Walk into any high-class event, upscale restaurant in Accra on a Friday evening or a normal linkup of the big men, and you'll see them: successful Ghanaian businessmen in expensive suits, talking about their stock portfolios and real estate investments. Safe money, predictable returns. Meanwhile, somewhere in the world, a foreign company is extracting gold from Ghanaian soil, refining it, and making ten times what we are, and what we do is to watch on hopelessly, as if our fate does not lie in our hands. No one is coming to save us, the earlier we understand this reality of life the more likely we are to escape poverty. But the question of interest is, who caused it?

Ibrahim Mahama Gets It

When businessman Ibrahim Mahama acquired the Damang gold mine and invested in Black Volta, he did something that should have been obvious but apparently wasn’t. He recognized that real wealth in Ghana isn't created in stock exchanges, it's created by taking control of what's ours, our resources God has generously bestowed on us.

Instead of receiving dividends from some international corporation's mining operation, Mahama positioned himself to capture the full value chain. The gold comes out of Ghanaian earth, gets refined closer to home, jobs are created for Ghanaians, and the profits stay in Ghana. This is the kind of thinking we need to see replicated a hundred times over. There have been issues regarding conflict of interest because of his association to the current president of Ghana, but I believe the argument is more complex than reducing it to “He is the president’s brother”. In the past, we have seen President Kufuor appoint his brother Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor as a minister of State, President Akuffo Addo appointed his cousin as the minister of finance, the man in charge of all the monies that flow into the country, but critics sincerely believe that giving our natural resources to proven businessmen such as Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, Sir Sam Jonah and other well established businessmen will be a mistake?

I ask a simple but critical question; must we not give businesses opportunities because their owners have connections to people in places of power? What we should be interested in is ensuring that the process remains fair, transparent and competitive. Being related to a person in power must be an advantage, and no person should be denied the right to pursue their own dreams and aspirations because they are related to a politician. The most important thing is that the contracted company holds the requisite experience and qualifications, submits to due process, and abides by the terms and conditions of the agreement or lease. Should we allow outsiders to take our resources, keep the proceeds and use that to develop their respective countries for the sole reason that those who are capable and interested in investing in our natural resources have connections to the government?

The tendency to discourage local investors through attacks, insults and unsubstantiated allegations by casting aspersions on their person through a compendium of speculations, frivolous attacks and nebulous innuendos have caused most businessmen to keep their monies in their bank accounts or invest in other countries, as they believe it is better to play it safe with familiar investments, and that is costing us billions.

We must Stop Settling for Breadcrumbs

Let's be frank about what's happening with our mining contracts and petroleum agreements, to be straightforward, they're embarrassingly bad and every time I look at some of these contracts, I keep wondering the wisdom with which our seasoned experts and legal brains entered into these contracts and agreements. Maybe, it was good for their time, but clearly times have changed.

I've studied natural resource law, management and policy in Ghana and the UK, and I have had the opportunity to explore the contracts and agreements in many jurisdiction, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, whoever negotiated them essentially signed away our inheritance and we must not allow it to happen again.

How can we give away our wealth and still end up with environmental destruction, poisoned rivers, deforested land and communities torn apart? We're the ones dealing with the aftermath while they laugh all the way to the bank. The worst part is that we act like this is normal, like it's just how things work and whoever challenges the status quo is challenging the wisdom and expertise of our ancestors. How can we improve if we choose to put new wine in old wineskins? A new dispensation requires a renewed approach, natural resources when managed well can transform every serious country, we are showing symptoms of the Dutch disease, we need to undergo extensive checkup, plug the holes and increase efficiency. A stitch in time saves nine.

We need to stop negotiating like beggars, we can’t undervalue every resource we have in Ghana because our resources are valuable. The value must be evident when we go to the negotiation table for these contracts and agreements.

Here's What Needs to Happen

First: Our rich people need to collaborate.

Individually, even Ghana's wealthiest businessmen might struggle to finance a major mining operation or oil platform. But what if ten or twenty multimillionaires pooled resources? What if we saw real consortium-based investment in our natural resources?

That capital exists, it's sitting in real estate, it's invested overseas, it's tied up in safe, boring investments and savings accounts. We need to redirect it toward something that transforms our nation while transforming millionaires to billionaires.

Second: Government must make it easy and attractive

Tax incentives, preferential financing, streamlined licensing, subsidized infrastructure. The government must do whatever it takes to signal to Ghanaian entrepreneurs that we want Ghanaians to invest in our own resources and reap the benefits thereof. Right now, the bureaucratic maze makes it easier to start a business in London than in Accra. The obsession of many in positions of power with making things unnecessarily difficult without any basis, while the licensing regime remains frail, clumsy and unregulated, is backwards.

Third: Ghana must own the mines and oil rigs.

Not just a small stake or a piece of the pie, Ghana as a state must have real ownership, real control to enjoy real profits flowing to the government and people. We must learn to put our money where our mouth is by moving from a spending nation to a manufacturing and investing nation. Why should foreign companies own the best gold deposits in Ghana? Why shouldn't Ghana itself be a major player in its own resource sector? Is it that we do not see the value, or we see ourselves as incapable of managing our own affairs? It’s time to let go of the woes and scars of yesteryears and embrace our new reality, no one is coming to save us. An independent nation remains sovereign and responsible for their actions.

