Ghana's Oil, Will the People Benefit?

Much has been said about Ghana's oil and the revenue that is supposed to flow into her coffers by 2010. The politicians and their associates are excited that Ghana will soon be swimming in oil money. But the people are not enthused as they know the history of oil rich countries in Africa. They are also not excited because years of gold, diamond, cocoa, timber and other mineral exports has not brought any benefit to them rather they are still wallowing in chronic poverty with no access to water, healthcare, education, electricity with transport and other infrastructures crumbling. The question is will the people benefit from the oil if they could not benefit from gold and other minerals? Is there any guarantee that the people will benefit from the oil proceeds when it begins to flow in 2010?

For decades several billions dollars has been realised from the sale of gold, diamond, cocoa, timber, bauxite and many more but Ghanaians still wallow in deep poverty without electricity, water, proper housing infrastructure, sanitation. The only people who seem to have benefited from the revenue from these valuable assets are the corrupt politicians, their associates and the multinational corporations and they are the very people who are likely to benefit from the oil. The only 'benefit' the people will have as is the case of gold and diamond, will be paying for the cost of environmental degradation, pollution of soil, rivers, wells, creeks that will render many farmers and fishermen jobless.

Already effort by the government to get Ghanaians to participate in forums to discuss how the proceeds from oil should be used to help the poor has been hijacked by the politicians and the so called elite with the people reduced to mere spectators.

What makes the situation troubling is the fact that Ghana is not the first country in Africa to produce oil or gas. Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Libya and Algeria have been oil producing and exporting nations for decades. The reality is that none of these countries has been able to use the huge oil revenue to better the lives of their peoples with poverty and corruption sitting deep in those countries.

How will Ghana be different from her neighbours is still unclear but her own history of corruption in the mineral, timber, cocoa sectors and the history of her neighbours give an idea as to where she might go.

In Nigeria for example 80 million people or even more still live on less than a dollar a day despite nation receiving over $400 billion from the sale of oil. All that Nigerian leaders can show for the billions they have received are the deep poverty, violence crimes, kidnappings, instability in oil producing areas, massive official corruption seen at all levels of government both federal and state as well as environmental degradation and pollution of rivers, wells, creeks and the soil which has rendered millions of farmers and fishermen jobless. The events in Nigeria in the last 40 years since oil was discovered leave much to be desired. There have been more military rulers in that country than civilians with only one transfer of power from civilian to civilian in her 49 years of independence. The stories of Sani Abacha and that of the evil genius Babangida and how they amassed wealth at the expense of the country still resonate around the globe anytime corruption is mentioned.

The oil producing and exporting countries of Angola, Gabon, Algeria, Libya and Equatorial Guinea are not any better. Millions of people in those countries live in abject poverty and in squalor conditions while the leaders live in opulence with luxury villas and numerous fat bank accounts in France, Switzerland, United States, Britain and their colonies of save haven centres in Caymans Islands, Jersey and the rest.

The opulence among the leadership and the unparallel levels of poverty among the population in those countries, prompted a French judge to investigate how these leaders came to acquire the properties that they and families enjoy. The investigation follows lawsuits by the French branch of anti-corruption group Transparency International and rights lobby Sherpa Association. The presidents’ families and their associates have been accused of using government funds to buy luxury homes in Paris and luxury car models such as Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari and Maserati.

They also hold fat bank accounts in France suspected to be theft proceeds, mainly from oil resources. Mr Bongo of Gabon who died yesterday, “the king of bling”, and Mr Obiang of Equatorial Guinea are believed to have used their countries’ huge oil resources to enrich themselves, their families and friends. Sherpa claims the three leaders are using relatives as nominees to hide valuable real estate and cars in France as well as offshore bank accounts with huge volumes of loot.

President Bongo is suspected to be hiding 59 apartments, 70 bank accounts and nine luxury cars while Mr Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo is believed to be concealing 18 apartments and holding 112 bank accounts and several luxury vehicles all bought from money stolen from the oil revenues. Police investigations in 2007 revealed that Mr Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea has an apartment and eight luxury cars in France. Only God knows how much money sits in those accounts. A US Senate investigation in 1997 found the spending habit of these corrupt leaders to be very astonishing. The report established that Mr Bongo and his family spend £55million a year, mainly from oil proceeds.

