Is govt neglecting Acholi sub-region?
After a protracted process, Uganda granted five production licenses to UK-listed Tullow Oil and three to France’s Total on August 30, 2016.
But while this move paved the way for the eventual production of oil from Uganda, complaints from some communities point to simmering undercurrents that could prove problematic later. In Part I of a three-part series, BENON HERBERT OLUKA visits northern Uganda, where some of the loudest complaints are coming from:
Nwoya district in northern Uganda has a considerable amount of the 6.5 billion barrels of oil that have been discovered in the country since 2006. But with Nwoya’s oil fields hidden away in the Murchison Falls national park, locals barely get a glimpse of any oil-related activities in their community.
On the morning of September 10, I set off by bus from Kampala to seek out some “distant neighbours” of the oil fields. The entire journey, which spanned 456 kilometres, ended at Got Apoli farm in Olwiyo village, one of the many large-scale farming enterprises in the vast lands of Nwoya.
A modern ranch owned by Gulu-based businessman Uma Kerubino, Got Apoli sprawls over 1,500 acres of land, with 31 head of cattle, 90 sheep, 60 goats, as well as countless turkeys and chickens.
Strewn across the headquarters of the farm are a series of farm implements, including three tractors, three disc ploughs, a mower, a planter, boom sprayer, burrower, rice huller, two trailers and a maize milling machine.
Many of Got Apoli farm’s equipment had either gathered dust or were rusty at the bolts and edges, visible signs that they had been disused for a while. Charles Komakech, who has served as the manager of Got Apoli farm for the last four years, said they had laid down their tools for the better part of 2016 due to an inability to combat relentless raids by elephants and other wild animals from Murchison Falls national park, which borders the farm.
“In 2013, we planted 100 acres of sorghum but most of it was damaged by elephants. Last year [2015], we also tried 25 acres of maize but it was destroyed totally,” he said.
EFFECTS OF OIL EXPLORATION?
This year, the management of Got Apoli farm suspended planting of any crops as they sought a better strategy for fending off the rampaging wild animals.
“The target is to resume next year [2017],” he said. “We have been thinking of planting crops that elephants do not eat, like sunflower. Otherwise, wild animals have become a big problem for farmers here.”
Komakech says they have raised their complaints with authorities because they believe the elephants are being driven out of the park by human activity, especially oil exploration. The oil fields are about 20 kilometres from the boundary separating the park from Got Apoli farm.
“We have tried to raise this issue with the people in charge but these people are not serious,” he lamented. “We have requested that they bring park rangers here but they have not done so.”
A 16-month study around four drill pads, which was done by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Uganda and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), confirms Komakech’s fears. Titled Impact of oil exploration on wildlife in Murchison Falls Park, the study says activities at the oil pads are leading to lower densities of the large mammals and birds in the park.
“Most large mammals were negatively affected by the activities at a drill pad site, even pad maintenance where there is not much activity but a presence of people and some vehicle traffic,” notes the study. “Elephants, buffalos and giraffes were most negatively affected with avoidance up to 750-1,000 metres being exhibited.”
Yet the marauding elephants are not the only concern that oil exploration activities have brought onto Nwoya district. At Pabit parish, Purongo sub-county, 46-year-old Douglas Olwoch narrates a vexing story of his two-year battle against oil companies that used his land as a waste dumping site. [See Olwoch’s full testimony in the side bar]
The LC-V chairperson for Nwoya district, Patrick Okello Oryema, told The Observer that some of the problems could have been avoided if the government had prepared the people in northern Uganda for the disruptions brought about by the oil exploration and development activities.
DEVELOPMENT IMBALANCE
Oryema also complained that the government and oil companies had not set up the requisite infrastructure that would enable locals in the north to tap into the opportunities sprouting out of the nascent oil industry.
“When you go to Buliisa and Hoima, there are a lot of construction developments that are physically visible and people really appreciate. Health centres, schools, roads, and very many other things were constructed,” he said. “When you look at all those facilities, you realise that on our side as Nwoya district, little was done.”
In fairness to government, the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) has contracted a Chinese company to upgrade the Gulu-Nwoya road to tarmac. Construction work on the road is ongoing.
The government is also offering a leadership scholarship scheme for vulnerable children to complete secondary education, and plans to set up a petroleum institute in the district.
However, the head of the Acholi Technical Working Group on Oil and Gas (ATWCOG), Prof Morris Ogenga-Latigo, says such token offers like a petroleum institute do not equate to the resource that will be extracted from the region.
“We asked for the pipeline and it has been rejected. Are we supposed to just be [the] land from which they extract oil without development to our people? When we mention that, they say they are going to build a technical school. Can you imagine equating 70 per cent ownership of oil with constructing a technical school?” he asked.
Oryema, for his part, argues that the scholarship programme should fund the education of vulnerable children until they complete university education.
In addition, according to Oryema, the government should work out a way of compensating people who lose their property to wild animals being destabilised from their natural habitat by the oil developments.
“There should be some special audit on how the oil issue is affecting the animal habitat,” he said. “We are also saying, ‘can Parliament amend the wildlife Act to take care of compensation of people whose farms are damaged by animals?’ Right now, they are not compensating people.”
BATTLE FOR OIL SHARE
The leaders in northern Uganda feel particularly hard done by the government’s decision-making because, according to the Acholi Technical Working Group on Oil and Gas (ATWCOG), the region deserves more since it hosts nearly 60 per cent of the country’s oil deposits.
In June 2014, members of the Joint Acholi Leaders Forum (JALF), from which ATWCOG is constituted, handed President Museveni a memorandum containing their observations and queries on “the lopsided planned development of oil and gas infrastructure that leaves Acholi and the North out of the picture.”
According to Prof Latigo, also the MP for Agago North, the group wants the government to deal with issues of royalty payments to Acholi, infrastructure development and representation on national oil bodies to engender equity and a sense of share ownership.
They also wonder why none of the oil infrastructure (e.g. refinery, pipelines and central processing facilities) will be built in the north yet it will provide the bulk of the country’s oil produce.
In an interview with The Observer on Thursday, Prof Latigo said they were yet to get an appointment with Museveni some two years and six months after they submitted their memorandum.
“We have not got any response to our memorandum [till now],” he said. “I asked President Museveni about it sometime back [at a public event that both attended] and he promised to get back to me but he didn’t.”
When contacted for comment on the matter, the assistant commissioner for Refining in the directorate of Petroleum at the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Dozith Abeinomugisha, told The Observer that their engagements are only limited to areas where oil is found.
“We do not have oil in Acholi. We have oil in Nwoya. We have no business with Acholi,” he insisted, before referring any further questions on the matter to the energy ministry’s permanent secretary.
Prof Latigo, however, says they intend to continue pursuing the matter with the president until they have a discussion since “oil is a long-term issue” and any dialogue on it should not be rushed. He expressed disappointment with the way the government is handling the issue.
“Government deliberately created the impression that the oil is in Bunyoro and that justifies and psychologically prepares the population to access the lopsided development,” he said.
“The government and the whole country must know that we are stakeholders in the oil since [most of it] comes from our sub-region. Even accepting that fact and letting the country know seems difficult for our government.”
In Part II of these series, we visit the oil districts of Hoima and Buliisa to assess whether the complaints by the people and leaders of northern Uganda about negligence of their oil-related issues, in comparison to the handling of similar issues in the Bunyoro sub-region, are legitimate.
hobenon@observer.ug
This story is a product of The Watchdog, a centre for investigative journalism at The Observer newspaper. It was written as part of the Wealth of Nations programme, a media skills development programme run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in partnership with the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME).