Former
Energy Minister Joseph Kofi Adda has described the Mahama-led
administration’s decision to mortgage Ghana’s oil revenue for 20 years
as “thievery, irresponsible leadership, and sheer recklessness”.
His
comments follow a statement made by the founder and General Overseer of
the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr Mensa Otabil, that
the decision was unwise.
Dr Otabil made the comment on Sunday,
April 17 while teaching his congregation about the need for people to
“reinvest” in their businesses in times of abundance.
Mr Kofi Adda, in an interview with Class News, said the move was a mark of irresponsible leadership by President Mahama.
“Otabil
was trying to let us understand that we have to be responsible, we have
to be proactive, and we have to be frugal in what we do,” he stated.
“Learning
from other countries, which have done it well, especially Norway, we
could have done it better and indeed under the Kufuor administration,
when I was the Minister of Energy, shortly after we discovered the oil,
we tried to get some materials from the Norwegians and we initiated some
exchange programmes and study tour.
“Simply put, what we needed
to have done was to consolidate the gains that we made in there and make
sure we manage our resources very well and be modest in terms of how we
borrow and how we undertake projects that will pay off and yield
dividends to support us.
“We have gone ahead to mortgage our
resources, something that the Norwegians preached against. And I will be
honest to tell the whole nation that some of the NDC MPs were very
honest and came to us telling us not to give in to mortgaging our oil in
terms of the bill we were going to pass – the Petroleum Revenue
Management Law – but for the government to come around and go to
mortgage the oil before it even came out of the ground was really
irresponsible, reckless and puts us in a very serious exposure and that
is what we are facing now and that is what Otabil said.”
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