The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama has stated that government was working hard to avoid the repetition of mistakes experienced in the gold and bauxite mining areas in the oil exploitation.
As a result, he reiterated that government would spend 10 percent of the oil revenue on the western region to enable them execute development projects that would lift them out of deterioration and abject poverty.
Vice President Mahama was addressing a cross-section of Ghanaians in a reception held in his honour as part of his four-day visit to Saudi Arabia to attend the Gulf-Africa Investment conference in Riyadh.
The gold, diamond, bauxite and manganese mining areas of Ghana had in the past been plagued with both environmental pollution and abject poverty due mainly to the wanton destruction and exploitation of the minerals to the neglect of dwellers, leaving some those areas as the most impoverished in the country.
The Vice President who was defending his decision said although the western region was part of the country and was therefore entitled to the oil revenue, its role as the custodians of the resource was adequate enough to qualify them for something out of the ordinary
“The Western Chiefs have a point, we need to create a development vehicle for the area as we used cocoa resource to collateralize the Bui Dam Project, I have not retracted my earlier position on allocating 10 per cent of the oil revenue for the development of the area.”
He said considering the huge infrastructural development that would emerge in the oil field as a result of the oil find, it was just plausible to suggest a percentage for the area to meet the whooping development needs of the area.
Mr Mahama, however, cautioned against the use of oil fund into pockets of some individuals or groups of people for their own parochial interest adding’ under the present circumstances the Western Region deserves more than 10 per cent since they are close to the field.’
On the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the Vice President announced that the board of SADA would be inaugurated by the close of this year to be followed by a donors conference.
''We want to create a new growth pole based on comparative advantage in the North. We want to stop the southwards drift through the creation of a new growth pole. Oil and gas will also create another growth pole in the West ,'' he stressed.
Commenting on the recent Holy Mission undertaken by the Ghanaian Muslims, Mr Mahama said the government would set up what he described as a 'proper secretariat to capture the data of Muslims who intended to embark on the holy journey next year.
" Next year we will make sure we have a smooth and hitch-free hajj next year,'" he stressed.
On education, he said the government had awarded scholarships to some students on science and technology while the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had trained more than 200 students who were Petro-chemicals bias.
He said in line with government's policy to boost science education, all science resource centres in the country would be rehabilitated whist new ones would also be established with new equipment.
Mr Mahama reiterated Ghana's commitment to make agriculture the pillar of the country's development agenda and announced that the government would rehabilitate all irrigation projects and build new ones to boost irrigation agricultural sector.
That, aside he said, new farm boreholes would be drilled in all farming communities adding that some had already been drilled at Savelugu in the Northern Region to support mango projects on a pilot base.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, announced that no Ghanaian Pilgrimage was arrested this year in connection with passport fraud because of the enhanced features of the biometric passport.
He gave the assurance to the Ghanaian community in the Gulf that they would soon extend the biometric facility to Kumasi and Sunyani in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions respectively.
Story: Irene Ata-Donto
04/12/10
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