No advice needed – Jagdeo

Feb 05, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News- When Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo says that “we know what we are doing,” he is only making a cartoon character of himself. When he insists that the government ‘doesn’t need independent advice’ to renegotiate the ExxonMobil oil contract, he makes himself into a figure of fun.

Neither he nor the president, nor the minister of natural resources, can speak frankly about renegotiation of the ExxonMobil contract. Nevertheless, the government knows what it is doing and doesn’t need any advice to guide it through a complicated process. The PPP/C Government and its leaders are a picture of subservience to ExxonMobil, but they know what they are doing. In Jagdeo’s twisted way of thinking, frightened into silence on renegotiation and doing nothing represents knowing what has to be done.

The word renegotiation drives the government underground, so terrified it is of facing ExxonMobil and saying that Guyana must get more, due to changed offshore circumstances. Guyana is now past the initial exploration stage, and well into the production stage, with more barrels of oil produced daily. Though the current count is a closely guarded secret, this country’s oil reserves are no longer the 3 billion barrels of 2016, but almost four times as much as over 11 billion barrels.

When Guyana’s chief oil minister Jagdeo should be going toe-to-toe with ExxonMobil’s Darren Woods and his team for a fair share of the national patrimony for Guyanese, his preference is to hide from them under many flimsy excuses. What Guyanese observe is a Jagdeo that is all bluster, a man now in love with his weekly diatribes, one who has lost control of himself. Worse, the man in charge of the wealth of citizens no longer has any self-respect left. So, what he does is dissemble and disagree and try to destroy those who show him all the flaws in his management of the nation’s oil bonanza.

How could seeking independent advice on renegotiating the ExxonMobil contract be to the detriment of Guyana’s interests? For the most part, national governments are usually made up of men and women whose biggest recommendation is their lust for power, which is then compounded by their push for total control. Is this not what Vice President Jagdeo has come to represent, deteriorated to, right before the eyes? Governments and their ministries in advanced countries with tens of millions of people consult with experts, listen to their counsel, and then decide which way to go. Jagdeo is telling Guyanese that the PPP/C Government doesn’t need that, see no value in embarking on such action.

It is the wise man, what makes for a better leader, who is honest enough to know what he doesn’t know, and to admit so openly. If the Government of Guyana were only to move to engage credible experts in the international arena, Jagdeo knows that that would leave him exposed to ExxonMobil. It is that dread of incurring the wrath of ExxonMobil’s top executives that drives Jagdeo to bend himself into all shapes, sizes, and forms to evade doing his duty for Guyana.

Somebody from high up in the PPP/C Government let the cat out of the bag recently when it was said that fighting to renegotiate the ExxonMobil is a sure way to lose the pending elections. Jagdeo and the PPP/C Government have convinced themselves that Guyanese cannot see their fear of offending ExxonMobil and what that could mean regarding holding on to power. Because to recruit independent experts for guidance on renegotiation of the oil contract would send the wrong signal to ExxonMobil.

For sure, Jagdeo knows what he is doing, which is to keep secrets for ExxonMobil. The PPP/C Government is doing so well that it has now operate as if it is some secret society. The government knows so much that it cannot even write ExxonMobil to express an interest in discussing renegotiation. President Ali knows that he has to hide behind “sanctity of contract”, even though that makes him look less like a president and more like a puppet. It is obvious that all that the PPP/C Government knows is that it must stay tight with ExxonMobil. Renegotiation is, therefore, sacrificed on the altar of political calculations.

(No advice needed – Jagdeo)

ExxonMobil, ExxonMobil’s Darren Woods, underground, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo

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No advice needed – Jagdeo

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No advice needed – Jagdeo

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