Getting the African experience

Two sisters who embarked on an eye opening journey by road across West Africa tell their wonderful story.
By OLOLADE ADEWUYI


Chioma (left) and Oluchi on a ferry ride in Senegal during their West African tour.

The lure of the open road consumes the weary traveler a philosopher once wrote. But these two are different. They didn’t look like weary travelers when we met for a drink and an interview at high brow Rhapsody’s, a joint in the Accra Mall, Accra, recently. But the truth of the matter was that the two young ladies had been doing what many people fear to do in this part of the world; they had been traveling across West Africa by road in the first phase of a proposed trip across the entire African continent. And what a marked difference that long journey has made upon the lives of these two young Nigerians. Chioma Ogwuegbu, 29, resigned her job as a programme officer at Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, KIND, Lagos, in June and set out on a 12-country trip across the sub-region.

“I’ve always wanted to travel” she says “and I told myself I want to see the world before I turn 40. So this is the first leg of my trip”. Chioma set off for Accra, Ghana in July after a send forth party from her family and friends. If you think they were not apprehensive about letting her go on a journey into the unknown, you should think again. “Everybody said I was crazy or something” she says laughing and this writer once made a joke about her having probably suffered a recent relationship failure to have caused her to want to leave behind a good job for an uncertain future. She would hear none of that.

On that trip to Accra in July with Chioma was her sister Oluchi, who only wanted to see her off to the beginning of the journey. Even though they had planned it together, Oluchi developed cold feet midway and bade Chioma bye at Cape Coast. From there it was a long journey for the petite, twist-braids wearing Chioma who traveled to Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal alone writing several stories and blog entries on her website www.celebrateafrica.net with photographs of the enchanting places she was seeing and the beautiful people she met.

“Africa is a very beautiful continent”, she says. Unfortunately, many Africans are too prejudiced about one another to think of traveling their own continent. When they are not prejudiced, the fear of the unknown conspires to discourage them from traveling. “We were told that we would be robbed in Mali but nothing like that ever happened” says Oluchi who later joined up with her sister by flight in Dakar, Senegal when she couldn’t hold down the excitement any longer. She resigned her job at a shipping company in Apapa and set out on the remainder of the journey with her sister. “The misconception about Africa is so much among Africans that we were told not to go to Timbuktu because of armed rebels in the desert but we later met a European woman who had driven herself through Timbuktu and told us it was safe. It was sad that we couldn’t see one of Africa’s most prestigious cities” she laments. “Africans don’t trust themselves but its all lies. We need to experience each other better”.

As the ladies traveled and wrote their stories on their website, so did goodwill messages come their way. “Many people who had said it was crazy now started praising us” Chioma says. The fun they had and the knowledge they have gained was not without perils. They had to sleep on the roadside in the middle of the Sahel in Guinea Bissau when the bus they were traveling in decided it was too long a journey and that the vehicle needed rest. Was there fear in them then? “There wasn’t any fear as everybody else did the same” they reply. Their journey has gotten them some measure of fame and new friends. Wherever they go they do get some recognition. Nii Obodai, a photo artist in Accra recently introduced them to the audience at the Base Lounge’s Bless The Mic, an artist’s underground rendezvous. This got the attention of a few media personalities who quickly sent in offers of interviews.

And they never shy away from telling their story. It was one of the reasons they decided to embark on the trip in the first place. They could have gone to backpack in Europe but Chioma says they decided to begin from Africa. “We don’t have to always go out to Europe for vacation. Africa is beautiful and open to exploration because its people are its biggest assets”, she says. “Strangers just come up to assist you from nowhere”, she recalls about the wonderful people she met across the land. In Tambacunda, Senegal, Chioma met a pleasant family called the Diallos who took her in as their own. She was well treated that at night the family’s matriarch turned over her bed to Chioma and slept on the floor instead, a sign of respect for guests. She remembers vividly the Diallo family’s communal dinner where the huge 15 person household was always divided along sex lines; the women ate alone as did the men, all in a big bowl after washing their hands. “It showed me the essence of family as everyone had to be accounted for at dinner” says Chioma. And there was no shortage of culture shocks. From the youngest child to the oldest adult, everybody was addressed by their first names, she says, and young children could request for handshakes from adults without any rudeness been attached to it.

