A Fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA), Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso says the Ghanaian media must be careful not to inflame passions in the simmering tensions between Ghana and her neighbor, Ivory Coast who are staking a claim for some areas where Ghana is prospecting for oil. He said the issue was volatile and had the potential to fuel a violent confrontation with its concomitant loss of lives and property between Ghana and Ivory Coast and stressed the need for the media to be reasonably diligent and circumspect in their reportage on the matter. Since last year, there have been moves by the Ivorian authorities to make a claim for certain areas around Ghana’s Jubilee Oil Fields. In response to those moves, the government of Ghana established a Ghana Boundary Commission to negotiate the clear demarcation of Ghana’s maritime borders with the Ivorians. While the negotiation continue, the government of that country ratcheted up their claims with the Director of Hydrocarbons of Ivory Coast writing to oil companies in Ghana to demand that they stop prospecting for oil in waters considered to be within their jurisdiction. Even though the government of Ghana has repeated its assurances to the people that there was no cause for alarm, there is some unease with the media asking whether the government could be trusted to adequately protect Ghana’s interest as regards this issue. Dr Antwi-Danso, speaking to Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host Kojo Oppong-Knrumah Wednesday, said there were diplomatic processes that could be relied on to resolve whatever misunderstandings that obtain on the issue. Apart from diplomacy, he said, the country could also resort to international law to settle the dispute. The cost of war between Ghana and Ivory Coast, Dr Antwi-Danso said, was too high for that to be contemplated. “There is no need going to war on this, the bodies are there to solve the problem; either the border commission that we set up will be able to solve the issue or if one side is not ready to listen to the result, we would have to take it up with the United Nations body.” He said it was curious that Ivory Coast never raised an issue when Ghana discovered oil in 2007, never said a thing in 2008, but started making claims in 2010. “We must interrogate all these things and our diplomats must be very careful as to how to go about negotiating [because] if we don’t take care and tempers flare up” the consequences will be dire. “I think we should all be patient that’s why I’m saying the media have a very big role to play to calm tempers…,” because “these things bring about very volatile situations and with the experience that we have had from other countries I’m saying Ghanaians should be patient with whatever that is going on,” he stated.