The Independent Newspaper writes of Angola: “As the threat of starvation sweeps across war-ravaged Angola, its secretive government is coming under pressure to explain how billions of pounds in oil revenues have gone missing. A fresh humanitarian crisis has hit Angola since fighting with UNITA rebels ended. Three million people are on the edge of famine. Angola's President, Eduardo dos Santos, has appealed for international help, pleading that his government is broke. But a swelling chorus of diplomats, campaigners and angry Angolans is asking why he is unable to pay his way out of trouble when his government earns billions of pounds from a burgeoning oil exploration business that will soon rival that of Nigeria as Africa's largest. And while only a tiny amount is spent on helping suffering Angolans, every year a large chunk of the profits – between 20 and 35 per cent – mysteriously disappears. Last year, for example, the International Monetary Fund estimated the oil revenues at £2bn, of which £750m simply vanished. Campaigners such as the UK advocacy group Global Witness call it wholesale state robbery. They say that Angola's vast oil profits are disappearing into the pockets of the Futungo – a secret, powerful élite linked to President Dos Santos – on a scale similar to the excesses of the notorious kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.” Source: the independent.co.uk

According to the Sunday Times, quoting a police probe report, the Bongos bought a mansion worth 18.8 million euros in Paris in 2007. The 21,528-square-foot home is in Rue de la Baume, near the Elysée Palace, the home of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. A Luxembourg-based company that bought the home is owned by two of Bongo’s children, Omar, 13, and Yacine, 16, and his late wife Edith.

So far there is nothing to show that the 1.4 million Gabonese have benefited from the oil. In fact they have become worse off as the following 2008 Human Rights Report by US State Department shows: “The country's human rights record remained poor. The following human rights problems were reported: limited ability of citizens to change their government; use of excessive force, including torture toward prisoners and detainees; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; an inefficient judiciary susceptible to government influence; restrictions on the right to privacy; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, association, and movement; harassment of refugees; widespread government corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women, persons with HIV/AIDS, and noncitizen Africans; trafficking in persons, particularly children; and forced labour and child labour.”

The same poor human rights were recorded in the report for Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria with citizens subjected to torture, killings and inhumane treatment by the leaders. The fear is that like her neighbours in the region there is a high probability that the flow of oil money into Ghana may encourage unscrupulous army officers and unelected Ghanaian leaders to take over the administration of the nation by force and suppress all dissents as happened during gold and diamond discoveries where army officers seized power overnight, stole as much as they could and mismanaged what remained of their loot with Ghanaians and the economy ultimately paying for their reckless corrupt actions. This is what has sadly happened in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Libya and Congo which are all been ruled by corrupt dictators with over 150 years of reign between the five of them.

Apart from corruption, there is the added danger that the flow of oil revenue will lead to the collapse of other vital sectors of the economy such as agriculture and tourism due to over dependence on oil revenue. Nigeria for example used to be major cocoa and other cash crop producing hub but the discovery of oil has led to the collapse of that vital industry. Such a dependence as in Gabon has had very devastating consequences in terms of food prices, jobs and revenue losses. What is more, these countries remain crude oil producers with little diversification, a practice that makes them more vulnerable to the shocks that are associated with the oil market and explains why they continue to remain poor despite years of oil export.

Worst of it all, it is the role of multinational corporations who exploit the oil in these poor countries that leave much to be desired. These corporations acting in their own selfish interest have a history of paying bribes to corrupt leaders to secure concessions. They also have a history of helping the corrupt leaders to steal and hide their loot in foreign banks. In 2003 Elf executives admitted paying Omar Bongo $50 million a year through Swiss banks in order to win concessions. The Elf executives, who were themselves tried for corruption, also admitted paying huge bribes to Cameroon’s Paul Biya and his counterparts in Congo, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. In 2004 Royal Dutch Shell of Netherlands admitted fuelling corruption, poverty and violence in Nigeria and toady June 9, 2009 has agreed to pay $15.5 million to the family of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni eight for her complicity in their execution by the corrupt Abacha regime. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/nigeria-usa. Their secretive and non-transparent dealings with corrupt governments are no secrete. In Angola, Western oil companies such as BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron stand accused of refusing to reveal their annual payments to the Angolan government a charge similar to those in Nigeria, Gabon, Congo, Algeria and E. Guinea.

