Let our oil heritage be a blessing

Ghana joined the club of oil-producing countries in 2010 with a lot of high expectations from majority of the populace. At the time the government was cautioned to do everything within its power to manage the expectations of the people.

Oil money did a lot for countries such as Nigeria in the early 1980s when many Ghanaians travelled there to seek greener pastures.

The present generation is a living witness to the successes that Nigeria chalked up in nation building in the areas of road construction, education, health and job creation.

Ghana cannot be said to have obtained the best of terms with the Jubilee Partners, but, as they say, half a loaf is better than none.

Our government is, however, worth commending for taking steps subsequently to reap the best from our heritage, albeit late in the day.

Presently, the government is working on the local content policy/law to, at least, help indigenous people to “capture the commanding heights of the oil economy”.

It is difficult to appreciate why we were caught “pants down” when we discovered oil in commercial quantities, as we had been knocking on the doors of the ‘black gold’ for years.

The Daily Graphic wonders whether four years into the production of oil our expectations have been met somehow.

If four years on we have not met our expectations, it is going to be difficult to convince anyone that the production of gas in commercial quantities offers the solution to the “dumsor, dumsor” challenge.

While consumers go through the nightmarish experience, there is the good news that Aboadze has received gas from Atuabo, while the government has signed a $6-billion Sakofa Project that is expected to start the commercial production of oil and gas by mid 2017 to augment the country’s current production capacity.

The Daily Graphic thinks we have a duty to prove the sceptics wrong that oil has always been a curse rather a blessing in most developing countries.

We call for citizen activism that will compel our government to put in place the most pragmatic policies that will enable Ghana to reap the best returns from its oil and gas heritage.

What we are going through now gives the impression that we are in want in the midst of plenty.

If that were not the case, the people would not be paying more for petroleum products and experiencing the most debilitating power outages in the country’s history.

The Daily Graphic calls on all stakeholders in the power sector to fall back on their rich experiences to reduce the effects of the power outages on the economy and personal endeavours.