Sunday, December 9, 2012

Oil: What if Museveni handpicked Bigirimana for Energy minister?

Whether one is in the village, 300km from Kampala, or just next door to Parliament, the time for all of us to act has come. How do we want to be judged when all this is over?

As part of our effort to ensure civic education for citizens concerning pertinent matters which affect this nation and their livelihoods, Global Rights Alert, along other civil society organisations undertook a nationwide three day drive to sensitise people on the ongoing oil legislation affairs. Our area of operation was western Uganda.

The experience was worth every effort. It is not easy having to be on three radio stations in one day, some far apart by as long as 40km over some of the most deteriorating roads, that made it even harder to predict if one would make it in time.

Engaging the local people upcountry on national issues or more cynically, ?Kampala issues?, has its own surprises. Sometimes one may be misled into thinking that the level of awareness is very low and one needs an entire hour on the chronology of events, only to be outpaced by their well conversed opinions.

Secondly, the simplicity with which people easily interpret issues, when enabled, and how ready and first they are willing to ask. Have people lost all hope in a transparent oil revenue system? Kind of. From the about 150 callers that had matters to raise, the whole argument would keep drawing in the examples of Geoffrey Kazinda and Pius Bigirimana and in fact one caller was candid to ask, ?What if they now decide to make Bigirimana the minister of energy?? It is a hard sell anywhere, this giving of powers of licensing and revocations to an individual minister instead of vesting them in an institution.

How easily we can deteriorate into hopelessness. The roads are bad, the health centres are but in name, the schools decrepit, and yet people will tell you candidly that even with all this anticipated money coming in, nothing will change, they shall still go on toiling as ever.
Of course, sometimes it is good for one to lower their expectations in order to avoid grave disappointment. But would the oil revenues be to blame or rather the people that are entrusted with managing them?

Unaware of the machinations, arm-twisting, and jostling involved in the recommital of Clause 9, people were wondering how low their respectable and honorable representatives in Parliament could get to a shouting and rambling match, when, to them ,they are supposed to be somberly conferring upon grave matters.

But as one of the co-hosts, Fr. Gaetano Batanyenda, was quick to point out in defence of their actions, when they tell you your house is burning, you don?t say ?let me first compose myself, tuck in my shirt or brush my shoes before rushing?. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
The question then is how do we move on from here? Put the matter to a referendum. The general consensus here is that if indeed this is ?our oil?, why then are we not being involved in discussing everything there is to do with its management?

The role and exertion of Parliament on this upstream Bill notwithstanding, most callers actually expressed their desire and willingness to have a national referendum on whether the authority over oil is vested in an individual or an authority.

Some are quick to say that some executive directors of statutory institutions have been reporting the loss of millions of shillings from their bedrooms. But even then, when those have been found out and sacked, how does one compare such with the many ministers that have embezzled so much only to keep bouncing back, alas in different portfolios?

This call against thieving and mismanagement of national resources is one all Ugandans must not afford to tire of. Yes indeed, newspapers keep having splashed on their headlines, stories of missing billions.

It is now time to put in place safeguards to keep such terrors from happening tomorrow such that all we can wait for, is read them in newspapers five years from now and start regretting why we didn?t act. And whether one is in the village, 300km from Kampala, or just next door to Parliament, the time for all of us to act has come. How do we want to be judged when all this is over?

Mr Turyatemba is the project officer, Global Rights Alert

Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/Oil--What-if-Museveni-handpicked-Bigirimana-for-Energy-minister-/-/689364/1639430/-/u1f6n9/-/index.html

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