Uganda: West Interested in Our Politics Because of Our Oil

(This is an excellent piece underlining why the West is Africa’s number one enemy…even with their democracy, which we are said we inherently lack)
Keen observers will note that as we count down to the 2011 elections there is renewed interest and focus by the West on Uganda more than ever before. They are right in saying that we should have proper democratic benchmarks, but they will go to ridiculous levels and finer details of our politics like hyping up minor incidents like somebody hurled a mineral water bottle at the leader of the opposition (which may not even be true, but they never take time to find out).
The New Vision
By Karooro Okurut
Kampala - The discovery of petroleum resources in Uganda and the newfound potential with which it clothes the country has captured widespread attention across the globe. Many commentators call it yet another chapter of good news from a country that is now set firmly on the right track.
By November 2009, it was estimated that Uganda had several billion barrels of oil principally in the Albertine region, but with plenty more on the outskirts. In a world where oil is possibly the most cherished commodity and possibly the biggest and best bargaining chip, the discovery of oil and the potential it holds for Uganda means this country has now taken on even more weight in the eyes of the West.
The attention that Uganda is now enjoying in the international community means many countries will want to take centre-stage because they want the oil.
Oil means many things. Money and jobs would come to mind first. Increasingly tight oil supplies will continue to push the price of oil higher with the cost of crude hitting $150 a barrel by end of 2010 and soaring to $225 a barrel by 2012, forecasts a new energy report from CIBC World Markets.
Uganda's attraction and profile as an investment destination has increased tremendously and the country will soon have better bargaining chips at the global roundtable. Oil is now being consumed four times faster than it is being discovered, and the situation is becoming critical. The world now consumes 85 million barrels of oil per day, or 40,000 gallons per second, and demand is growing exponentially. But oil production in 33 out of 48 countries has now peaked, including Kuwait, Russia and Mexico which are now generally viewed as countries with declining oil production.
With limited discoveries of oil worldwide, it just so happens that Uganda is only one in very few cases where oil has been discovered in the last 10 years. The importance of oil is in part shown by the discrepancy between who has it and who uses it most. Interestingly, while the US and Russia have vast oil reserves, they do not rank among the big exporters, since they use almost all of what they produce. In fact although the US has immense oil resources, it imports 60 percent of the oil it uses. Almost 40 percent of the energy used in the US comes from burning oil.
With approximately five percent of the world's population, the US is responsible for some 25 percent of global oil consumption. About 15 percent worldwide is used up by the European Union; meaning that the rest of the world put together subsists on the 60 percent. Translated into international relations, this means that the US and EU (who comprise what we normally call the Western World and who form the bulk of the donor community) are wont to pay more attention to oil production than anybody else in the world because energy is critical to their nation's security and material wellbeing.
A state unable to provide adequate energy resources to its citizens is asking for its economy to grind to a halt. The fact that those who need oil most are not the ones who produce it in large quantities means that oil is therefore not only an economic issue, but a highly political one.
Little wonder that in 1990 then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait in his desire to control more of the world's oil reserves. That would have meant two things for Saddam: money (dollar for dollar) and global influence. Little wonder still that the United Nations wasted no time in putting together a force that attacked Saddam and threw him out of Kuwait.
The force that comprised Operation Desert Storm included 500,000 US troops and the goal was simple and straightforward: ensure continued unfettered access to oil. (I stand to be corrected if I am wrong). The rich West will go to any length therefore to ensure that oil producers are either on good terms with them or are under their firm control. That is why we have seen cases of the West installing puppet regimes in some countries so that they can order them around without too much trouble.
Oil-producing countries therefore come under scrutiny and the rich West makes it a point to follow up everything that is going on in those countries to the minutest detail, because their economies are largely and almost incurably dependent on oil resources. In short, the era of the international community taking nothing more than passive interest in Uganda is firmly behind us and we should prepare for the glare of the global spotlight.
Keen observers will note that as we count down to the 2011 elections there is renewed interest and focus by the West on Uganda more than ever before. They are right in saying that we should have proper democratic benchmarks, but they will go to ridiculous levels and finer details of our politics like hyping up minor incidents like somebody hurled a mineral water bottle at the leader of the opposition (which may not even be true, but they never take time to find out).
No doubt at the back of their minds is the awareness that if they do not take close interest in our politics, China now a quickly growing threat to Western global hegemony will surely keep close tabs and that in a way that fundamentally undermines Western interest. China has the strength of numbers and a growing military might, but so far not much yet by way of economic muscle that reaches superpower proportions.
The Chinese who have a no-questions-asked approach about democracy and human rights have over the last few years entered the African market, a sign which does not exactly enthuse the West.
As our oil potential grows, we should expect to see continued Western interest in Uganda's politics. Just watch this space.