Achieving Our Millemium Goal.

Today’s sorrow hides in its bosom the joy of tomorrow. Adversity is the soil in which we sow the seeds of success. The rains that came today and ruined our paths would soon make the earth green and abundant. In the womb of loss is the seed of gain. The storms and tempests that devastate life on earth also enable us to start life afresh. The night that invokes in us fearful thoughts also reveals to us the beauty and majesty of star filled heavens. According to Jayaram V, Life is what we make of it. Life is as we think about it. Life is what we want it to be. Ghana, our suffering is but a part of our evolution. If we look at ourselves with thoughts of love, full of compassion, we have little chance to live in despair. If we look at ourselves with understanding and unconditional love and try to tolerate each other, no matter our political thoughts and feelings, we have no reason to be unhappy, and our hope and aspirations of achieving the millennium objective would not be a mirage.

As a developing nation of a young democracy, there are plenty of frustrations and letdowns that may prevent Ghana from seeing that good does in fact exist when we try to think positively. Many good things exist in our midst as a nation if we would think positively, concentrate on our economic development and stop paying back insult for insult and evil for evil. We have come a long way to be where we are now. Our nation is now the focal point of the world as a result of many factors of which our democracy and the recent oil find of commercial quantity are not exception. Ghana's plans to start producing offshore oil With more than 600 million barrels of proven reserves, have attracted the attention of many international oil companies. The International Monetary Fund says oil and natural gas from Ghana's first off-shore field could bring the country as much as $20 billion by 2030. This sounds good news. However, Ghana needs to look no farther than Nigeria to see how squandered oil wealth can bring violence that destroys pipelines, takes hostages, and consumes the central government .A large body of evidence suggests that rich oil resources obstruct democracy and equitable economic growth in developing countries because of a lack of transparency, and accountability in oil revenues paid by oil companies to governments. Outside of the Middle East there are no examples of successful oil-based economic development and even those Middle Eastern countries exhibit many of the other characteristics of oil export dependency (e.g. autocracy, corruption, human rights violations, etc) If the oil find in Ghana is to be a blessing, then there is the need for transparency and accountability. There is also a need for us as a nation to build strong institutions and not strong personalities as the U.S President Barack Obama said recently in Ghana. We need strong police force to combat crime, violence, arm robbery, kidnapping, fraud and corruption. Besides, strong, reliable and independent judiciary cannot be ignored.

We should note that Ghana has not benefited very much from its mineral industry in the past. In a study of the mineral industry, the following were observations of some of the companies operating in Ghana: Accessing detailed information on production from some of the mining companies proved very difficult. It was extremely difficult in obtaining shipment and detailed royalties computations from Anglo Gold Ashanti, Ghana Bauxite Company Ltd and Bogosu Mines Ltd. Information from the Internal Revenue Service was also difficult to obtain. Information on computations of mineral royalty payments for Anglo Gold Obuasi, Anglo Gold Bibiani and Ghana Manganese could not be even obtained. Capital allowances and losses that were being carried forward in the files of the companies by the IRS could not also be obtained. The country as a result is not benefiting from investments in the mining sector due to gross disregard for externalities and other social costs. Efforts should therefore be made by this and future governments to retrieve the information for the subsequent aggregation and or reconciliation. According to the IRS, the seemingly lack of cooperation, is due mainly to the fact that there is no dedicated desk or department that deals directly with mining issues and as a results, many companies and agencies, provide figures which are based on accruals instead of actual.

For the country to benefit fully from the mining and the other sectors, suggestions have been made that other petro-chemical industries should be set up to expand the manufacturing sector of the country’s economy. The asphalt from the oil processing should give a boost to the building of better roads in the country. Another oil refinery should be built in the Western Region. Western Region produces about 50% of the country’s cocoa. Bauxite, gold, diamond, manganese, rubber, palm oil, and timber, yet the region is undeveloped. Western Region, and for that matter, all parts of the country should witness a balanced approach to development from this potential oil bonanza. The railways and the Volta Lake transportation should be rehabilitated for bulk haulage of petroleum products to the northern half of Ghana. Kumasi inland port can be developed faster into a bulk oil storage facility to serve northern Ghana and the neighbouring countries. The northern shores of the Volta Lake should also be linked with electrified rapid railway network across the relatively flat terrain of the north. Modern rail transport should be introduced from the north to southern part of the country to make travelling to and from the capital easier. If possible the government should come out with a policy to develop the other cities in the country. Ghana is not only Accra. Why should all the ministries be in Accra? Why should all the MPs live in Accra? Why should all the embassies be in Accra? What prevents the airports in Kumasi and Tamale to be developed and face lifted to match the Kotoka International airport in Accra? It is my recommendation that if possible, this new administration should make a policy for example, that from 2011, all the African embassies in Accra should move to Tamale, all the Asian embassies to Kumasi whilst America, Europe and others can remain in Accra by choice. By so doing, attention would be brought into these cities and intensive development would take place. The precious time being wasted by teachers, students, business men/women, and other employees to travel all the length and breadth of the country to Accra just for ‘visa’ no matter which country would be minimised, the pressure on our roads would be reduced; numerous road accidents would come down, productivity would increase and the economy would ‘booze’. There should also be an intensive crusade by the government, traditional and the religious leaders against Ghanaians mentality and attitudes towards TIME and Public Services. Ghanaians do not respect time at all and think Public/government work should not be given any serious attention, as that is not one’s family business. Ministers of State even do not care so much about being late for cabinet meetings, most MPs do not care about being late for Parliament sittings, Lecturers do not care about being late for lectures, students are the same, teachers and nurses are not exception. Probably the only groups in the country who have some respect for time are our men/women in uniform. Millions of the country’s scarce resources are being wasted as a result of “lateness” every single day. Most public workers are always late to work but sadly prefer even to stop work and leave earlier than their stipulated time. This is because they are neither giving warning letters nor have their wages reduced. In Europe, America and other parts of the world, time is very precious and they take every single minute into consideration. Somebody can even lost his /her job as a result of lateness. This is the reason their economy is growing every single day. In truth only he who is free from fear, from want and from attachment, with a mind that is full of faith and conviction and full of unconditional love and compassion can have a positive attitude towards himself, towards life and towards his nation. Time is now due as a nation to take a critical look into this unacceptable conduct to help Ghana our motherland achieve her Millennium Objective.

LONG LIVE GHANA! P.K opoku Bonna

The author is a co-writer and editor of the book “Ghana: Conversation and Development”. (The book is available for order at http://www.authourhouse.com/bookstore/item/itemDetail.aspx? bookid=53345)