Lithium debate and airport lands

The ongoing brouhaha over lithium mining is nothing less than what led American author Mark Twain to coin the expression, “hot air”. 

In Ghana today, while the lithium mining debates are important because they enable us to place the white against the black, the debates, through no fault of the debaters, are only hot air.

The student who entered SHS two weeks ago knows that the real beneficiaries of the resultant mining agreement will be the politicians who will, from the contracts, etc., build mansions in Ghana’s neighbourhoods, fly first class for a vacation on the Rhine or the Alps, and physically attend lectures every week in European universities, while not missing Parliamentary sittings in Ghana.

Public debates are important to prevent politicians from leaping before they leap.

They also inform the (wo)man in the street to form an opinion on issues.

That is why debaters should leave the insults to over-zealous party foot soldiers. 

See how, without public discourse, airport lands are being sold for a song by people whose interest it is to keep the transaction secret.

Again, if you ask me — of course, nobody is going to ask me — such important decisions as the sale of state assets should be made only by think tanks purposefully put together by the state, per an agreed set of criteria.

This use of think tanks must be an entrenched clause in the Constitution. 

Worry

My worry is not that a few kleptomaniacs belonging to the political class are amassing wealth; I worry that Ghana is being raped and robbed of its heirloom, while workers are being deprived of the enjoyment of their toil.

Official recognition and use of think tanks are important in our democracy if we have to avoid what the World Bank is warning Africa about: the inevitability of another lost decade, another possible phenomenon of “un-development” since the 1960s: someone calls it “Development in Reverse”.

It may be true that “African countries that are the poorest today are the ones from which the most slaves were taken”.

But I concur with the Nigerian professor who blames “irresponsible and irresponsive leadership, vampirism and prodigality, corruption, lack of respect for democratic ideals, insecurity and endemic civil wars — which are not legacies of the slave trade”.

How do we explain the Nigerian phenomenon, for example? Fact: between 1960 and 1973, oil output in Nigeria increased from a little over five million to over 600 million barrels, and government oil revenues from 66 million Naira in 1970 to over 10 billion in 1980.

Fact: By 2009, Nigeria had replaced India as the country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty (Source: World Data Lab).

Someone has published instances of massive treasury looting by some leaders while in office as elected or military leaders.

They include General Sani Abacha of Nigeria, $20 billion; President H. Boigny of Ivory Coast, $6 billion; General Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria, $5 billion; President Mobutu of Zaire, $4 billion; President Mouza Traore of Mali, $2 billion; President Henri Bedie of Ivory Coast, $300 million; President Denis N’guesso of Congo, $200 million; President Omar Bongo of Gabon, $80 million; President Paul Biya of Cameroon, $70 million; President Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, $30 million, and President Hissene Habre of Chad, $3 million. Into the bank accounts of eleven politicians alone, Africa lost well over $37.683 billion.

Without exception, these were leaders who ruled by a Kitchen Cabinet composed of family and friends.

All power belonged to them, and entire populations could not raise a finger.

Ghana has, in the last decade or so, been going through a phase in our existence where democracy now means allowing Parliamentarians and CSOs to make all the noise while kitchen Cabinet, an un-elected but powerful clique who have captured the Executive arm of government, subject the country’s resources to the pleasure of their will.

Even Ministers jump at the orders of the ‘Kitchen Cabinet’.

I am convinced that as long as all Board, Ambassadorial, SOE-CEO appointments are made by one all-powerful President; as long as decisions about the disposal of important economic assets are left in the hands of a board, most of whom are the President’s friends or party allies, so long will the benefits of crude oil, lithium and mineral exploitation mean nothing to the mass of the people.

I am very certain that the airport land sales were resisted by some members of the board, but I am also certain that it was not too difficult pulling the others along.

This rape will not cease until such decisions are made by independent bodies of think tanks appointed for the purpose.

Of course, they will not be appointed by Presidents. 

No wonder gold could not make a difference in the lives of the masses of the people, neither oil nor cocoa. What will lithium do?!

O God, who can deliver us from this body of death!

The writer is Executive Director,
Centre for Communication and Culture.
E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com