According to the chairman of the Board of Directors of OSIWA, El Hadji Sy, the organization “aims at galvanizing public opinion and at reaching consensus on recent events in the oil, gas and mining sectors, the interaction between ext raction operations and climatic change, as well as their implications for Africa”.
“In Africa and all the countries which have natural sources, populations suffer from underdevelopment. Despite its potentials to alleviate poverty, Africa's widespread natural resources lay waste to the continent, fuelling conflicts, corruption and autocracy,” he said.
“Because of continuous civil wars and pillages, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Chad have curses which have become integral part of the abundance of natural resources in Africa," Sy said.
“But the performance of developing countries where there exist plentiful natural resources such as Canada, Norway and Austria showed that the possession of resources could not mean curses,” he added .
By setting up this watchdog, OSIWA is trying to meet the capacities and shortcomings in knowledge among the main acting groups involved in the management of natural resources.
“Its purpose is to mobilize technical and financial resources to raise the voice of civil society, make a plea for a responsible use of revenues generated by resources and strengthen the essential authorities, the laws and rules governing the extraction operations and the use of these revenues,” Sy said.
As a prelude to the launch of the West African natural resources Watchdog, OSIWA carried out an assessment of needs in seven countries - Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Guinea Bissau - to identify the gaps
in five parties involved in the domain of management of resources - state, parliament, universities, media and civil society.
Opening a presentation on “Political economy and natural resources in West Africa” a Nigerian lecturer Mailafia Obadiah pointed out that West Africa is one of the regions that have natural resources the most, but these are not used well.
“In Nigeria, oil is more a curse than a blessing. In the Niger Delta, we are witnessing military problems. Populations are frustrated by decades of injustice and exploitation,” he said adding that “these natural resources have a lso given birth to conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia".
“In another development, US$60 billion is invested in West Africa per year in oil only, but these populations don't benefit from it,” Mr Obadiah said.
According to him, Africa might well benefit from the global crisis caused by the activities of capitalism to restore its economy, by revising its terms of agreement with multinational companies.
Dakar - 03/07/2009
Pana
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|