“Mali is the most beautiful place for me in West Africa” Chioma says “because it is picturesque”. Oluchi chooses Senegal. “Dakar is surrounded by beaches and the women are very elegant” she confesses. But by far the biggest challenge has been the crossing at the different border posts. Much of the hassle is due to corruption among border officials who demand for bribes even though the ECOWAS Protocol states that there should be free entry and exit for all ECOWAS citizens. Much of this is due to lack of control. But that will not dissuade the sisters as they have decided to continue their trip to conquer Africa by land. After traveling 12 countries in West Africa namely Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Senegal, Liberia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Togo and Benin, their next focus is on 30 countries in central, eastern and southern Africa. This they know will be much tougher because of visa requirements but they have made up their minds. The second phase of their journey begins in February 2009 when they must have made a restock. They also hope to get more people to join them and have already advertised openings on their website. For them, money is not the major issue but they hope to secure sponsors for the next trip in 2009. Nothing can stop them now, as they say, the lure of the open road consumes the regular traveler. But most importantly, their journey is to draw the attention of young Africans to the beauty that Africa holds.

Nubia’s lyrical ballads

By OLOLADE ADEWUYI

Beautiful Nubia’s most recent album Kilokilo is an eclectic mix of love ballads and didactic playground stories that are carried along with simple drum strokes and gong beats. In Wa bu’ra, he sings about finding love on the dance floor in a manner that makes one really wish to have such an experience. At once he takes the listener back memory lane into the dance rhythms of the 1960s and 70s lulling the listener along with his Afrobeat style. The story of beautiful Amoke, a love interest, comes alive with every twang and ascension of the beat. It is also at once romantic as well as it is didactic; “Haa Amoke arewa omoge/ jowo nje mole ba o jo/ lo ba nowo pe oya/ l’aba bo s’agbo ijo/ Agba wa bu’ra/ b’ewe o se e ri”.

In Mama Bendel, Nubia’s reminiscing takes the listener back to the University of Ibadan of the 80s with his tribute to the all caring food vendor, Mama Bendel. He immortalizes the legend of Mama Bendel with his typical racy beat tucked into palm wine music. “She was always there, she put the shine in my dull days”, he sings. His tribute takes the listener down his own memory lane remembering the days of yore at the hands of caring mama puts.

In Down the street, Nubia offers a beautiful sing along with a sad song about a little girl who has lost her family; “Where is papa gone, where is mama gone…everybody’s gone, the little baby cried and cried”. In Kilokilo, the title track, Nubia cannot run away from the poet’s role as the society’s voice of conscience. He sends a warning to politicians to desist from their evil ways. My mother’s fatter than yours tells of the average person’s willful ability to make others feel smaller than them. It is a funny depiction of a playground exchange between children at loggerheads. “My child is better than yours/ my brother’s stronger than yours/ my sister’s prettier than yours/ and I’m richer than your family; my house is bigger than yours/ my father’s taller than yours/ my mother’s fatter than yours/ and we’re richer than your family”. At the end he compels the listener to live life above wanting to be like the Jones’.

The twelve track CD album might not exactly be like his previous massive album Jangbalajugbu but Segun Akinlolu has surely scored another hit with Kilokilo. His music slowly grows on the listener and one cannot but fall in line with the rhythm with more listening.

Ghana goes to the polls

After eight years of John Kufuor’s rule, Ghanaians go to the polls to either create a “moving forward” or cause “change” in next week’s general elections. Analysts say it is a close race which could go into a runoff.

By OLOLADE ADEWUYI

Everywhere one goes to in Ghana these days there are political billboards with candidates’ faces smiling back at one. The most popular of these messages are either carrying the mantra “We are moving forward” or the less pungent message of “For a better Ghana”, the opposition’s signifier for change. And all across the country, opinions are polarized among citizens as many have taken sides with one of the two major parties contesting this December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections, the ruling National Patriotic Party, NPP and the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC. Things don’t get any easier because of the immense rivalry between both parties.

