The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) supports all efforts aimed at extracting and selling Uganda’s oil including the construction of a refinery, pipeline and other infrastructure.
Speaking to journalists at the FDC head offices on Monday, the party publicist Hon Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda added that Uganda has invested heavily in the oil sector and there should be no delay in taking it to the market.
“The country has invested heavily in the oil sector and cannot afford to delay its sale. We have invested EUR 309, 100,259 in the construction of an international airport and over $500 million in roads. We have paid billions in compensation and invested heavily in the provision of electricity,” Ssemujju said.
The FDC’s position comes against a backdrop of European Union (EU) resolution cautioning TotalEnergies to immediately withdraw from the project.
EU voted on a motion for a resolution to stop the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), citing human rights violations and the negative environmental effects of the project both in Uganda and Tanzania.
But President Yoweri Museveni reminded TotalEnergies and CNOOC that if they choose to listen to EU, government will source “someone else” to work with.
The FDC urged NRM government to also listen to EU’s concerns.
“It is for this reason that a high level of transparency is required in this sector. As FDC we welcome any information regarding the management of our oil resources We, therefore, thank the European Union Parliament for the resolutions it has made regarding compensation, climate and human rights,” Ssemujju said.
“All that we expect the Museveni regime to do is not to hire demonstrators to storm EU offices in Kampala or swear racial obscene words but to respond to each of the issues that the EU has raised.”
“FDC has picked these issues and our research department will follow them. Let Museveni and his aides not treat oil as an NRM project.
This is a national resource that must be managed transparently. People whether black or white must be free to speak about it,” he concluded.