By Tracy Acen Oiko
NATIONAL
The Democratic Party youth wig of the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) has rejected European Union parliament resolutions to halt the EACOP project.
The youth led by their leader Ismail Kirya backed president Museveni on his recent remarks inwhich he called the EU parliament of shallow minded and arrogant legislators, enemies to Uganda’s economic development.
“We should not look at Museveni alone, but focus on the country first,” Kirya said while calling on political players to back Museveni.
Towards the end of last month, the European Union (EU) parliament passed a resolution seeking to halt the 1,443km oil pipeline project over environmental risks and human rights violations in Uganda
The pipeline will be transporting Uganda crude oil from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga port in Tanzania and is projected to start in 2025.
Kiirya credited president Museveni for carefully generated agreements while signing oil budget.
“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,” he added.
He pointed out that the argument, that oil proceeds will be used to entrench personal rule does not hold water.
The circumstances at hand, Kiirya said do not warrant a genuine political group to side with the outsiders because the consequences are self-defeating.
“The competing political actors need to give ideas on how the oil resource can be utilised. The better debate would be maybe increasing the quantity of oil to be refined either through constructing more refinery units here, than talk of delaying the project,” he added.