In 2000, incumbent President John Kufuor defeated then Vice President John Atta-Mills of the NDC and has led the country for the last eight years after another victory in 2004. It is Atta-Mills third time carrying the flag of the NDC which was created by former president Jerry Rawlings out of his revolutionary Provisional National Defence Council, PNDC. The tricky thing about this year’s election is that Atta-Mills will be going head to head against Nana Akufo-Addo, the candidate of the ruling NPP, a man who has been chasing the presidency since 2000. Whoever wins this time will make history in Ghanaian politics. If the ruling party wins, it will be the first time in Ghana that a ruling party will succeed itself. And if the NDC wins, it will be the first time that a ruling party goes into opposition and then comes back into government. The desperation of the NDC may cause a rift in the party’s ranks if it fails to win this time around, says Alex Frempong, a governance expert and senior lecturer in the department of political science at the University of Ghana, Legon.

The NDC feels it is very close to winning back power at this point in time when many Ghanaians have had eight years of the same policies of the right-of-centre NPP. It is asking the people to vote for change for the better while the NPP is campaigning for moving the country forward. Ghana has made tremendous success in the last decade coming from the background of a very highly indebted poor country to being a destination for investments and tourism. “Our achievement is one of the bedrocks of our campaign. We want to build on it. We want to work on the teething problems and make it smoother”, says Konadu Apraku, campaign director of the Nana Akufo-Addo Organisation. Konadu says they hope to ensure free secondary education for all Ghanaian students after having introduced tuition free primary education all over the country. They also want to ensure that the national health insurance that has been introduced which presently covers about 57 percent of the entire population is extended all over the country. He feels it is a deal which the electorate cannot afford to let pass them by. But the icing on their campaign manifesto is the fact that under its watch, Ghana finally struck oil in commercial quantity last year where it hopes to earn $15 billion in the next five years. Konadu says that with the increasing investments coming into the country and the proposed oil money they hope to be able to fund all these programmes.

The opposition has a different idea though. Asiedu Nketsiah, secretary general of the NDC spoke to TELL in an interview that the people are ready for a change and all they need is to be watchful on how the election goes. “If you walk around and interview people, you’ll realize that the urge for a change and the mood for a change is in the air so much that what we need to be careful about is that nobody tampers with the peoples’ verdict when December comes”, Nketsiah says. The NDC’s hope is premised on the laughable fact that the American Democratic party has just defeated the Conservative party. The Rawlings government was closely aligned to that of Bill Clinton while the Kufuor government has been aligned to that of George W. Bush. Hence, the feeling that as the Democrats take over in America so also will the NDC win in Ghana.

Such is the growing confidence of the opposition that it is only counting on the Electoral Commission to do its job properly in order to ensure that the votes are fairly and properly counted. Its confidence might be attributed to the performance of the party in the last two elections. The party has consistently scored about 44 percent of total votes cast and maintained its hold on four (Upper West, Upper East, Northern and Volta) of the 10 regions of the country. It hopes that this time around would be better and that it would perform a little better in the strong hold of the NPP which is the five Akan-speaking regions (Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Central and Western) of the country and as well as the Greater Accra region.

Interestingly, Atta-Mills has lost twice, plus a runoff in 2000, in his home in the Central region. But if he will lose again this year is what analysts cannot predict. Frempong believes that the Central region holds the key to the presidential elections this year. The Central region has always voted for the winner in any election since 1969. It is more noteworthy that in Ghana there are 92 ethnic groups which can be broadly broken down into Akans and non-Akans. Anytime that any of the five Akan regions have failed to vote for the tradition which the NPP represents which dates back to the JB Danquah and Kofi Busia days, the party has lost power. Hence, the NDC might get a foot in the door if they can find a way of swinging the votes of the Central region their way this time around if Atta-Mills could somehow find a way of shedding the tag of being a puppet for Rawlings.

