Besigye to Museveni;” You called Idi Amin who built oil reserve tanks 'swine', what name should we call someone like you who has done nothing?”
Former FDC president Dr Kizza Besigye has lashed out at President Museveni for failure to build oil reserves in the country, noting that this has made Uganda to remain in the state of vulnerability.
Besigye’s remarks were triggered by the initiative taken by US President Joe Biden, to release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserves for six months.
This was in a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Besigye said the step taken by Biden is aimed at cushioning Americans from an increase in fuel prices due to the Ukraine war.
Besigye explained that oil and Central Bank reserves are cushions for tough times, adding that it is unfortunate that in Uganda, we have zero reserves.
“President Idi Amin (among those former leaders called “swine” by Mr. Museveni), built oil reserve tanks in Jinja and had fuel reserved! This was nearly 50yrs ago. The last we heard of these (Amin) reserve tanks was that the NRM/M7 Junta had rented them to some private people,” he said.
The last couple of months have been hard for Ugandan as the cost of living has soared due to a spike in commodity prices.
While the situation has been largely blamed on external factors such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent disruption of the global supply chain, people have cried out to government to urgently find measures to cushion them.
Last month the government revealed that it had sorted out fuel supply challenges, adding that pump prices would normalise.
However, nearly a month after the proclamation, pump prices are still above Shs5,000, which is an average increase of Shs400 from the price before the crisis hit the country at the close of 2021.
