GFP to nationalise multi-national companies (Monday, October 1, 2012, pg 50)
A GHANA Freedom Party (GFP) administration will nationalise all multi-national companies involved in the mining and petroleum industry.
The Founder and leader of the party, Madam Akua Donkor, says this is to ensure that Ghanaians benefit from the country’s wealth.
“We are allowing people to take away our resources while the very roads they travel to extract their resources are in such horrible states,” she told the Daily Graphic on a telephone.
She said the mining industry had become so attractive that even the Chinese are migrating to Ghana in their numbers to exploit the mineral without recourse to the laws of the land.
“What is bad about our agreements with these companies is that we don’t get value for the minerals they take away.”
Madam Donkor said as a first step to ensuring that such companies were responsible, she had sued Newmont Gold Ghana Limited (NGGL) for what she described as “not giving enough back”.
“Look at Libya; that country had oil but Al-Qathafi before he was over thrown has ensured that all Libyans citizens benefitted from their country’s oil wealth and not a few people,” she said in reference to the late former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed in a rebellion fuelled by the Arab Spring.
“My government will transform this country and even supersede the achievement of Al-Qathafi in Libya. We have the resources. What we now need is the leaders to take that bold decision.
In a rather contradictory twist, she said under her administration, the only way a foreign company would be allowed to operate in the mining sector in Ghana was for a law that made it mandatory for such a company to invest in education.
Madam Donkor’s suggestion aptly fits policies of the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, who upon the assumption of power nationalised a number of multinational oil company’s operating in the country.
That policy and many other actions has since put him in the bad books of the West.
That notwithstanding, his Ghanaian version - cast in the mould of Madam Donkor - said that the decision should not in any way incur Western displeasure since every country had the right to do what was in the best interest of its people.
As if to court the West in her audacious attempt to ruffle Western interest in the country, she said her administration would withdraw the cedi out of circulation as legal tender in Ghana and introduce in its place the British Pound Sterling.
“If we use the Pound Sterling, there would be no need for our importers to bother themselves with the exchange rates to transact their businesses,” she said.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah was not spared. “If Nkrumah had not changed our currency, we would not be where we are now. That action has succeeded in reducing the value of our currency and it does not help our economy.”
“Why do traders not hoard the foreign currency when they know that without it their business will be affected,” she asked?
She accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of running down the country.
She said in spite of the rather meagre inflow from the mining sector and other minerals, the two parties - particularly over the last 20 years - had failed to invest what we got from the country’s minerals.
“With all the wealth we have, poverty is still a major headache. What have we done with our taxes from all those minerals.”
“The NPP sent us to HIPC and the benefit which came was looted. Look at the NDC; they handed over GH¢51 million to Woyome for doing nothing. These are not parties that have the interest of this country at heart.”
The 57-year old farmer said agriculture would also feature prominently on her agenda to ensure that the nation fed itself and exported surplus food.
“Farmers would not have any problem under my administration. The big countries of this world are great because they can feed themselves. We would give our farmers subsidy to make them comfortable,” she explained.
The NPP has made free senior high school education the central theme for its campaign for this year’s elections.
While the NDC says the NPP had underestimated the cost and would be implementing the policy without the necessary infrastructure on the ground, Madam Donkor agreed with the NPP saying the country was rich enough to support free SHS education.
She, however, pointed out that there would be crisis if adequate infrastructure was not put in place to accommodate the thousands of students who would gain admission.
“What we need is a carefully thought through plan to build classrooms and dormitories so that children will not go studying under trees or sleeping outside.”
She said her administration would implement a free port system where import duties would be a thing of the past.
“Every year the port authorities confiscate goods worth billions of cedis because their owners are not able to clear such goods. What they don’t know is that they are collapsing local businesses and punishing their families. That must stop.”
The Founder and leader of the party, Madam Akua Donkor, says this is to ensure that Ghanaians benefit from the country’s wealth.
“We are allowing people to take away our resources while the very roads they travel to extract their resources are in such horrible states,” she told the Daily Graphic on a telephone.
She said the mining industry had become so attractive that even the Chinese are migrating to Ghana in their numbers to exploit the mineral without recourse to the laws of the land.
“What is bad about our agreements with these companies is that we don’t get value for the minerals they take away.”
Madam Donkor said as a first step to ensuring that such companies were responsible, she had sued Newmont Gold Ghana Limited (NGGL) for what she described as “not giving enough back”.
“Look at Libya; that country had oil but Al-Qathafi before he was over thrown has ensured that all Libyans citizens benefitted from their country’s oil wealth and not a few people,” she said in reference to the late former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed in a rebellion fuelled by the Arab Spring.
“My government will transform this country and even supersede the achievement of Al-Qathafi in Libya. We have the resources. What we now need is the leaders to take that bold decision.
In a rather contradictory twist, she said under her administration, the only way a foreign company would be allowed to operate in the mining sector in Ghana was for a law that made it mandatory for such a company to invest in education.
Madam Donkor’s suggestion aptly fits policies of the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, who upon the assumption of power nationalised a number of multinational oil company’s operating in the country.
That policy and many other actions has since put him in the bad books of the West.
That notwithstanding, his Ghanaian version - cast in the mould of Madam Donkor - said that the decision should not in any way incur Western displeasure since every country had the right to do what was in the best interest of its people.
As if to court the West in her audacious attempt to ruffle Western interest in the country, she said her administration would withdraw the cedi out of circulation as legal tender in Ghana and introduce in its place the British Pound Sterling.
“If we use the Pound Sterling, there would be no need for our importers to bother themselves with the exchange rates to transact their businesses,” she said.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah was not spared. “If Nkrumah had not changed our currency, we would not be where we are now. That action has succeeded in reducing the value of our currency and it does not help our economy.”
“Why do traders not hoard the foreign currency when they know that without it their business will be affected,” she asked?
She accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of running down the country.
She said in spite of the rather meagre inflow from the mining sector and other minerals, the two parties - particularly over the last 20 years - had failed to invest what we got from the country’s minerals.
“With all the wealth we have, poverty is still a major headache. What have we done with our taxes from all those minerals.”
“The NPP sent us to HIPC and the benefit which came was looted. Look at the NDC; they handed over GH¢51 million to Woyome for doing nothing. These are not parties that have the interest of this country at heart.”
The 57-year old farmer said agriculture would also feature prominently on her agenda to ensure that the nation fed itself and exported surplus food.
“Farmers would not have any problem under my administration. The big countries of this world are great because they can feed themselves. We would give our farmers subsidy to make them comfortable,” she explained.
The NPP has made free senior high school education the central theme for its campaign for this year’s elections.
While the NDC says the NPP had underestimated the cost and would be implementing the policy without the necessary infrastructure on the ground, Madam Donkor agreed with the NPP saying the country was rich enough to support free SHS education.
She, however, pointed out that there would be crisis if adequate infrastructure was not put in place to accommodate the thousands of students who would gain admission.
“What we need is a carefully thought through plan to build classrooms and dormitories so that children will not go studying under trees or sleeping outside.”
She said her administration would implement a free port system where import duties would be a thing of the past.
“Every year the port authorities confiscate goods worth billions of cedis because their owners are not able to clear such goods. What they don’t know is that they are collapsing local businesses and punishing their families. That must stop.”
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