One other permutation of this year’s election is the possibility of it going into a runoff like it did in 2000 when the NPP came into power. The winner needs 50 percent of the votes plus one to triumph. In 2000, the third parties, that is, the smaller opposition parties got seven percent of the votes which helped to push it into a runoff. This time around, anything between five and 10 percent for the third parties will definitely push the elections into a runoff. This is very possible considering the fact that the Convention Peoples’ Party is enjoying great resurgence at the moment. The party which was founded by Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana has as its flag bearer Kwesi Nduom, a former cabinet minister under President Kufuor. A runoff might not be in the interest of the ruling party says Frempong. “It is not always good for the ruling party to allow itself get into a runoff as the opposition parties might gang up against it”, he says. But the idea of a runoff could also be disquieting for many Ghanaians. “They may vote en mass for one party to avoid going into a runoff which can be very aggressive thereby trying to keep the peace, one must not rule that out”, Frempong says.

The Electoral Commission, EC, has assured of a free and fair election. Headed by Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the EC is one of the most respected in Africa for the way it has handled the previous elections. It is not without some fault of its own though as it was steeped in some controversy for the manner in which it handled the updating of the voters’ register recently. The register was over bloated by the fact that many under age people were allowed to register as well as people who had been previously registered. The EC laid the blame at the doorstep of the political parties who tried to cheat their way through encouraging their supporters to manipulate the register. The EC has cleaned up its house though as it has now expunged about 349, 000 names from its books. In an earlier interview with TELL, Afari-Gyan stated that the EC has in its books about 13 million registered voters for this year’s elections.

Apart from the presidential election, candidates are also vying to fill the 230 seats on offer in the Ghanaian parliament. Current figures from the last elections indicate that the ruling NPP has 128 seats, the NDC 94 seats, the CPP 3, the People’s National Convention, PNC, 4 and a single independent candidate.

Ghana will not be another Kenya” says Kwadwo Afari-Gyan

“Ghana will not be another Kenya” says Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission as the country goes into elections in two days.
By OLOLADE ADEWUYI (interview conducted in October 2008)

How prepared is the EC for the December 7, 2008 elections?Election preparation is a steady process. You do one work after the other, they come in stages. The first stage is about to come to an end which is the registration and very soon we will carry out an exhibition of the voters’ register, a public display at all our polling stations for people to g and see whether their names are there. And if there are any persons whose names are on it, people can object to it. Afterwards we will be in a position to prepare the final register, take the nominations and from then onwards. We’re going in stages.

There has been some controversy trailing the registration of voters’ exercise that you have a bloated register in terms of under aged registration and double registration to vote, how are you looking to resolve this issue?
It is not a controversy really. We ourselves as a commission believe from what we saw in queues of people lined up for registration and various people who observed the process indicated to us that there were people who could not be 18 years old. And from the pictures that we’ve seen on the registration forms, we’re led to believe that this is the case and it is rather widespread. So we’re concerned about how to remove those people, the under aged, during the exhibition process. We also believe that there are some people who are not Ghanaians who managed to get their names on the voters’ register. This will also be a target group during the exhibition process. Another group is people who have already been on the register but want to register again because they have lost their ID cards or damaged them or have moved from away from where they registered. Even though we have a process for replacing damaged and lost cards, and transferring voter location, they didn’t wait for the process. Those are also part of the target group and we have to get them. So it’s not really a controversy. It’s a question of the belief that there are some people who are in the register but do not belong in the register. And we should try to get rid of them during the exhibition process.

What’s the number of voters you are looking to present for the general elections?
This registration was a limited one because we already had the database and we were only adding to the database people who had come of age since the last registration exercise. And our target was no more than a million but it turned out, because of what I have just indicated, the minors, non Ghanaians and the multiple registrants, we ended up with over 1.8 million people. If you add that to the people on the existing register, we’re saying that we’re going into the 2008 elections with a voter population of close to 13 million.

How much is Ghana spending on the elections?Well, it is very difficult until you finish the elections to know exactly how much money you need. But the election budget was over $40 million.

How is the Electoral Commission funded?It is the state. What we do is that we make a budget before the election. Parliament approves the budget after that the finance ministry releases the money to us. We don’t require the money at one time. There are phased releases of the money. As I told you the preparation is in phases. And for each phase we need so much money and when we’re about to begin a phase we apply for the amount we need for it. Up till now we have received all the money we need in connection to the elections.

