The international community has looked on in suspicion as countries like China steadily expand their interests on the African continent. The natural resource that has drawn Uganda into the spotlight of foreign investment this time is oil. While Uganda was excited when the discovery of oil in Western Uganda was announced by the president in 2006, many Ugandans are wary of latest developments. The Ugandan Government squirms at comparisons with Nigeria or Chad but the fear is real that the story of Uganda’s oil may turn into a tale of civil unrest, squander and greed instead of changing the economic landscape of the country for the better.
Iran is one of Uganda's newest development partners. It is interested in building an oil refinery for the processing of Ugandan oil and investing in the value chain of this young sector. Preliminary talks between Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Museveni of Uganda concerning Iran’s investment in Uganda’s infant oil sector as well as in further areas of development cooperation had been held before in Iran. Almost a year ago, in May 2009, President Ahmadinejad had received President Museveni in Iran for an official state visit.
Iran's Nuclear Program
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his Uganda visit to add another brick to the long-standing friction between Iran and the international community. It was inevitable that the nuclear question would come up at press conferences held during the visit.
The Uganda visit gave President Ahmadinejad a platform on which to repeat defiance of what he claims are unjust policies by powers such as the United States to use the advantages of nuclear power for themselves while restricting countries like Iran of the same gains. The US has accused Iran of consistently derailing international efforts to peacefully resolve the nuclear dispute. While the US has no clean slate to speak of where nuclear weapons are concerned itself, the Iran-Uganda friendship does raise a few questions.
It would seem that President Ahmadinejad is attempting to win over Uganda as a UN Security Council (UNSC) member in anticipation of US-pushed sanctions on Iran. Uganda would use its seat on the UN Security Council to vote against the sanctions.
President Museveni viewed the visit however as a chance to gain a deeper understanding of Tehran’s actual nuclear ambition so as to help explain the matter to other world leaders from point of knowledge, not speculation in subsequent discussions of the nuclear energy matter.
New Investment Partners Uganda
Admittedly, Africa and Uganda, need all the investment partners they can get. Uganda’s education institutions annually spew job-seekers out into the streets with few prospects for employment. A thriving oil industry would reduce the land-locked country’s dependency on foreign petroleum, health services and public infrastructure could do with a boost. It also goes without saying that a move from foreign aid dependency to active investment would do Uganda and indeed Africa good.
Initial concerns with Uganda's latest development partners have to do with the state of democracy in these countries. President Ahmadinejad stopped off in Zimbabwe before coming to Uganda – the association is not necessarily deemed flattering by some. Also with respect to China, not everyone is convinced that Africa's search for economic advancement is going in the right direction.
Some would say that whereas foreign aid comes with demands on African heads of state where human rights and democracy are concerned, the new friendship offered by nations such as China, or in this case Iran, comes with no such demands and the common understanding that there is no criticism on Africa’s part of injustices in these other nations. Be they good intentions or bad, only time stands to tell if Uganda's new partnerships are good for the people or not.
Iran, Uganda Take Stand On Foreign "Aggression"- By Hussein Moulid, AHN News Africa. 25 April, 2010
Uganda at crossroads over Iran leader’s visit – By Tabu Butagira & Richard Wanambwa. Daily Monitor, 23 April, 2010
