Those Who Oppose the Lithium Deal ‘Have No Better Job to Do’ – Dennis Miracles

The Director of Local Government Services at the Office of the President, Dennis Miracles Aboagye has rubbished attempts by some Ghanaian people to petition Parliament to scrutinize the lithium deal between government and Barari DV Ltd.

To him, the act of petitioning Parliament when the sector Minister has indicated government’s resolve to have the deal scrutinize by the House, smacks of populism.

The deal gives Ghana a 10% royalty rate, 13% free carried interest and some additional benefits.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor believes this deal is the best arguing that the royalties that Ghana will accrue from the mining of lithium is one of the highest in the country’s mineral exploration history but there are some people who strongly disagree with this assertion.

One of the opposers is Atik Mohammed, a former PNC General Secretary, who has served notice to present a petition to Parliament to dispute the deal.

To him, the deal is “not protected by any law”.

He also questions the negotiation skills of the sector Minister saying “we cannot rely on the negotiation skills of a Minister to determine how much carried interest we should have in lithium”.

He adds; “This (lithium) is the future. It is going to replace oil, so we can’t be relying on his negotiation skills. There ought to be a law which tells that when it comes to lithium, this is government’s carried interest.”

But to Dennis Miracles, it is absolutely irrelevant for any person to petition Parliament while the deal is already going to the August House for deliberations.

“Sometimes, people need to get busy. It’s okay,” he said.

“The Minister has already sent the deal to Parliament for scrutiny, so what’s the need to petition the House?”, he questioned.

To him, it is only a “busybody” who will petition Parliament about the same deal that is already to be laid before the House for possible deliberations.

He also opined that “a lot of the people making the commentary are jumping the gun. They are making a lot of assumptions. A lot of the points they are making are not rounded on any facts”.

“This is a negotiation. When it comes to negotiation, until you have all the facts in the negotiation room, everything you say can be either you are being emotional; you are being non-factual or you are using a lot of assumptions,” he slammed the critics.

Dennis Miracles gave these remarks on Peace FM’s morning show “Kokrokoo”.