Do you want to put a figure on it?Oh no, I wish the deputy in charge of finance will be here to tell you.

Does the EC get funding from international organizations?We don’t do our budget with international organizations in mind. The election budget is the bill of the government. If the government for one reason or another cannot find the money, it can appeal to the foreign donors to assist. That is the responsibility of the government not us. We do not go to donors and ask for money.

Recently, the EC increased the cost of nomination forms for candidates and the parties are claiming that you didn’t carry them along.It’s not the nomination forms. According to our laws you have to pay a fee to get nominated as a candidate. It’s a nomination fee and not a form. This is a deposit real, you put the money there to indicate your seriousness as a candidate. And after the elections you get a certain percentage of the votes, and then you get your money back. This is not money that the commission is collecting for its use. The money does not belong to the commission, it belongs to government. Of course if you fail to get up to a stipulated percentage, then you forfeit that money to the state. They are saying that the fee is high but we don’t think so. It’s about $500 for a parliamentary candidate and $5000 for a presidential candidate. We do not think it’s too much.

Are foreign organizations allowed to donate funds to candidates?By our law, no. it’s only Ghanaians that can contribute.

What if an organization is registered in Ghana?Well, Ghanaians organizations, yes, but you have to do it through a certain medium. The contributions directly to candidates are supposed to be on an individual basis. If you want to contribute as a company, you can contribute for the collective use of the political parties.but foreigners are not allowed to contribute.

What about foreign companies registered in Ghana?Yes, if you’re a company registered in Ghana, you’re a Ghanaian entity you can do that.

Are there any challenges you’re facing that you hope to surmount before the elections?
Yes, an election is always a challenge no matter how often you’ve done it. Of course the number of illegitimate registrations that we’re trying to get rid of presents a challenge. We hope that the Ghanaian people will assist by scrutinizing the register closely during the exhibition and object to names that shouldn’t be there. There’s also the challenge to get the right caliber of people to administer the elections come election day. It’s such a big undertaking that you have to hire a lot of temporary workers to conduct the elections. They have, ideally, to be people of integrity and it’s difficult because you’re hiring a lot of them. No less than 100,000 people will be hired. It’s a challenge to get people of the right caliber, honesty who will treat the poll fairly and so on. Training them is also tough because you have a short period of time to do that. So lections always present their challenges.

Looking at the coming elections, the stakes are higher than the last one because Ghana has now struck oil in commercial quantity, how independent will you say the EC is from the government in power?About that one, I don’t think anybody doubts our independence. The law not only guarantees our independence, it does actually insulate us from the control of the government. So unless you’re a wicked person you don’t have to do anything to please the government. We’re very well insulated from control by the government. I don’t think there are people in this country that doubt the independence of the EC.

Looking at Kenya which has had a lot of smooth transitions over the years and then suddenly imploding after their most recent elections…Well, like what we said, it’s not only the EC that is responsible for free and fair elections, it’s a collective responsibility. We have a part to play, the politicians have a part to play, the government has a part to play by providing the money. The police has a part to play by making sure that they don’t tolerate nonsense from any politician particularly with regard to election related violence and infractions of the electoral law. So we will play our role but let everybody else play their role. If everybody else does, there’s no question of Ghana becoming another Kenya.

Are there going to be foreign observers?
Yes, plenty of them. The Carter Centre is already here and they’ve been observing the registration process. The European Union has given an indication that they are coming. The Commonwealth are coming. The ECOWAS are going to be here very soon. And I’m quite sure that African Union is coming too. So there will be quite a large number of observers.

Wyclef rescues Accra show

The best performer in the world, Wyclef Jean proved his mettle once again at the Zain 026 Experience show in Accra on Saturday 22 November as he saved the blush of the organisers with his performance and not allowing the poorly organised show go into the annals of history as the biggest flop in Ghana.

