emanates from your
Cabinet, we do not blame or fault you, but your technical
advisers. Mr. President, you are simply being deceived and
misled to believe the Bill is good for Ghana. The fiscal
regime or provisions that determine or drive the type of
contracts the government enters into with the foreign oil
companies and how the total revenue is shared contained in
the Bill are nothing to brag about, as they are just simply
detrimental to Ghanaians who are the owners of the oil and
gas resources. It would be a disaster for Ghanaians except a
connected few, some of whom are already benefiting beyond
their wildest dreams, if the Bill is passed in its present
form.
Mr. President, if this Bill is passed into law, we might as
well forget about the oil and gas as catalysts for our
economic redemption and independence. We would be handing
over our oil and gas wealth on gold and silver plates to the
foreigners in a worse manner than how our gold, diamonds and
others were seized from us by the British Colonial Authority
and we ourselves have acquiesced to up to today.
Mr. President, there are UN Charters and Resolutions
governing extractive, natural resources currently in the
world. Since the Charters and Resolutions became effective
and operational, progressive countries in the developing
world with deposits of these non-renewable natural resources
such as gold, diamonds, oil and gas in particular have taken
steps to make sure laws they promulgate to regulate their
extractive industries incorporate the spirit and intents of
these UN Charters and Resolutions in order to enable them
derive the most benefits while making sure the investors
also have good and adequate returns on their investments in
a win win reciprocal situation. Countries such as Angola,
Botswana, Namibia, Niger, Chad, Uganda and South Sudan, to
name just a few in Africa, are examples. Ghana, the supposed
Star of Africa, is doing the contrary, going in the opposite
direction to the above-mentioned countries by handing over
her natural riches and wealth into foreign private hands in
the name of investment. We live in the midst of plenty as a
nation, but we are poor and have become beggars. This need
not be so.
Mr. President, your Government and the whole Ghanaian
society, from the man on the street to the highest echelon
of society, have been deceived and misled to believe what
the gate-keepers in the Ministry of Petroleum, GNPC,
Petroleum Commission, the World Bank, Oxfam America, Natural
Resource Governance Institute and Star Ghana sponsored CSO
Platform on Oil and Gas NGOs and other local Think Tanks are
foisting on Ghana is the best that can be achieved and that
the Bill is a good one in the interest of the mass of
Ghanaians, instead of a few who have acquired or hope to
acquire vested interests in the sector. We have challenged
them repeatedly to debate us in a public forum and prove us
wrong but since they knew they could not, they have remained
mute. Arrange that public debate for us, sir, and force them
to appear with their calculations to show us why their
position is the best for Ghanaians!
Mr. President, you and your government can become a hero
after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah by harnessing the current
configuration of despair, tension and anguish against you
into positive support by withdrawing this obnoxious Bill
from Parliament and call for a complete overhaul of the
Upstream Oil Industry and a review of all the oil agreements
and contracts, having become aware of the truth and the
situation on the grounds after watching the slides,
“Fair-Trade Oil Share-Ghana Production Sharing Agreement (PSA),
which can be viewed at this link: http://ghanahero.com/FTOS_GH_Campaign.html.
The legal framework supporting Production Sharing Agreement
are already in existence in PNDC Laws 64 and 84.
Mr President, on the other hand, if you allow this obnoxious
Bill to pass through, you will be remembered as the
President who sacrificed ‘’Ghana’s Economic Destiny to
Economic Emancipation and Advanced Development’’ because the
law will bear your signature and the present generation and
posterity would never forgive you and your government.
Mr. President, if you care for the future of Ghana and
really mean well for Ghanaians and actually want to change
lives, take action now and Ghanaians would be behind and
follow you to the battle grounds. I shall be your chief
commanding officer of the troops.
Yours in the service of Ghana,
Solomon Kwawukume
Senior Research Officer (GIGS)
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