What is worrying is that these are the very companies that are lining up to exploit Ghana’s oil and nothing shows that they will operate differently in the country.

Also the lasting environmental damage the corporations will cause Ghana and the ultimate price Ghanaians will pay for the destruction of the ecosystem and the pollution of their soils, wells, lakes, lagoons, rivers as well as the destruction of fish stock that have made environmentalists to worry and as a result gearing up for a long battle. Already the global environmental destruction caused by these corporations is estimated at $1.8 trillion with oil and mining countries in Africa sharing about a third of that. In Nigeria as is in many other places Shell has refused to clean up oil spills that have polluted rivers, lakes, lagoons and soil with the people enduring the health hazards posed by it. Anyone who visits the Niger Delta Region will find it hard to come to terms with the poverty, deprivation, collapsed infrastructures, environmental destruction and the billions of dollars Shell and her counterparts make in that country annually. The only thing that has kept millions of poverty stricken people surviving is a belief in God and a hope of a better life after death.

This has been the history of oil rich countries in Africa and guided by its own history of corruption in the mineral, cocoa and timber sectors there is no doubt that without a strong monitoring and strong accountability system backed by fiscal prudence, Ghana will join her neighbours in the chorus of poverty, violence, pollution and corruption. Already the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation has been embroiled in corruption and mismanagement allegations with its former head Tsatsu Tsikata who was sent to jail on the grounds of corruption and mismanagement.

However, Ghana can avoid the calamities of her neighbours by learning from the Gulf States notably Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia where revenue from oil has changed the once barren and poverty stricken nations into prosperous ones. Even though there is a huge gap between the rulers and the people and corruption, nepotism and tyrants exist, during the last three decades these countries have been able to use revenue from oil to build their infrastructures, develop their industries and diversify their economies by focussing on technology, agriculture, tourism and financial products that is banking with success. More can also be learnt from Norway where sound fiscal management coupled with sound environmental practices has made her an icon in the world of oil production.

Instead of embezzling it or using it for white elephant projects, government of Ghana should use the proceeds to build durable roads, schools, hospitals, irrigation, sanitation, high speed train network linking all parts of the country, provide housing for low income groups and invest heavily in technology and agriculture so as to avoid being over dependence on oil revenue.

Ghana should put in place proper laws that will make the exploitation of the oil sustainable, environmentally and eco-friendly. Therefore environmental impact assessment should be conducted for every project linked to the oil operation.

The laws must also seek to ensure that oil money will not line up the pockets of the elite to the detriment of the people and the economy. Therefore, the utilisation of the proceeds must be transparent and democratic. The best way to do this is to actively involve all stakeholders including the people, the government, opposition parties, NGOs, CBOs, Church and all interest groups. Record must be kept by every institution that receives oil money and the release of those records to anyone with a genuine interest must be made mandatory.

All oil companies directly or indirectly involved in the drilling, marketing, distribution or export of oil must be made by law to publish what they pay. They must also indicate whether they have paid bribe to officials within or outside the country. Every ministry or department which receives oil money for project must publish in detail how it utilised it. The law must propose for stiffer penalties for officials and companies who will misconduct themselves.

Therefore, the law must take care of how the oil should be managed; how contracts should be awarded, how the proceeds should be utilised and how the environment should be protected. A fund could be created where all proceeds from the oil could go into with parliament given the sole power to determine and certify how money could be drawn from the fund. Therefore the proceeds should be removed at all cost from the control of the executive branch of government.

A financial court should be created to investigate and prosecute entities who may try to enrich themselves overnight. Government must hire experienced tax experts and fraud detectives to scrutinise activities of multinational corporations who may want to import their shady deals of theft, tax evasion, bribery and false accounting into the country. Government must do this as a necessity even if that means hiring foreign experts.

