Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has charged the leadership of the country to do more to ensure Ghanaians benefit adequately from the various partnerships that see the country’s resources exploited whilst bemoaning the poverty of the Ghanaians despite the abundance of natural resources.
[contextly_sidebar id=”67PCgPvidIYIDFsqOaftfq7ICehleCIu”]The former President therefore called on the various independent bodies like think tanks to hold leaders accountable over utilization of the country’s resources.
He was speaking at the Inaugural Conference of a West African Think Tank Network (WATTNet) in Accra yesterday [Tuesday], where he also questioned why Ghana’s resources have not been tapped to the benefit of the people.
“Ghana has gold right from the coast all the way to the northern parts of it. How much do we get from Gold? How much do we get from manganese?”
According to former President Kufuor, the environment has also all but suffered for nothing following the exploitation of resources.
“We’ve exhausted our natural cover, timber. How much benefit did we get from timber? Now we have destroyed our tropical rainforest and the whole land is becoming like savannah land. For how much did we allow this depletion of our natural resources?”
He thus charged leaders to prepare and take better positions during negotiations to secure the country a fair price for its own resources.
“So, whatever is left, it is high time our leaders are made to sit up to learn to negotiate so that even as we go into partnerships for know-how, capital and markets, we do so being able to get what is a fair price for giving out the licenses to people.”
–
By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana