Natural resources should benefit the people - Nduom

Founder of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has bemoaned the lack of development in mining ‘hubs’ across the country.

According to Dr. Nduom, although Ghana is blessed with natural resources such as gold, diamond and bauxite Ghanaians have not been able to fully exploit the benefits.

Speaking to students of University of Energy and Natural Resources, on the mission of their school which includes ‘Solving critical Energy and Natural resources challenges in Society’, Dr Nduom reiterated Ghana’s natural resources are challenged and this is evident in the lack of development in areas where these natural resources abound.

“We do have a peculiar problem in Ghana, diamond big problem, Gold big problem, manganese the same, bauxite just as well, all of them, big problem and what is this big problems that i am talking about, God has given us all these, we did not put them there, your vice-chancellor did not put them there. Akwatia, Tarkwa, Obuasi, Kenyase, Konongo you go around, go to the North Upper East, gold is all over, we did not put them there God did, but who did God give them to? He gave them to you and I but who owns them? Sometimes the British or Australians, sometimes South Africans but they don’t seem to be Ghanaians, so if we have these natural resources and they are making us poor but not rich,” he lamented.

Dr Nduom charged the students to be agents of change and challenge themselves to become major stakeholders of our natural resource extraction that would in turn lead to the development of our people.

He posited that if the natural resources are not used to benefit the people then they should remain underground.

“We write big agreements and sign them… they take the resources away and have a fine life somewhere and we are left with the waste, we are left with environmental degradation, of what use will your education be from here if you don’t become an agent for change, here is the entrepreneurial angle, how do we figure out, how we can become owners, directors, shareholders of our natural resource extraction and developmental organisations so that the natural resource can benefit Ghanaians.”

Dr Nduom added that for National Development to take place there is the need to learn from “our past mistakes by challenging the status quo.”