Uganda’s Oil: Does the Attorney General know his master and duties?

By Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

 It is during President Yoweri Museveni’s 25-year rule that I have witnessed first hand, and come to appreciate the difference between being educated and being civilized.

Civilisation and Education keep coming to mind every time it requires critical evaluation of Museveni’s regime. Although Museveni came to power after a five-year bloody guerrilla war, it had in its ranks some of the country’s best brains. It also kept attracting many to its political stable which is notorious for its hostility to democracy.

Many of these so called fine brains have acted in a manner that has left many shaking and scratching their heads to find one difference, at least, between these highly schooled politicians and the village peasants who have never sat in a classroom. For sure the peasants must be ordering for more potent gin to pass time and fend off their frustrations!

Attorney General (AG), Peter Nyombi Tembo, offered himself as a typical example of Museveni’s disgraced ministers when he told parliament that he cannot provide the Oil Production Sharing Agreements with Tullow and Heritage companies because he has to protect the “confidentiality clauses.” He further stripped himself of any decency and said that he can only do so if directed by government or the president. Quite unfortunate!

When I got word of this, the first temptation was to label the AG an i---t. The second was to conclude that he is a typical Museveni minister.

The 25 years are proof that Museveni treasures working with people who use their heads to wear hats, and not to reason. Critically looking at the people who have since parted ways with Museveni brings out one element: they value being independent-minded.

AG Nyombi also the MP for… sheepishly put it that he works for Museveni and not the country which picks his bills for no work done. The man is a disgrace and a nuisance.

Uganda’s natural resources belong to us Ugandans and MUST know how they are being utilized, on top of making meaningful contribution to any process geared toward their use. The continued siphoning off of our resources, by these rulers, must come to an end for the stability and development of Uganda.

The ugly truth that must be dragged to the spotlight is that those related and loyal to Museveni are becoming magnificently wealthy while majority Ugandans cannot afford basics like a meal a day. It is not because Museveni’s cohorts are hard-working, innovative or poses unique entrepreneurial skills; it is through mere robbery of national resources that they are amassing obscene wealth..

This being a criminal regime, the AG could not even know how the Oil Agreements look like. Nyombi could even be saying what he is being told to say; not what his informed analysis dictates.

The Constitution, among other duties, requires the AG to prepare and study agreements, contracts and laws to which the government is party or has interest. That is on top of being the principal legal advisor to government.

But here is a full AG pretending to be knowledgeable, powerful and on top of the situation yet at the same time is conducting himself as if he has never been to the law school!

Presuming that the AG is too dense to tell the difference between an individual and an institution, the prevailing condition in the country where a small clique of mafias is holding it at ransom, should be enough to guide his actions. Otherwise this is the time for Nyombi to prove he is stable upstairs and can independently analyse issues and defend what is in the best interest of the country. Short of that the country and the world at large will consider him not up to the task before him.

The AG’s snubbing of parliament can be interpreted to mean that he is simply another puppet that is waiting to do what the office confers upon him when he is out of office. It is absurd, but the former Prime Minister, Professor Apollo Robin Nsibambi, has shown the country that for opportunists it is the way to go.

If indeed the AG played his Constitutional role as far as the Oil Agreements are concerned, then he should boldly tell Museveni and cohorts that Oil belongs to the country. And if the Oil belongs to the country, then there is no reason, whatsoever, why the Agreements should be confidential. Whose interests is the AG protecting if not those of Ugandans?

Interests of Ugandans in the Oil resources include knowing the terms under which the gem is traded so as to establish what is due to the country. That is what Parliament is trying to establish. If Nyombi is not aware of this as well as the role and power of this August house, then he has no place sitting there let alone advising government.

In any case if the AG has no respect for Parliament then who should? Likewise, Parliament must play its part to the satisfaction, stability and progress of the country. It will be an insult of great magnitude if the president and his henchmen rob and ruin the country with 373 heads of Honorable MPs just looking on. What a shame! What a disgrace!

As demands for transparency in the oil sector take centre stage, the Speaker of Parliament must desist from shielding the Executive from public scrutiny. The Speaker, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, must allow the MPs to exhaust all matters concerning Uganda’s nascent Oil sector so that the mafias stop treating it as their personal property. Parliament’s role is to legislate and check the Executive, not to pamper, aid and shield it from accounting to the people.

The fact that at least 166 MPs have signed a petition to compel the Speaker to recall Parliament from recess, over the Oil Agreements, is proof that the country is concerned with the continued secrecy about the Oil sector. The country got some relief that the Movement MPs had some how put their heads to proper use. Bravo!

Lessons from Libya, Nigeria, Gabon and other Oil-producing countries have shown that the countries have not benefited from the sales because the rulers have turned the gem into their personal property. And as the people fight to ensure that their countries gain from the Oil treasure, this most sought after commodity has turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing.

Government’s continued claims that it wants to “protect the secrets in the Oil Agreements” is an indication of trouble brewing. After all there are already a number of robberies going on: the Global and GAVI Funds, CHOGM funds, Luweero Triangle rehabilitation funds, the National Social Security Fund as well as continued robbery of funds from the Consolidated Fund and other governmental ministries and parastatals.

These are quite insignificant sums when compared to the Oil revenues. But if they were not spared, how will they spare the trillions flowing from oil!  Parliamentarians must justify their outrageous numbers and fat salaries.

A lot of displacements are going on in the Albertine region which is flowing with oil. Royalties have not been paid. Where payments have been carried out, they have gone to the wrong people.  Mafias in Museveni’s Movement are positioning themselves for a life-long kill in the Oil sector at the expense of the country.

In Karamoja, a lot of mining is said to be going on but there is nothing to show in terms of development for the region. People are also losing their land to government officials and cronies but Parliament is yet to wake up from its slumber.

Uganda must not tread the cursed path. This will only be possible if Parliament stands up against the mafias and ensure that people are involved in the implementation of development plans and programmes which affect them.

President Museveni’s plans to give tax-payers money to the Movement- leaning companies, dishing money to the so called investors and his party faithful like Basajjabalaba are all issues of great concern to the country.  

All this is proof that Uganda today is a jungle- law state where survival for the fittest is the norm. The Federal system can help stem this thugery and its high time it is operationalised. The Odoki Commission clearly indicated that Federalism was the people’s choice.

The major reason Museveni and cohorts fronted to stifle the people’s voice was to label Federalism as a Buganda affair, although the Odoki Commission was explicit in its countrywide findings. With the continued robbery of national resources, the reasons for introducing Decentralisation have been laid bare. This robbery cannot take place under the Federal arrangement; it is the solution to presidents who vie for absolute power and claim to know each and everything.   

Better late than never; there is a way out. It is up to Parliament and all government officials to come out and put Uganda above everything else. That way they will be in a position to ensure that the country has in place, and even adheres to, laws that protect and strengthen the right to equal opportunities and development.

Most important though, is the people and their representatives to start working for their country; that is when genuine peace and development, that last, will come to Uganda.