Billed as the biggest show in West Africa this quarter, it featured other international performers Eve, Mario, 2face and Ghanaian stars Kwaw Kese, Obrafuor, and Tinny. The show at the ultra modern Ohene Gyan Stadium was expected to bring in the biggest crowd ever but the crowds didn't turn up. A scanty crowd made up mostly of young people waited eagerly for the show which was scheduled to start at 5 pm GMT. It didn't start until well past 9 pm. The stadium authorities made things worse as they didn't allow the crowd onto the grass. The beautiful stage was constructed at one end of the pitch while the crowd sat like orphans in the stands, almost 300 metres away.

Another ingredient that marred the show's success was the poor sound quality from the sound systems. The mics refused to work. Artiste after artiste had to improvise in the use of the mics. There was sound on the stage but no feed to the audience. Hence, the early singers performed on stage, singing and dancing by themselves without the audience feeling it.

The day would have been the worst night in history until Wyclef Jean came on and turned the stadium on its head. First, he entered onto the grass wearing a local Northern Ghana smock and crown while waving the Ghanaian flag. The audiene jumped o its feet and sang along to his Rasta songs. He soon requested for the gates to be thrown open saying "I didn't fly 10 hours to have my people watch from behind the fence". The crowd was pleased with this and started chanting and clapping "Open the gates".

The authorities wouldn't budge so Clef decided to go into the crowds himself by jumping over the fibre glass fence sending the crowd into a frenzy as everyone wanted to touch him. He was so agressive that he didnt need bodyguards to assist him as he shoved aside over-eager fans who were holding him down. This further agitated the crowds as it made them feel like he was one of them.

His performance that night was genius. He took the crowd on a roll of his best tracks like 911, Redemption Song (a cover of Bob Marley's), and a few of his other songs. He did a number with Eve, the song L.O.V.E Y.O.U and a free style session with Reggie Rockstone. His boundless energy is typical of him as I saw him at the Black Gold Concert in Lagos in 2004. He is such an awesome performer playing the guitar and konga drums with other Rastas when there was a power outage on stage. He promised the audience he was going to wait until power was restored even if he had to wait till 7 am.

He really saved the night as the crowd was pretty angry at the poor preparations towards the show. In a press conference the day before he had promised to give Accra a night to remember and he did just that.

Congrats Obama!

I stayed up all night watching CNN's Situation Room as the results started to flow in. I dozed off around 4am and was woken by my nephew around 6am to see Obama delivering his victory speech. I had missed the early part, nontheless, I was overwhelmed with joy to realise he had won at last.

I quickly dialed up my Dad, who interestingly was not yet aware of the victory, to share the moment with him.

In the office later we shared some good time and had some drinks as well as posing for fotos with the dailies, to really etch the day in history.

America, you have done well!

New wealth, fresh challenges

Beneath the promised wealth from Ghana’s oil find are challenges of equitable distribution of resources, infrastructural development and environmental degradation.
By OLOLADE ADEWUYI
(Piece written for TELL Magazine, Lagos)

Abuesi, a small fishing town on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Ghana’s Western Region, is one community that is set to feel the influence of oil. Its 7000 inhabitants have lived off fishing since it was founded many years ago. The agile men of Abuesi and its sister community Aboadze, like many in Ghana and along the Atlantic coast of West Africa, are used to leaving their homes early every morning for the cold embrace of the sea. There they cast nets out of their wooden canoes in search of ever decreasing fish catches. But the lifestyle of Abuesi may soon change.

Last year, the government of Ghana working alongside Tullow Oil, Kosmos Energy, Anadarko Oil and E.O Group, all petroleum exploration companies, struck oil in commercial quantity about 140 kilometres off the shore of Takoradi at a place called the Western Cape Three Points in the Tano Basin. The government has been assured that there is between 500million and 1 billion barrels of oil under those waters.

The announcement of the oil strike in June 2007 was met with great joy and celebration by the whole country. President John Kufuor told the world that the oil find will transform Ghana into an “African tiger”. “Even without oil, we are doing great. With oil as a shot in the arm we’re going to fly”, he said. Many in Ghana hope that the finding of oil will bring great improvement to their lives, even as the country aims to become a middle income country by 2015.

