Safeguard peace in Ghana-Nigerian Academic

Tarkwa, Aug. 5,GNA-Professor Adebisi M. Balogun, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology in Akure (FUTA), Nigeria, has called on Ghanaians to protect the peace the country was enjoying in the face of the emerging oil industry.

He said the creation of political tensions in oil producing countries was likely to re-occur in Ghana when it begins full oil drilling in the latter part of this year.

Prof. Balogun, was speaking at the opening of the first University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) biennual mining and mineral conference at Tarkwa on Wednesday.

It was on the theme: "Innovations in Mining and Mineral Processing; Expanding the Frontiers of Mining Technology and brought together participants from Ghana, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Mali and the Czech Republic.

Prof. Balogun was speaking on the theme: "Harnessing Mineral Resources to develop the Agricultural Sector: The Nigeria experience".

He said the Agricultural sector was the main source of revenue of the Nigerian economy, but soon neglected after the discovery and exploitation of the oil, which now contributes 90 per cent of the total foreign exchange earnings of the country.

Prof. Balogun said oil revenue is seen as "cheap income" and most of it is not properly accounted for and this has had an effect on the agriculture and other sectors of the economy, due to neglect.

"Presently, the agricultural sector has dwindled due to low investments and is now contributing only 10 percent to the national economy of Nigeria", he added.

Prof. Balogun however stressed that any neglect of the agricultural sector could lead to low agricultural output, low incomes, small farm sizes, hunger and high poverty levels among rural communities.

He explained that though Nigeria produces 2.4 million barrels of oil daily, corruption and the lack of a consistent management plan by successive governments had made it impossible to eradicate poverty among a large portion of the populace.

"Since 1970 to date, a total of 19 billion United States Dollars of oil revenue has been used to import rice to feed Nigerians", he lamented.

Prof. Balogun said major challenges that confront Nigeria and could be replicated in Ghana include land conflict, the over reliance on oil extraction to the neglect of the agricultural sector, looting of oil revenue, environmental and social impacts, and violence among the youth against oil establishments.

Prof. Balogun however expressed regret that though oil was the backbone of the Nigerian economy, poor planning coupled with disagreement between stakeholders over revenue share and corruption had prevented the oil wealth from transforming the economy of Nigeria.

Ms. Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, said reminded organizations that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was necessary to improve the standard of living of the people and the Chamber of Mines will monitor the CSR of companies.

She said CSR should transform lives, economically empower the host communities, make infrastructural needs of the catchment communities readily available.

"Our CSR programmes should not be discretionary but should have the wellbeing of the community at the core of all activities", she stressed.

Ms. Aryee said CSR interventions of the various mining companies and other entities in the country should not be static but should be adapted to meet the needs of the people and norms, values and other practices of the community should be respected.

According to Ms. Aryee, to facilitate regular community engagement, mining companies have been asked to establish and regularly construct Community Consultative Committees (CCC) to enable the companies relate effectively with the host communities.

Prof. Daniel Mireku-Gyimah, Vice Chancellor of UMaT, said the University will continue to train graduates of excellence for the mining, oil and gas industries.

He said the several untapped mineral deposits of Ghana were the focus of the school and everything will be done to ensure that such resources are mined safely and within acceptable environmental standards without compromising on quality.