Conflict of interest, or major political threat

Jul 20, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The news of prominent attorney-at-law, Nigel Hughes winning the leadership mantle for the Alliance For Change (AFC) brought limited reaction from the PPP General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo. He seemed bored by Hughes’s victory, as though it meant nothing to him or his party, was part of the usual routine that held no threat to power. In contrast, from the time that the ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge publicly said there was no conflict in Hughes’s relationship with his company and his running for national leadership, Jagdeo has been beside himself with impatience, anger, and open disgust. He had to know of the Hughes-ExxonMobil connection but was muted in terms of any furious criticism when the Guyanese lawyer emerged from the AFC leadership race with a comfortable 70% of the votes cast. It was only when ExxonMobil’s Routledge made that unambiguous “no conflict of interest” statement that the PPP General Secretary came out lashing.

We at this publication take the position that considering the caliber of leadership that Jagdeo has represented in his many years in office that he has much time or interest for issues like conflict of interest. The record is of a political leader who is a walking litany of conflict-of-interest circumstances, as such have occurred at different points in his oversight of government matters. They are so oft repeated and well known that his conflicts of interest have become part of Guyana’s political lore. It goes without saying, however, that Hughes’s legal representation of ExxonMobil is something that a political creature like Jagdeo could not let go to waste. He would be the first to seize the moment when it suits his purpose, if only to give him an edge in media exchanges and, more meaningfully, on the election campaign trail. In cricketing terms, Hughes’s much discussed and disputed conflict of interest is a rank long hop just begging for a big swipe to put some runs (points) on the scoreboard. But, to make the point clear, this conflict of interest of Hughes is not what has Jagdeo going crazy. Rather, it is the fact that Routledge is the one who said there is none and did so in an unflinching and unequivocal manner. Routledge is not a Guyanese political commentator with some real or imagined partisan leaning. The reality is undeniable: Alistair Routledge is the trusted chief messenger of America’s corporate oil superpower, ExxonMobil. This is the real story, this is the game changer, this is what the keen political instincts in Jagdeo warn at high volume represents a clear and present danger. Being the kind of man he is, Jagdeo could care less about conflict of interest, since he has a warehouse full of them. The ExxonMobil factor is what has him reeling and raging before anyone who would give him a hearing.

We have been reporting one ugly story after another almost daily about the uneven and strangling relationship that a dominant ExxonMobil enjoys over this country’s immense oil wealth. Instead of Guyana’s chief oil policymaker going after this greedy oil partner, he has brushed aside the exposés and abused and vilified in the most reprehensible ways this paper, its publisher, and others. The ugly exposés have been extremely costly for Guyanese. Yet the only reaction from chief oil policymaker Jagdeo has been to insult media questioners, and attack patriotic Guyanese commentators, in his efforts to stifle them into silence, and defend ExxonMobil by any means, however outrageous such may be. When Guyana’s oil interests are sabotaged by ExxonMobil, Jagdeo is on the company’s side. When, however, his own interests (his hold on political office) are threatened, even ExxonMobil comes in for its share of the Jagdeo treatment, viz., a curse and a kick.

ExxonMobil has done all that is disadvantageous to Guyana, and the man in charge of the oil sector has been a picture of serenity. Getting Guyana’s own meters at the offshore pumping stations, ring-fencing oil projects, and even something of major importance as obtaining a full parent company guarantee in the event of an oil spill have all found Jagdeo inseparably attached to ExxonMobil’s side. But when ExxonMobil intrudes into his political space, Jagdeo loses it, transforms into an out-of-control animal.

Alliance For Change (AFC), Bharrat Jagdeo, Editorial, PPP General Secretary, relationship

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