Already there is excitement in the air about Takoradi, capital of the Western Region, as locals tell of the influx of foreigners into their town, land speculators and all who want to make a quick buck by investing in real estate, property and hotels. Doris Annan, a lady who runs the Silver Pot, a European style restaurant on Liberation Road in the strategic heart of the town. has observed a steady flow of strangers coming to inquire about business opportunities in Takoradi. But she does not know how to go about making use of the opportunities offered by the oil find herself. Many, like her, are unaware of the tremendous opportunities that lie in their backyard. For most respondents at the Market Circle, the heart of slow-paced Takoradi, their laxity towards the opportunities that the oil find is placing on their door steps is due to ignorance, because they feel, since they lack technical or engineering skills, they will not be able to function in the new scheme of things.

This is the major challenge before Kwesi Biney, mayor of Ahanta West, the district which governs Cape Three Points where the oil find was made. A former journalist, Biney says that Ahanta West is “potentially one of the richest provinces of Ghana considering the number of investments coming into the community”. These investments have been coming because Takoradi is mainly saturated with development hence Ahanta is the next destination of investors. There are already huge investments in the purchase of large plots of land by speculators who are hoping to resell to serious investors on the long run. In Ghana, lands are under the purview of the traditional leaders who keep it in trust for the community. Hence, he has asked them to report any such offers of purchase to him to ensure there’s a background check on interested buyers to see if they are ready to develop lands bought. Biney is also working at helping to develop the capacity of his constituents educationally to enable them take up jobs with the oil companies when the time is ripe. The Western Region is the most resource-rich region in the country producing 60 per cent of Ghana’s gold; 60 per cent cocoa; 25 per cent timber; 100 per cent bauxite and manganese; 15 per cent oil palm and 100 per cent of rubber. Biney observes that the region still suffers deprivation in terms of good road networks and social amenities. “It’ll be in the interest of the nation that this region is taken good care of if we should avoid situations in other parts of the world where the oil regions suffer deprivation”, Biney says.

That is necessary to create an enabling environment for incoming business concerns. The organized business community is already gearing up for the imminent oil boom. Yawo Agbesi, branch manager of the United Bank for Africa, UBA, Takoradi expresses the feelings of the banking sector. “Oil and gas is what is going to push business forward in the coming years”, he says as he targets the share of the unbanked 80 per cent of the city’s population. The subject of oil has also enticed the sensibilities of foreign insurance companies notably from Nigeria who have suddenly found Ghana as the next destination in their West African expansion strategies. In the last six months, about four major insurers from Nigeria have set up offices in Ghana to take advantage of the oil find. “We have the experience of oil in Nigeria so we want to find a way of participating in it”, says Ishola Akintunde, general manager of Equity Assurance, Accra, a recent entrant from Nigeria.

But with the joy and influx of investments comes some apprehension among many Ghanaians of the myriad number of problems oil has caused in other African countries notably Nigeria and Angola. Charles Tetteh, a well traveled music record seller at the Market Circle in Takoradi sums up the thoughts of many. “When I look at the condition of the Niger Delta (Nigeria), it’s a far cry from the benefits which it (oil) offers” he says. Like many other people, he hopes the government will enact laws that will make sure Ghanaians enjoy great benefit from the oil considering the fact that the exploratory companies are foreign-owned.

Apart from that, there is an undercurrent of agitation for an equitable sharing of the oil revenue. Ghana is a unitary state where all wealth gotten from every resource belongs to the central government which is then shared among the 10 regional governments and 138 local governments or districts as they are called. The central government holds onto the bulk of all revenue giving about 13 per cent to the district assemblies depending on the level of economic activity and level of deprivation. Nii Moi Thompson, economist and director of the Development Policy Institute, Accra, says it is very small because ultimately development occurs on the local level and not on the national level which is characterized by waste, vanity and theft. Thompson hopes that when oil starts flowing, 25 per cent of the national revenue will be given to the local districts to enable them build their capacity to ensure that more meaningful development takes place closer to the people.

