Ghana is experiencing a distinctly sweet sensation because she is expectant with oil; crude oil, that is. Father of the baby? God! The Almighty himself has graced us with a new natural resource since precious heavenly gifts of gold, diamond and timber have not won us financial independence. Oil delivery date? The second half of 2012. That makes the year of our Lord 2012 a critical year in our nation’s history, probably as important as 1957 when this country was yanked out of the clutches of colonialism.
If you haven’t heard, it is official. Ghana’s Twin-City of Sekondi-Takoradi has had a name change while you were not paying attention. It is now known as the Oil City. After the oil has been sucked from the belly of their side of the mighty Atlantic Ocean in say – 10, 20 or so years, and/or if expectations go burst, violated and unfulfilled, it will necessarily have another name change and might become known as the Former Twin Oil City!
Expectations are very high in Sekondi-Takoradi especially, and indeed, in the whole of Ghana. The expectations are dotted with remarks like, “When the oil comes” and “As we wait for the oil money”. A radio station in the twin city periodically bellows out, “This is the Oil City!”
When you hear such remarks, you can’t help but feel like love is coming your way. You feel like balm is approaching to soothe the hurt; to fill up the jagged cracks and by that, ease or even take away the pain of poverty; all of it! You even feel that you are about to be clothed, to at long last, cover the brute nakedness of want, of nothingness and of despair – for ever!
Sekondi-Takoradi’s ‘twiness’ lies in the fact that the demarcation is blur; it’s just a river, which appears to be dying away, filled, no – choked with weeds and silt. As a result, the river looks more like a wetland that serves the purpose of sucking away the Twin City’s sorrows. The river does not flow. It sits. It just stays put. It’s not pretty.
It is said that the best comes from the west, or better still, the best is in the west. The Western Region has had timber and gold forever! But – so what? What is there to show for the rich endowment of varied natural resources? The region is under-developed; especially the gold mining areas. Especially so!
A drive through Sekondi-Takoradi reveals that this city has been on a wealth road before – several yesteryears ago. The former wealth and better days show in the sheer number of aging, huge, magnificent but dilapidated multi-level storey buildings in many parts of the city. Some houses bear the marks of decay and brokenness, the sort that come from the inability to maintain such huge buildings or probably, the absence of a maintenance culture.
The Atlantic Ocean has been good to the city. During its vibrant harbor glory days, wealth flowed and left the storey buildings on the landscape as permanent evidence. Life was fast and furious. People lived hard, high and fun, made money and built beautiful houses. When the ’sea-man jolly’ glory days ended, the houses remained, without much love of paint and renovation. But now, the gods have again looked kindly on the city; this time, with crude oil proximity.
Maybe, just maybe, the Oil City people (and Ghanaians) are making a volcano out of an ant hill. After all, the oil is far out into the mighty Atlantic Ocean. All the sucking will be done in oil rigs located offshore. Or, some of it has already been sucked away? The Twin City people will therefore not see or smell the oil. Everything they will know will be what the technical people who will have the privilege of working on the rigs come back to tell.
I last visited the Twin City in October 2008. Last weekend, I visited again. One thing was obvious. Vehicular traffic! You can feel the new go-slow traffic in vehicular movement, especially after 5 pm on major roads. The implications are clear: more cars are in town. Without a doubt, these additional vehicles have been brought in by people who have been attracted by what is soon to become the oil industry.
I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the up-coming oil industry will benefit the original inhabitants of the area. With the oil being very far off and the fact that the oil will barely touch the land, could it be that those on land might be left out of the gains? A sad case of drip-drip-drip? Will the Niger Delta blues repeat itself in the Twin City?
There is nothing as annoying as when outsiders come to your land and grab and eat nyafu nyafu, and for good effect, smear their palms with what rightfully belongs to you and insultingly rub their soiled hands on your nostrils.
Currently, there are several knotty areas that are clearly not in a state of readiness for the additional population that will definitely move to the Twin City to chase after crude oil wealth. The city has no acceptable place to dispose of garbage and liquid waste. Human excreta is dumped directly into the Atlantic Ocean, untreated and by that, turning the ocean colour from blue to brown. If we can’t handle human excreta (which we understand), how could we manage oil spills (which we don’t understand) but which will occur because that is just the way of the business? Or, we’ll just pray away oil spills?
After experiencing the Oil City for two full days, I decided to go further west to ‘greet’ our first President, the fully rehabilitated Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah by heading to his birthplace, Nkroful. Reason? The Oil City is just one and a half hours drive to Nkrumah’s doorstep so since the oil will attract many investors and visitors – some idlers, some plunderers and definitely some crooks – some of whom might want to visit the historic site, I wanted to get a feel for its state of readiness for more visitors.
I was disappointed by what I saw. There were no directional signs to Nkroful from Sekondi-Takoradi. There was nothing announcing that one is approaching a place of such significance. There has been a lame effort to renovate the place but from a best practice perspective, it does not match up to, for instance, Nelson Mandela’s home near Johannesburg, which has been developed into a major tourist attraction and a money-earner.
The tour guide, an employee of the Ghana Tourist Board, is more into himself than into Nkrumah. Half of the time he took us round the small facility, he talked more about himself and what he has done to improve Nkrumah’s birth-home. I was on a pilgrimage to feel the mighty man, Nkrumah (which I did), and not to listen to the self-aggrandising blabbing of an inconsequential tour guide. Tourist Board, please replace this self-centred guy with a well-trained individual who understands what the great man stood for to guide people through the experience.
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