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Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, has called on governments to improve their negotiation skills when it comes to natural resource governance.

Obasanjo, who chairs the annual Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa, urged African communities to “stand up to the parties they are negotiating with” in order to avoid financial losses and inequitable terms and conditions when granting access to natural resources.  He stated this while addressing the press in Ethiopia, March 14, on the forthcoming Tana Forum in April.

The theme of this year’s Tana Forum – natural resource governance – is an opportunity for African stakeholders to question how much control they have over natural resources, how well they are managed, and whether African citizens truly benefit from these resources.

He described this year’s keynote speaker, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as a powerful public figure with experience both in the financial sector and in civil society. The Forum will also examine the legacy of Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai.

“We are not where we should be,” Obasanjo said when asked to assess the state of resource governance on the continent. “We need to look at the issues holistically and also what needs to be done differently and how. We need to ensure that the proceeds from resources are well managed.”

Regarding contributions and assistance from foreign partners and governments, Obasanjo stated that contributions from outside are welcome but that Africans must remain “in the driver’s seat”, further pointing to a lack of experts and skills that results in poorly negotiated contracts.

Training and assistance provided by institutions such as the World Bank would go a long way towards closing the knowledge gap, while permitting African governments to own the process, he continued. He also called on producers of resources to come together to dictate the prices of commodities, and emphasised the need to add value to commodities.

The former leader, who remains an influential statesman on the continent and beyond, argued that the problem goes beyond bad leadership. Even with effective leaders, he shared, “good intentions are not enough”; the lack of information remains the key obstacle to fully realising the gains from natural resources.

The annual Forum, which takes place each April in the northern Ethiopian city of Bahir Dar, is an informal gathering of thought leaders and high-level decision makers to candidly discuss the most pressing issues facing the continent, according a statement signed by Michelle Mendi Muita, communications manager, Tana Forum Secretariat, African Union/Institute for Peace and Security Studies, IPSS, Addis Ababa University and made available to Realnews today.

—  Mar 15, 2017 @ 17:40 GMT

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