Those are not the only challenges the government is facing as it seeks to protect its interests in the emerging oil industry. It also has to deal with in-fighting among the citizens as some communities have already begun a tussle over the ownership of the oil fields. One community is claiming that its name is not included in the appellation given to the oil basin. Thomas Manu, director in charge of Exploration and Production at the Ghana National Petroleum Company, GNPC, Tema, says no community can lay claims to the oil fields because they are offshore on the continental shelf, a place which is outside the purview of any village. Biney prefers to say that it is only a misunderstanding between the two communities and that it will be settled like the “brothers that they are”.

Among the many fishermen along the shores, there is a great clamour for the protection of their fishing grounds by the government. Since the coming of the oil exploratory companies on the shores of Cape Three Points, fishermen have found that the light from the oil platform attracts the fish away from their usual fishing grounds. The men have therefore found a veritable fishing spot by the rig side. The government has tried to alert the fishermen about the danger of fishing close to the rig. It has warned them that anybody caught fishing close to the rig will be prosecuted. A worried Nana Kojo Konduah, traditional ruler of Abuesi and chairman of the region’s association of canoe fishermen is one man who is aware of the great change that oil will bring to their lives. He has called on the other chiefs in his area to pressure the government into creating better opportunities for his people as their lifestyle goes through drastic change in the next two years when crude oil will begin to flow from the rigs. Though expressing happiness at the oil find as he hopes it will free Ghana from the clutch of fluctuating and ever rising world oil prices which has thrown the country’s budget into a spin, Konduah believes that fishermen along the shore need to be reassured via environmental impact assessment that their means of livelihood will not be totally disrupted. Not only that, he says there must be corresponding compensation from the government for the loss of their fishing grounds. “If they deprive us of our fishing grounds they have to give us something which our children can benefit from”, Konduah tells this writer at his traditional palace in Abuesi while flanked by two of his chiefs.

Closely related to that is the challenge of security on the open ocean. Ghana will need to protect its oil against illegal bunkering amidst unconfirmed claims by fishermen who say they have sighted ships on the seas carrying contents which they suppose to be crude oil. The Ghanaian Navy, George Asiedu, a Takoradi-based broadcast journalist, claimed, has in its fleet very old patrol ships. He should know, as he sailed on one of them, the GNS Yogaga, on his visit to the Jubilee oil platform run by Kosmos Energy and Tullow Oil. He says it took the naval ship 18 hours to arrive at the rig from the Sekondi Naval Base a distance which should not have taken more than three hours in a good boat. When the waters cannot be protected, Asiedu says, it will lead to the loss of the country’s resources.

Ultimately, Ghana faces a challenge to bequeath a lasting legacy to its people with oil wealth in this time of spiking world oil prices. It has heated up the December 2008 presidential elections with candidates already talking about how they will utilize the enormous wealth. Nana Akufo-Addo, candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, who estimates that the country will earn about $15 billion in the first five years plans to use it for developing agricultural potentials in the largely underdeveloped northern part of the country as well as to promote the manufacturing sector. John Atta-Mills, candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, has stated that he will make sure there’s a transparent management of oil revenues to enhance faster growth of the economy.

However, there are indications that, unlike other African countries, Ghana might be able to stem the potentials problems before the blow into the open. The government has tried to quell the anxiety of the populace by involving the whole country in the decision making process. It has tried to carry the people along during every inch of the process of engaging laws that will make the country not commit mistakes made by other countries. “The first thing we did was to call a forum where we called those with know-how to share with us their experiences the outcome of which was documented and taken round the whole country to enable people add their ideas”, says Felix Owusu-Agyapong, Ghana’s energy minister. This painstaking arrangement has made the government decide to toe the path of countries with best practices in the oil industry like Norway which has invested the bulk of its oil revenue in a $350 billion fund for future generations while avoiding the Dutch disease, the sole dependence on oil as a means of earning foreign exchange.

A lot of African countries have suffered the curse of oil, Ghanaians hope that theirs will be a different story even as their country has been hailed by the West as a symbol of good governance. The coming of oil will definitely test the strength of its 16 year-old democracy.