The media should play its role as the fourth organ of government any law that will hinder their operation should be repealed. More investigative journalists should be employed by the media houses and their capacities build up to reflect the challenges of the upcoming battle. The position of independent democratic and anti-corruption watchdogs such as Serious Fraud Office, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice should be strengthened and provided with all the resources they need to function effectively.

With this Ghana could be praised again for leading the continent in the right direction as her democratic credential shows.

By Lord Aikins Adusei

*The Author is a political activist, anti-corruption campaigner and a columnist for American Chronicle. He blogs at www.ghanapundit.blogspot.com

Why Are We Still Poor?

Why Are We Still Poor?

Look at the woman in the above picture and her surrounding carefully. Does she look like someone who has been given help by Aid Agencies like United  States Agency for International Development (USAID), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Swedish International Developmet Agency (SIDA), Oxfam, Action Aid, Christian Aid, Advenstist Development and Relief Agency (DRA)? Does she look like someone whose government has received billions of dollars in loans from the World Bank or the IMF? Does she look like someone who has received financial or material help from US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France or Italy? Does she look like someone whose government receives billions of dollars in revenue from gold, oil, gas, coltan, diamond, timber, cocoa, cotton, tea, coffee, bauxite and uranium every year? What has happened to all the aid money or the IMF and World Bank loans or aid and grants from US, Japan, European Union and the revenue from the natural resources? In short why are the people so poor when Aid Agencies are helping them every day; when the world Bank and IMF give them loans every day; and US, Japan, Britain, Germany and others give aid and grants to the people every year? Who has benefited from all these monies? Could it be the donors and aid agencies themselves or the politicians who sometimes receive the money on behalf of the people? 

Why are we poor? This is a troubling question. I cannot understand why after so many years of aid and big loans Africa still sits at the bottom of the world's progressive continents. There are so many Aid and Humanitarian Agencies in Africa claiming to be helping the people to alleviate poverty but fifty years on Africans still wallow in object poverty. Why? Could it be that the Aid Agencies are not doing any work? Could it be that the Aid Agencies only cry for attention without necessarily doing anything to help the poor? Or could it be that the aid agencies use the plight of the people to raise money and then use the money to pay their staff fat salaries and bonuses and hold big parties without necessarily using the money to help the poor?

The World Bank and IMF claim to provide vital financial support to poor countries to help them alleviate poverty but more than fifty years of loans to these poor countries poverty is still decimating them. So what happened to all the billions of dollars that the World Bank and IMF claim to have provided to the world's poor? Could it be that the Bank and IMF give the loans and then turn round to force these poor countries to use it to service old debts? Could it be that the Bank and IMF give the loans to corrupt regimes who then deposit the money in their private banks in Europe and then ask the poor people who never benefited from the loans to use the little resources they have to service the debts? Could it be that the loans are given with conditions that benefit the creditors and not the countries who borrow the money? Can the World Bank and IMF explain to the World why so many poor countries remain poor after they had received tens of billions of dollars from them?

Every year United States, Japan, the European Union, Germany, Britain, France and Italy claim to give millions of dollars to the poor countries in the form of loans, grants and what have you. But we still have not seen poverty going down or stabilising. What has been happening to the aid money that US, Japan and Europe claim to have been given to third world countries? Who receives those monies and what do they use the money for? How has the ordinary people benefited from the grants and aid? If so much has been received then so much should have been done to reduce poverty isn't it?

Every year African countries receive tens of billions of dollars from the sale of oil, gas, diamond, gold, bauxite, coltan, timber, cocoa, tea, coffee, cotton and many others. What has happen to all the money? Could it be that the money has been wasted on white elephant projects? Could it be that the money is stolen out right by corrupt politicians, the business elite and their cronies in Africa? If so could it be that Switzerland, France, Britain may be having a clue as to what has happened to all the money? I mention Switzerland and Britain because their banks have had direct link with all the corrupt regimes that Africa has ever produced from Mobutu, Sani Abacha, Lansana Conte, Eduardo dos Santos, Bakili Muluzi, Paul Biya and Blaise Campore to Ibrahim Babangida. I mentioned France because Omar Bongo of Gabon and his family have are known to have 70 banks accounts plus 59 luxury properties and 8 luxury cars in France alone and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo and his family also have 122 bank accounts, 24 luxury properties and a number of luxury cars in France alone not to mention those in Switzerland and other save haven centres. It is only God who knows how much money is contained in 70 and 122 accounts.