Government must partner with local companies and businessmen. This is normal as most countries with significant natural resources have government-owned entities actively managing them. In my opinion, Ghana should follow suit, and we must not hold back. With the monumental strides GoldBod is making, I believe their next move must be to own the mines, and not just the Gold.

The Processing Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About

Here's where we're really getting fleeced, we're selling raw materials, and when we refine, our refining capacity is not good enough. We have been left at the mercy of external forces for prices of commodities such as fuel and gold. This is because we do not own what we possess, and when we refine the little we get, it does not do much. Ghana as a small country will surely not have depended on the global market if we had been more prudent in not just possessing, but ‘owning our masters’ when it comes to our natural resources.

We pull gold out of the ground and ship it out for processing elsewhere. It is about time Ghana as a country owned its gold refinery, not one funded and owned by individuals, but one that is owned by the State. Because we do not invest much and produce much, we tend to overburden our citizens with numerous tax schemes and borrow heavily just to stay afloat. We get a fraction of the value while someone else captures the real wealth.

A government-owned refinery is an economic necessity as every barrel of oil or gold processed in Ghana by Ghana is thousands of dollars staying in our economy. Every ton of gold refined locally creates jobs, attracts related industries, builds technical expertise. Its time government employment moves from only civil service and security services to manufacturing and processing. Exporting raw materials is a colonial pattern we haven't shaken off. We cannot claim to be truly independent if we stick to our colonial mindset and ways. This is a challenge to Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, Sir Sam Jonah and other heavyweights in the extractive sector, collaborate and establish refineries for Ghana, made and managed by Ghanaians.

 The Attorney General Needs to Get to Work

Have you seen the petroleum agreements? The mining contracts? You will suffocate and gasp for air. Even a novice in contract negotiations will agree that they need a complete audit, and the best time we should have done that was years ago, the second-best time in my opinion is now.

The Attorney General should set a special department that will be tasked with the sole duty of reviewing every major natural resource contract and asking hard questions on fairness, value and best practices. If the answer is ‘we got ripped off’, and from what I have seen, it will be for most of them, then renegotiation begins immediately. We have paid judgement debts for far less profitable contracts, this will be a small price to pay, and future generations will thank us.

And for future deals, every contract must include periodic review clauses. This is because market conditions change, resource values fluctuate and Ghana's agreements should reflect that reality, not lock us into decade-old terms that no longer apply.

If the best offer we get doesn't reflect the true value of our resources, then those resources stay in the ground. Our children will thank us for preserving them rather than squandering them.

Galamsey - The Elephant in the Room

All this talk about legitimate resource management means nothing if we're simultaneously allowing criminal syndicates to destroy our land. Illegal small-scale mining isn't just an environmental problem, but it permeates every aspect of our national life. These operations should have been shut down years ago. We must not sacrifice the future of the nation for a few to enjoy. We must regularise all mining operations and remove bottlenecks in natural resource licence acquisition. The standard must be set; the system must be allowed to work, institutions must be rid of human interference, and justice must not be delayed or denied.

The practice of scapegoating is not the best as laws must not be enforced through a random sampling approach. Laws must work, institutions must function and there must be consequences for breaking the law. Rule of law must be upheld; laws must be applied to all in an equal measure. There can be no viable solution when those at the bottom of the food chain see those at the top engage in the same acts but only the grassroots get punished.

The statement must be bold and clear, that no one will be shielded when caught in the grips of the law. As the Bible says, ‘When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong’ (Ecclesiastes 8:11).

President Mahama Has the Moment

The current President enters office with a strong parliamentary majority and genuine public support. That's rare political currency and an opportunity to leave an indelible legacy in the history books of Ghana. As a firm believer in his reset agenda, I believe he can use it to transform how Ghana manages its greatest asset.

He must ensure that his appointees implement a galamsey enforcement that has teeth, regardless of who gets caught in the net. The success of his appointees is his and same applies to the failure of those appointees. In my opinion, his excellency can leave a legacy by doing what his predecessors promised, attempted but failed.

The Deeper Point

This transcends money, it is about whether Africans, whether Ghanaians can manage our own affairs. For centuries, we've been conditioned to think that we are not capable, that we need foreigners to develop our resources, that we lack the expertise, that we should be grateful for whatever crumbs they leave us, but I strongly disagree. We have a point to prove, and there is no better time to do this than the moment we are calling for reparations.

We have the great minds, the talent, the capital, and the resources. We must have the conviction that our wealth belongs to us, and we should fight for it.

We can keep handing it to foreigners, we can keep accepting exploitative contracts, we can keep exporting raw materials while importing finished goods, or we can decide that this is the time to reset our natural resources regime.

Mr. Ibrahim Mahama has shown what's possible, the question is whether enough of us will follow his example, whether we'll have the courage to demand that Ghana becomes the primary beneficiary of Ghana's wealth. Our children and future generations will either thank us for building something real, or they'll curse us for squandering what could have been theirs. NO one is coming to help us, the change we are looking for is within, we just need to birth it forth.

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BK Osei-Marfo: (B.A Communication, LLB, LLM (Natural Resources - Ghana), *LLM in Natural Resources and Environmental Law Policy with Solicitor’s Practice - UK)