Guyana’s President on Guyana’s oil

Jun 23, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali held a rare press engagement and promptly evaded giving full and frank answers to questions related to Guyana’s national oil wealth. On the nation’s biggest money earner, Guyana’s most senior leader seemed most determined to leave the smallest footprint. Bharrat Jagdeo is handling the oil sector and, according to President Ali, there is “a healthy relationship with the Vice President on oil and gas.” He further told the media that “you have all your questions answered at the press conferences. I think you have a healthy ongoing discourse on oil and gas.” We at this publication must respectfully differ with the president on the misconceptions that he harbors.

For starters, the independent mainstream media would scoff at that claim from anybody about any type of “healthy relationship” with Guyana’s chief oil spokesman Jagdeo. Most reasonable and attentive Guyanese, those who take pride in honesty and respect for others, would describe what goes on between the independent media and Vice President Jagdeo as sickly. This is mostly due to the churlishness and venomous spitefulness manifested by Jagdeo every Thursday, usually from his Freedom House hideout.

Jagdeo is hostile and abusive, about which the president must have some awareness andanxieties. Jagdeo has reduced his management of the oil and gas sector to one of obfuscation and doing his best to run away and hide from straight oil and gas questions that call for straight answers. When those fail to make a dent in the zeal of independent media professionals, Jagdeo then withdraws behind a wall of pettiness, which is made worse by the tantrums that he throws around. These degrade from his president to his government to his country. We doubt that anybody anywhere with a streak of decency and some standards in them would define the vice president’s weekly press conference as having anything “healthy” about them. Vulgarity from his verbal explosions, and the obscene from his tired mental acrobatics with the nation’s oil feature prominent. Most sensible, fair-minded citizens would interpret Jagdeo’s aggressiveness as someone who has many secrets to conceal, ongoing fears of exposure. When these are considered, and they are not the full story of Jagdeo’s gimmicks, President Ali is either misinformed or, worse; he is pretending at ignorance and appears to be part of a massive coverup that hurts Guyana’s interests.

Frankly, President Ali should know that in the haste of Guyana’s top oil manager to stand fully for ExxonMobil and its ravishing of Guyana’s patrimony, his presidency takes a hammering. Further, he himself is coming under sharp scrutiny relative to such burning questions as to how much he knows, how much he prefers not to know, and how much he seemingly doesn’t care about how this vital oil and gas sector is managed. The outcries against Jagdeo oil and management have been consistent, and not only from local sources. There is the widespread belief that the vice president has transformed into a master dodger on oil, and a master bluffer when all his escape routes have been cutoff. The claim of ‘I have answered that before’ sounds lame and is a laugh. Jagdeo’s entire leadership history has been one noted for shiftiness and elements that do not add up. By now, it should have registered deeply with President Ali that Jagdeo is the wrong man in the wrong sector going about overseeing his nationally sensitive duties in the wrong way.

Abuse does not deter honest inquiry but gains strength in that the objects of Jagdeo’s diatribes become even more persuaded that he has much to hide. The sense is that he fears opening his mouth and dots are connected. Many Guyanese are struggling to give their president the benefit of the doubt when he said that “you have all your questions answered….” by Jagdeo. We are confident that this country’s young and robust leader does not have a hearing problem. The only conclusion, therefore, is that President Ali is trying his on hand at the Jagdeo game of denial and drifting around oil and gas issues. It was obvious that President Ali loaded up his own press engagement with less important stuff and satisfied himself with continuing Vice President Jagdeo’s oil farces.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

answers, earner, Editorial, President, questions

Latest News

Guyana’s President on Guyana’s oil

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Similar Articles

Listen to the The Glenn Lall Show

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Guyanese lads wrap up weather-affected series with win over Bajans

VIEW ALL SPORTS

Features/Columnists

The return of the kakabelly

Sir. Ronald Sanders

The Caribbean Is Being Forced to Reconsider Trade Dependence on the...

The GHK Lall Column

Five words that fit many Guyanese politicians

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

> Berbice Bridge […]