UYD Press release
For immediate release
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4th/10/2022

On 14th/09/2022 A resolution was passed by the European Parliament for the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

Uganda and Tanzania, as well as TotalEnergies as the implementor are to delay development of the EACOP for at least a year according to the EU resolution.

The proposed 1,443km heated pipeline, which will run from Albertine region, western Uganda, to Tanga Port in Tanzania, has been a major target of environmentalists for years. It’s the main crux in Uganda’s oil project, where production is projected to start in 2025.

As UYD we strongly support the project because it’s to a greater extent it will be supporting the country’s economy. We should not look at Mr Museveni alone but we should focus at the country first to condemn such a project.

President Museveni has been careful in regards to Oil agreements and extraction. Other political actors are saying the oil should not be extracted for now.

It is necessary that all political parties come out and say their stand over the same.

The oil agreements indicate that some oil will be refined here and the other oil will be transported as Crude and be refined from outside Uganda.

Negotiation to get a refinery with in Uganda was also not an easy task on the Ugandan govt.There ought to be rallying points from all political actors on certain policies more so when they benefit the Country.

It is difficult to understand the position being taken by other political actors. It looks,by acting as open agents of foreign interests,that will make them stand a chance of being aided by foreign powers to lead Uganda.President Museveni needs to be credited in instances where he has acted in the greater interest of the Country and more so in the oil negotiations.

With the bigger issues on ownership of the pipeline,then it would go down to the national character of those being employed in the very sector as well as other sectors and this area needs improvement.

There are huge benefits of having a refinery in Uganda in addition to the bi_products which will of course boost the economy.
The argument that what is got from oil will be used to entrench personal rule does not hold so much because the current president will not live forever even if he was to continue holding power to his last breath. Systems eventually fall due to opposition or on their own and those that take over from them need to have where to start from.

The bigger the economy the better whether under dictatorship or not.
There are different seasons,all governments have their expiry dates however much strong they can prove to be.The circumstances at hand do not warrant a genuine political group to side with the EU because the consequences are self defeating.

Competing political actors need to give ideas on how the oil resource can be utilised better than the current government.
For instance the quantity that will be refined is very low compared to that which will be exported in a crude form per day.
The better debate would be may be increasing the quantity of oil to be refined either through having constructing more refinery units than the suggested but not saying the pipeline needs to be haulted for now

The country has a very big debt burden which we hope the project can help reduce.

However we pray for prompt compensation of the owners of the land where the pipeline will pass, we condemn any manner of delay in the oil project.

Uganda Young Democrats would like to disagree with the way Uganda has started using the student to fight her EACOP wars instead of having them In class studying.
We thought this is the time students should be using to concentrate in order to compensate the years wasted during the covid lockdown which ladted for over two years .

On 29th/09/2022 students under the umbrella of UNSA protested the European Union parliament resolution adopted on the 15th/09/2022 to stop the Uganda – Tanzania oil project. The students marched through the city in their school uniforms holding placards urging EU to abandon Uganda’s oil under the watch of Uganda police, an act which was good and but acted by wrong people because most of them are under age and don’t know what they were doing.

Uganda Young Democrats would like to inform the general public that UNSA is not a public/state body corporate but and NGO/ Co. limited by gurantee whose patronage is under president Museven. One can wonder why of all the protests this was cleared and the match was being guided by Uganda police which is never the case in Uganda.

As Uganda Young Democrats we would like to condemn UNSA, Uganda police and president Museven for misleading the young people into a demonstration which we surely know they don’t understand . It’s high time for Museven to start fighting his battles than passing them on to innocent students who clearly don’t know his mission.

This is not the first time President Museven is using under age kids to fight his selfish battles, he was also took young kids to the bush to fight for his wars whose end results is being enjoyed by him and his family upto date. The evil spirit of using the young kids has come back again through his NGO UNSA and this time we shall not allow it. We are calling upon President Museven to desist from using underaged children from fighting his wars and allow children to stay in schools and study.

Kiirya Ismail
UYD PRESIDENT