Oil: Can Uganda avoid Ghana's gold curse?
By Stephen Nuwagira The discovery of minerals or oil and gas in any country excites citizens and leaders because confirmation of commercially-viable quantities of the resource could be a harbinger of an improved economy and livelihood.But problems come when law-makers draft policies that do not properly guide on the use the money accruing from the resource or how to exploit the resource sustainably. This has led to destruction of the bio-diversity in resource-rich areas and betrayal of the citizens’ expectations as communities in these areas continue to wallow in poverty, with poor social amenities and low standards of living. Such a situation is what is being experienced by the Teberebie community in Nsuaem, Tarkwa constituency in Ghana’s gold-rich Western region, and could rear its ugly head in Uganda’s resource-rich regions if the Government does not ensure sustainable exploitation and proper use of oil returns. Although Ghana started mining gold in the area decades a