About two weeks ago, Mr Malte Gallee tabled a motion in the European Parliament calling for the cancelation of the EACOP project sighting human rights and environmental concerns.

Gallee’s motion has drone mixed reactions across the nation, with the elite and political class banishing the resolution as an act of imperial mentality in the 21st century, notwithstanding, what crowned the debate for me is the demonstration by what looked to be Boda boda riders and local citizens who took to the streets to express their anger at what they called the Bazungu (white people) meddling in Uganda’s affairs.

Let alone the social media-ranging debate and hauling of insults with some
evoking ugly memories of the slave trade and subsequent colonial rule in Africa by the elite political class. However, in my view, the European Union representatives should be concerned with the fact that locals who have waited for years with the hope of alleviating their poverty through the oil revenues can take to the streets.

The mistake politicians make is to think they know more than anyone else, Mr Gallee who was in Uganda a few months ago for the first time now argues as if he is an expert on Uganda affairs. Why didn’t he consult with his diplomats in Kampala before running to the parliamentary ‘floor to evoke unnecessary tensions?

In his naivety, Gallee quotes two climatic incidences, saying the first time he
stepped foot in Uganda, a local daily was carrying a front-page headline reading 900 people had died due to hunger and a week later the same local daily carried another front page headline reading floods kill 900 people I wonder where 900 people died in Uganda due floods if these figures are not being manufactured in Gallee’s head.

Gallee attempts to justify his argument that Uganda is battling extreme climatic challenges and the construction of the EACOP will turn Uganda into a desert of sorts, surely EU parliament can do better than this. You can’t base legislation on an ignorant rhetoric by a poorly informed MP.

Uganda has two rainy seasons and yes much as we have been experiencing
changing climate patterns we have not gotten to the place were one would base the success of our oil industry on the people drying of hunger in Karamoja and the torrential rains across the country.

Are the Middle East, North West Africa, and all the other nations producing fossil fuel, experiencing these two climatic extremes? The fact is that under the leadership of President Museveni, the development of our oil industry has been carefully managed and this has been a big problem for those who had predicted the oil curse on Uganda.

Very many external forces that have attempted to disorganise the development of Uganda’s oil industry have failed. Gallee’s empty rhetoric is just one of those many attempts by the western civilization that think no black man can get it right in a quest to develop themselves.

Just like the president assured the nation, the oil pipeline will be constructed and Gallee and his masters will do nothing. Europe no longer enjoys the monopoly of financing projects across the globe like it did a few decades ago, the new boys on the bloc like China and India are stepping in to fill the void being dictated by EU.

The best the EU parliament can do is utilize its diplomatic personnel stationed in Kampala, but engaging in colonial tendencies of sitting in their capitals to legislate for Africa casts them in a very bad spot in today’s world, if not the leaders, the African population will stand up to fight this new colonialism being imposed on the African continent, we shall not allow another scramble and its subsequent partitioning of Africa again by European sittings.

The writer is an Analyst and Communications specialist
fmagomu@gmail.com