How do multinational corporations doing business in Africa pay for the resources that they exploit? And who receive the money they pay? Do multinational corporations declare all the profits they make in the African countries where they operate or they declare just a little and then hide the rest in their save haven accounts in Switzerland, Jersey Island, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria, Hong Kong, Singapore, Caymans Island and the rest? And how does that deny the poor people the chance to escape poverty? 

If indeed the Aid Agencies, World Bank, IMF, US, Japan, European Union, Britain, Germany, France have given so much then why are we poor? Is it lack of luck or what? I really don't know can someone please help me?

 By Lord Aikins Adusei

The Author is a Political Activist and Anti-Corruption Campaigner

 

Black History Month, Is It Worth Celebrating?

By Lord Aikins Adusei

It is an undisputable fact that Black people have contributed immensely towards the development of the world and therefore the celebration of events like Black History Month should be welcomed. However, the continuous celebration of BHM in the face of poverty, hunger, diseases and racial discrimination facing African-Americans and their counterparts in Europe today make any such celebrations meaningless and it will continue to be meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of African-Americans and Blacks in general from poverty, social and economic marginalisation and blatant discrimination.

The BHM is not worth celebrating when millions of African-Americans remain poor, cannot pay for health insurance and education; are homeless and marginalised economically; and are subjected to racism in America and Europe. To celebrate BHM in the face of all the problems facing African-Americans and Blacks in general is like Robert Mugabe having a lavish birthday party while cholera is decimating thousands of his people, while millions face starvation and the economy of his country is on the brink of collapse.

The institution of the BHM itself is an acknowledgement of the many wrongs committed by European-Americans mostly in the south against their African-American brothers whom they enslaved, maltreated and denied the basic right enjoyed by all people but does not liberate African –Americans from their current predicaments. The institution and the celebration of BHM are just superficial and cosmetics as there are deep seated problems facing African-Americans and other minorities today.

Today the old laws that favoured the imprisonment of Blacks on even minor offenses and on flimsy charges are still in place. As a result Blacks make up more than 50% of the total inmate population in USA despite the fact that they make up about 13% of the population.

An article by Louise D. Palmer, of the Boston Globe says that the “Evidence of prejudice against African-Americans in the criminal-justice system is overwhelming.

Criminologists such as William Chambliss, professor of sociology at George Washington University and past president of the American Society of Criminologists, says the Police admit that they focus their resources on black communities, particularly when enforcing drug laws and despite studies that show whites consume more drugs than blacks. “It is much easier to go into black community and pop someone selling drugs on the street corner than to go into a suburb where drug use happens behind closed doors,” he says.

Blacks are also more frequently viewed as suspects, pulled over and targeted by raids, Chambliss said.

A survey of traffic stops in Volusia County, Fla., for instance, showed nearly 70 percent of those stopped were blacks or Hispanic, according to Georgetown University Law Professor David Cold, author of “No Equal Justice.”

Police look for crimes in the ghetto, and that’s where they find them,” Chambliss said. Criminologists say sentencing guidelines were imposed in part to rid the criminal-justice system of sentences that varied dramatically because of prejudicial factors such as race, gender, individual circumstance or geography. But African Americans still received sentences an average of six months longer than whites for committing the same crime, according to a University of Georgia study”.

How good is Black History Month when lack of economic opportunities has forced millions of African-Americans to embrace welfare and crime as the only alternative? Is it enough to celebrate BHM when the walls of racism remain intact, when few African-Americans and their colleagues in Europe are found in the position of power and when majority of African-American male felons remain disenfranchised?

How many African-Americans are in the US Senate for example? President Obama was the only African-American in the one-hundred member seat Senate until his election as President. The tears of joy and the wild celebrations that we saw during President Obama’s inauguration show how far they have come.

