According to opposition leader Bobi Wine, the increasingly contentious initiative to build an oil pipeline from Uganda will certainly solidify President Yoweri Museveni’s decades-long control.
The most well-known Ugandan to oppose the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which has encountered difficulties as activists increase pressure on France’s TotalEnergies and its Chinese partner to withdraw, is Wine, a singer and former politician who stood for president in 2021.
Invoking human rights breaches and environmental concerns, the European Union lawmakers passed a resolution last month requesting TotalEnergies to postpone construction of the pipeline for at least a year.
Protesters claim that the 897-mile (1,443-kilometer) heated pipeline, which would connect oil reserves in western Uganda to Tanga, the port of neighboring Tanzania on the Indian Ocean, violates the spirit of the Paris Climate Agreement. They are attempting to stop the EU from giving the project any funding at all.
Wine, real name Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, expressed support for the EU Parliament’s position last month, which angered others who claimed he wasn’t showing enough patriotism.
Wine, though, refuted the allegations in a Tuesday interview with the AP and said that Museveni would be “dangerous” if he had access to oil money, saying that the forced eviction of villagers to make room for the pipeline would be similar to his own treatment as a political activist.
“As we speak now, there are gross human rights violations that are going on,” he said. “It’s important that we look into that.
Uganda isn’t ready to be an oil exporter with Museveni still in charge, he said.
“Until we have a leader that is accountable to the people until the leadership is transparent and answerable to the people until the leadership that we have is indeed a servant leadership, our oil can wait,” he said.
The oil pipeline is a sensitive issue for Museveni, who once spoke of “my oil” and whose government believes petrodollars will lift many of the country’s 45 million people out of poverty.
Reacting to the resolution by EU lawmakers, Museveni warned last month that if TotalEnergies “choose to listen to the EU Parliament, we shall find someone else to work with.”
The oil pipeline is a touchy subject for Museveni, whose government thinks petrodollars will help many of the 45 million citizens of the country escape poverty and who once referred to “my oil.”
Museveni reacted to the EU MPs’ resolution by stating that if TotalEnergies “chooses to listen to the EU Parliament, we shall find someone else to deal with.” Museveni issued this warning last month.
