By: Frans Sinengela
PDM leader MacHenry Venaani has disagreed with the statement made by President Hage Geingob on Al Jazeera last week.
Geingob said that although oil has been found in Namibia, people should not be excited because it does not belong to them.
The President repeated his message on Tuesday when he met opposition parties at the State House.
Geingob said that legally, the oil does not belong to Namibians but to those who invested in exploration and extraction.
In an interview with Eagle FM, Venaani said that excitement or no excitement depends on the government’s strategy in value addition and creating jobs in the country from the oil.
“The reason why the President shows no excitement is because he might lack strategy on how we can make oil beneficial to us”, he argues.
Venaani further said that the government is supposed to be engaging with the Angolan government to discuss the construction of an oil refinery and invite billionaires such as Dangote to invest in an oil refinery which can either be in Namibia or Angola.
According to him, Geingob is creating a wrong aroma by saying that the oil does not belong to Namibia when the constitution clarifies that every resource extracted from the country’s shores shall belong to the state.
He further called on the government to see that there are proper negotiations with those exploring oil so that the resource may benefit Namibians by creating jobs and improving people’s livelihood.
“They are exploring on our behalf, but the oil is not theirs. It is ours,” he said.
Venaani further stressed that it is up to the leadership to make sure they have a robust win-win strategy on maximising profits through the value addition of the just discovered oil for the benefit of Namibians.
Venaani agreed with Geingob when he said that it is very costly to explore oil, and companies engaged in the exercise will want to make up for the money they invested.
At the same time, Venaani calls for the government to make proper consultations so that proper negotiations result in the state benefiting from the oil.
“Dangote has built a refinery in Nigeria as a businessman. Why don’t we call people of such magnitude and work on building a refinery in Angola or Namibia, and even Gabon that close to us, something of this nature that will benefit all of us?” Venaani said.
“I agreed with the president when he said we should not be excited, but we should develop a coherent strategy for the future,” he said.
He further said that if he should meet the President, he will give him strategic ideas on making sure that profits will be maximised to the country’s benefit.
“My office is already engaging some billionaires of this continent on how they can come on board and invest in our oil sector.”
Furthermore, Venaani is calling for the government to be transparent in all dealings and negotiations as far as this oil is concerned.
“A party politburo must not make decisions,” he said.
I’m 100% in agreement with honorable Venaani. How can the country be blessed with riches such as oil and because of so-called unability to discover or develop it, it belongs now to those with the ability to do so? Our leaders must stop selling our country to foreigners.
we have diamonds, copper, and uraan but because of the same stories they are not ours? Until when are these rubbish stories going to continue? God bless our country with rich minerals but we are throwing it away because it is better for the people to suffer the way we are suffering. What kind of leaders are we sitting within our independent Namibia? I’m disappointed. Please stop selling Namibia for peanuts otherwise I don’t see any difference between the independent government and the colonial government