Good news for Ghana, but many rivers to cross

Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have submitted their grievances for due process to resolve their boundary dispute.

The disagreement involves the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the two countries in the Atlantic Ocean.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea Tribunal (ITLOS) last Saturday ruled on the preliminary reliefs sought by Cote d’Ivoire from the Special Chamber.

The Special Chamber, at its sitting last Saturday, gave Ghana the nod to continue oil production activities in the disputed maritime boundary area between it and Cote d’Ivoire.

It, however, ordered Ghana to not start any new offshore drilling for oil in the disputed waters with Cote d’Ivoire until the substantive matter is resolved.

This is one matter that has received media attention, both locally and internationally, pushing journalists to seek scoops over their competitors.

There are lessons to be learnt from similar boundary disputes in the West African sub-region and specifically involving Nigeria and Cameroon over the Bakasi Peninsula.

More significantly, the decision of the Special Chamber has serious ramifications on the future development agenda of Ghana. For some time now the managers of our economy have not hesitated in mentioning the Tweneboa, Enyera and Ntomme (TEN) Project as the game changer in our dire economic circumstances.

Also, Tullow Plc, the lead partner in the TEN project, is listed on the international stock exchange and the Special Chamber’s pronouncement is likely to affect the shares of the company.

It is against this backdrop that we find earlier media reports on the ruling that Ghana had lost the case very unfortunate.

But it is good that the media houses involved recognised their mistakes and quickly retracted their reports and apologised to the parties in the dispute.

That development brings to the fore the need to build a strong African media landscape to tell the African story, instead of our reliance on the Western media.

Although Ghanaians would have wished that that issue never came up for arbitration, the Daily Graphic is happy that the two countries have agreed to submit to the due process.

So far, the Daily Graphic thinks the ruling is victory for both parties, even if they have their reservations.

We also ask the parties not to abandon the diplomatic solution to the litigation, as it has the potential to cement our relations, instead of the legal weapon that more often than not is adversarial and can lead to strained relations between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.