The chips are falling off on how some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are scheming to throw off-gear the proposed agreement between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Aker Energy.
Audios of a Zoom Meeting in the possession of the New Crusading GUIDE, reveals how the nation-wrecking CSOs chaired by the Co-ordinator of the Third World Network (TWN) Africa, Dr Yao Graham, deliberated on a number of strategies to create a sense of fear and panic within the population over “climate change concerns”, and spearhead an agenda to prevent Ghana from achieving its long-standing ambition of putting Ghanaians in charge of oil and gas resources.
Determined to promote the interest of their foreign partners, instead of the national interest, the CSOs ostensibly posit that Ghana should leave her oil resources on the sea bed and rather borrow to promote and finance the climate change agenda.
What has set many industry players’ wondering is how the CSOs want a transaction that would ensure that GNPC Explorco receives US$5 billion dollars in cash flow, with Ghana being the recipient of some US$18 billion in revenue, thereby controlling its oil resources and destiny, to be destroyed.
Amongst other things, leaders of the discussant CSOs deliberated on schemes, not limited to hijacking both social and traditional media, investing resources, silencing dissenting CSOs in order to achieve their agenda.
Energy Analyst, Samuel Bekoe, one of the attendees of the virtual meeting, explained the strategy to get the media on their side, praising some leaders of IMANI-Africa for taking the lead in pushing the media agenda.
“I am quite happy that Bright [Simons] was on Citi, and now Citi has published Theo’s article as well, and more articles likely to be published to keep the thing trending, until we get to see the agreement that they are going have [sic] come out.”
He added that “I think we should be a bit worried with the way the media behave and, you know, the people we have been training and all usually are reporters, and we don’t control the editors, but they are controlled by editors whom we don’t know whether they have any interest in publishing these things or not.”
Mr Bekoe’s strategy was endorsed by one of the participants, introduced by Dr Graham only as “Beauty”. Whilst Mr Bekoe focused on the traditional media, Beauty’s strategy was on how to use the social media to sustain the pressure on the Akufo-Addo Government.
This, she said, is the means by which their anti-government agenda can go viral.
“I appreciate the input made. Just to add something small in terms of the strategies we could adopt. I thought that we could consider doing short videos, [erm] that we could easily share through social media and especially whatsapp. Because, it seems people prefer videos to text, so if we could… Some of the point of contention that we want to bring clarity on, we could have some of our expert speak to those issues to set the record straight, especially given the latest press statement from GNPC so that we can set the record straight for people to get clarity on some of those issues aside the written materials so that it…can go viral if possible. Because ones people begin to share on other platforms as well…” she stated.
Silencing dissent
Dr. Yao Graham, on his part, expressed worry about dissenting views from other Civil Society Organisations and actors, like Dr. Steve Manteaw, who were in support of GNPC becoming an operator. He wondered why the media was giving platform to the other dissenting views.
“… I was expecting something, and then I was presented with a different thing. The Minister who was interviewed actually picked it back on our divergent views to make his case in his argument because he was saying that even some of the (you know) CSO reps were in support of what they were doing. So, have engagement on these matters that we believe have to represent in totality our common interest and I think that can help us so that even if you disagree, it is only fair to disagree but should rather be quiet or make statement to that effect,” he noted.
West Africa Regional Manager (Anglophone) of Natural Resource Governance Institute, NafiChinery, also expressed worry about the seeming divisions among the CSOs.
“I want to speak to the issue and subsequent appearance on radio by our team. I was very worried about what I observed and I think a number of us have shared the same on the platform… It looks like we don’t have the full information of the alliance. Some people have some information that others don’t have and so when we appear on radio and media platforms, we seem to be saying different things. I thought if we are an alliance then we should have one voice and promoting one cause, but I found that there is a kind of division in terms of… and I think that we need to address this and find a way for the campaign, the alliance and what we are seeking to achieve,” she stated.
Chairman of the meeting, Dr Graham, further spoke about their opposition of GNPC’s decision to invest into oil exploration. Making reference to statements already made by Bright Simons, Dr Graham impressed on the CSOs to raise questions with every answer that would be given in order to achieve their aim.
Africa can easily be said to contribute the least of any continent to global warming. According to a publication by the Energy Commission of Canada, “if you look at the carbon footprint of the entire African continent, 48 African countries combined are responsible for less than one percent of accumulative carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
It added further that “Even if every one of the one billion people in sub-Saharan Africa tripled their electricity consumption overnight, and if all of that new power came from natural gas-fired plants, we estimate that the additional CO2 that Africa would add would equal to just one percent of total global emissions.”