It is on record that John McCain opposed the institution of Martin Luther King’s Day and during one of the presidential debates referred to Obama as “That one” a clear sign of disrespect for even African-Americans who have made it to the top of American society.

One commentator commented after Obama was elected that, “America has managed to elect its first African-American president and we are waiting to see if Europe will be able to have their own Black President or Prime Minister”. A clear manifestation that the policies of keeping Blacks down and out of political and economic power is not only peculiar to America.

There is every indication that Europe is no where near what America has done, it will be at least another hundred years before Europe can have its first prime minister or president from a minority background. The comments that came from European politicians like Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy and Radek Sikorski, Foreign Minister of Poland when Obama was elected attest to this fact. Berlusconi in a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow said ”Obama is young, handsome and also tanned, so he has all the qualities to agree with you”.   The Polish FM also joked that President Obama’s grandparents were cannibals.  “Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary,” Mr. Sikorski was quoted on blog run by Mr. Ryszard Czamecki a Polish Member of European Parliament. A spokesman for the FM in denying the charge also said, “Mr Sikorski did not tell a racist joke,” said Piotr Paszkowski, the spokesman. “He was only giving an example of the unpalatable and racist ‘jokes’ that surround President Elect Obama.”  

If such derogatory comments could come from top politicians in Europe who are the elite, then what will you expect from the ordinary men and women? The result is what is being witnessed in stadia across Europe where monkey chants are made against Black players and bananas are thrown at them.

In Britain and France where they have a sizeable percentage of Blacks among their population, it is very disheartening to know that institutional racism has ensured that no Black person makes it to the top. In France for example there is only one Black cabinet minister and out of the total deputies (MPs) of 577 only one is Black and none are of Arab origin despite France’s five million-strong Arab Muslim population and the same is true for Italy where there is only one Black Member of Parliament.

Black newscasters for most of the major news networks for example only come on screen in the night when most viewers have gone to bed and even the BBC is not exception. A recent survey has revealed that job recruiting agencies in the United Kingdom have an unofficial policy not to recruit blacks and other minorities as receptionists for companies and businesses. It is common to see Blacks and other minorities being stopped and searched at ports of entry in Europe by immigration officers.

Whereas policies such as Affirmative Action which gives African-Americans the chance to progress economically and socially seem to be working in America, Europe appears to be far behind America in those respects. France has resisted any such policy despite the mounting evidence poverty and joblessness among the minorities.

To make the celebration of BHM worth participating in, the US and European governments must first and foremost also pay reparations to all those blacks who have endured decades of injustices, discriminations and economic marginalisation and whose ancestors also slaved for centuries for nothing. Not only that, every board either private or public must be made to have a certain percentage of minorities as board members as is currently happening in South Africa where apartheid kept the majority Black population from holding any key position in government and private institutions. Such affirmative action policy is what is needed if integration is to work in Europe.

African-Americans and their colleagues in Europe too must take their destiny into their own hands. The African-American male population must recognise that crime does not pay and that it is only education that can free them from crime and poverty. A report that majority of US inmates are functionally illiterate and cannot even fill job application forms does not make any good reading.

The repeating cycle of teen pregnancy, promiscuity, disappearing dads, school dropouts, alcoholism and dealing and taking drugs only make the situation worst. There is nothing good than getting and keeping a job as it helps to eliminate the dangers that push one towards crime. Government actions alone cannot solve the problems and neither will such events as Black History Month. Dads should show more interest in the upbringing of their kids. Parents should get the kids interested in education and the world and its possibilities. Parents should set good examples and be role models for their kids. Blacks must be responsible citizens of their communities; they have to work together with the city authorities, church groups and civil society organisations to stop the cycle of poverty and the degeneration of family values.

There are many Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Philippinos who moved to America with nothing but have worked to make a successful life for themselves so there is no reason why with the correct attitude and support African-Americans cannot make it.

All said and done, the celebration of BHM will be meaningless unless there is a fundamental change in federal and state policies and laws towards Blacks and other minorities. BHM will remain cosmetics and superficial especially in Europe unless it is linked to the total elimination of poverty, racial discrimination, prejudice and economic marginalisation of Blacks and other minorities.