12 August 2008
editorial
Accra — Ever since Ghana announced to the world that it has hit oil in commercial quantities, our media landscape has been awash with news about oil and what the future holds for Ghana.
Hardly a day passes without one reading about something connected to oil in our newspapers. To make matters worse, our Ministers and other government officials have also been making public statements about the benefits we are going to derive from oil. They have made the discovery of oil to appear as if it is the magic wand that would solve all the problems of the country.
As a result, a picture is being painted that the oil discovery is going to be the saviour of all our economic woes. As we noted in this column sometime last year, we believe that this is where danger lies for the nation. We at The Chronicle believe that oil cannot solve all the problems confronting the economy. Indeed, if it were so, countries such like Angola, Nigeria and Gabon, just to mention few, would have had their economies at par with Developed countries such as the United States, Canada and Germany, among others.
For us, it would be suicidal for government officials and individuals, including Journalists who mis-educate Ghanaians to believe that oil is the nation's Saviour and neglecting other sectors of the economy. For instance, the economy of Ghana has survived for many years through the support of agriculture and gold. One can therefore imagine the sort of dislocation that the economy will experience if all efforts, in the form of capital and human resources, are diverted to the new found oil industry.
The Chronicle, however, congratulates the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) for not allowing itself to be caught in the euphoria of the oil find, but has decided to put measures in place to ensure mass production of the cash crop. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the COCOBOD, Mr. Isaac Osei was quoted by the Graphic as saying that his outfit was poised to increase our cocoa to one million tonnes within the next two years.
In furtherance of this, he said COCOBOD has instituted a number of policy measures, which include mass spraying of cocoa farms and providing incentives for farmers to motivate them to put in their maximum effort for the country to achieve this set target. Chronicle thinks COCOBOD has set a good example that must be emulated by those who handle other sectors of the economy.
Ghana can maximise profits from oil only if we give other sectors equal attention, as COCOBOD has started doing. We once again wish to caution that we must not all rush to embrace the oil industry, to the neglect of our cocoa, timber and other sectors. Otherwise, it will be to our own peril.
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