The Watch Woman Column: The sorrowful tears of diamonds;Why are some mineral resources not talked about?
It is said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. I have none! It is also said that diamonds are forever! I don’t know why. But I know that Ghana is endowed with diamonds. At least once upon a time, one used to hear of the mention of diamonds in the public sphere—media.
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I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember the last time I heard anyone talk about diamonds! Gold and crude oil are our darlings. Gold has endured public interest. Crude oil is the new darling. But diamonds! What diamonds! How come diamonds get little or no mention these days? Sierra Leoneans lost limbs over diamonds!
So I visited the website of the Minerals Commission (http://www.ghana-mining.org). Hurray! A message to prospective gold and diamond buyers proclaims: ‘Ghana is endowed with mineral deposits such as gold, diamond, manganese and bauxite. There are also unexploited economic deposits of iron ore, limestone, kaolin, feldspar and silica sands.’
So it is official: Ghana still has diamonds! And it’s not only diamonds, manganese and bauxite we are richly-endowed with. We also have an odd medley of other mineral resources, some of which most people have never heard or know that they can be found in our Motherland. Did you know that Ghana also has some deposits of the following: nickel, phosphate, chromium, uranium, titanium, silver, copper as well as not well-known minerals like dolomite, beryl, barytes and spodumene? Some of these are fine gems. How many times have you seen some really fines stones and you gasped for air thinking, ‘Wow! This stone is so beautiful!’ Who knows; you might have come across a dolomite, beryl, barytes or spodumene without knowing. (I’ll do a follow-up article soon on these minerals).
If I were a diamond, manganese or bauxite, I will wail every day then ask Ghana, ‘What wrong have I done you? How did I offend you? Why is it that I have been around all these years but now you treat me with such a heavy hand of disrespect? How come all you talk about these days is your new-kid-on-the-block darling crude oil? Would you be happy if I, diamond, varnish from your land?’
Once upon a time, one used to hear of bauxite and manganese too. No more! Once upon a time when we had trains, the railroad was used to cart our raw unprocessed minerals from the hinterlands to the harbours for subsequent shipment to the Whiteman’s land. We’ve been mining manganese ore since 1916! Bauxite ore—the main source of aluminium, has been mined since 1928. It is true that “the best comes from the West”—Western Region! Crude oil, bauxite, magnesium—all come to us from the well-endowed yet poverty-stricken Western Region. A journey through the Western Region is a journey of a thousand heartbreaks.
So what about diamonds? On the Minerals Commission website, which is boldly branded as ‘Ghana’s Mining portal”, meaning the go-to place to find information about anything mining in this country, looking for information about diamonds is like searching for diamonds in the rough among dirty stones somewhere underground in Tarkwa. In this day and age 21st Century times, when you want information, especially information about our mineral resources, one should find it with ease on a major website of an institution with the mandate to oversee such affairs.
Enduring Questions:
Shouldn’t Ghanaians be able to know at a glance and with ease, how much of diamonds this country produces every year? Must one search and search through a poorly-managed website? Must one physically visit the institution’s premises to ask to see a desk officer before critical nationally-owned information is given out in a trickle?
I’ve several questions that float through my mind about our mineral resources. What exactly is the whole truth about the 100 per cent of these resources? Dear reader, I’m sure that like me, you also want to know the quantum of our mineral resources mined every year. For something to be our natural resource means that it is an endowment for all of us.
The gold and diamonds and others that were mined before Independence in 1957 belonged to the colonizer—Britain. Queen Elizabeth could decorate her entire body with our gold and diamonds not give a hoot.
But everything mined after Independence should belong to us all. That is why it would be heartening to know just how much is taken out of our land every year. Possibly, it would be nice to also know how much more remains of especially the non-renewable resources and for how many more years they will last.
Generally, the official information environment in Ghana is disabling. The formal information environment is characterized by a certain sickening high dose of lack of transparency and resistance to accountability. Trying to access information from a government official is like trying to remove a living tooth that has no disease. It is painful and time-consuming.
Meanwhile, a draft Right to Information Bill has been left to gather dust. Successive governments have consistently reneged on their promises to have it passed. During the four-year cycle political campaign seasons, the NDC/NPP tango folks promise but when they win office, they realize that an enhanced information environment will bring sunshine into dark corners that they would rather prefer to keep darkened. Will the Right to Information Bill become Law only after all the non-renewable resources have been exploited?
As matters stand now, can we trust government to be transparent? Can we trust the mining companies to be transparent? Can we trust Nananom to be transparent with their subjects over the small percentage of royalties paid to them out of the large unknown and probably unknowable 100 per cent mining receipts? This past week, the price of gold on the commodities market has dropped drastically. What does it mean for Ghana’s receipts?
Governments get into office only to act as stewards and caretakers of our affairs, not the owners of our assets. So another critical question to seek answers to is: How is the money utilized?
Shouldn’t information of an annual breakdown of total money that accrues from each resource and what the money is used for be publicized widely? The practice of dumping all the money into a large dark pot known as the Consolidated Fund breeds opportunities for dishonesty and quite corruption.
It would even be nicer to know for instance that money accruing from diamond in a certain year was used to build a certain hospital in a place like Asankragwa or Porpornya. That will be one sure way to show us, We the People, what the money from our resources does. Since Ghana began earning money from crude oil, imagine if a school was built in each region each year from the money and named appropriately—Crude Oil Basic School. A Crude Oil Medical Research Centre per region would also be nice. That will provide a monument of some sort and act as show-pieces for the citizenry.
At the heart of transparency is information sharing. My fear is that someday, the crude oil, gold, diamond and other non-renewable resources will run out and our descendants will not be able to point at anything we did with the money. And they will curse us out so badly.
Article by Doris Yaa Dartey
Writer's email: [email protected]
