Whatever Jagdeo rubs becomes rancid

May 30, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

“Here we go, round the mulberry bush

The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush…”

Kaieteur News- That English nursery rhyme of yore, is Guyana’s Bharrat Jagdeo rhythm in rain and sun.  If Guyana had snow and sleet, he would be right there too dancing and cavorting round his mulberry bush.  While the big man is having a ton of fun, the small man and woman in Guyana are living on bush tea and bramble.  So, what’s new in Guyana, other than the old now refined and perfected by VP Jagdeo?

A short while back, Dr. Jagdeo was asked about publication of some mineral contracts.  Man! Did he get into gear and drove Guyanese all over town in an endless circle!  Unsuspecting media people were sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources first, then to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, and when both failed to turn up gold, they were dispatched by Jagdeo to the majestic Guyana Revenue Authority.  Instead of striking gold with a few sheets of paper, the media got a bag of grime for its troubles.  It was Bharat Jagdeo’s version of a sightseeing tour, a cruise around GT, and having a long belly laff, while making a fool of the nation over and over back then.  He said that it is his government’s standard of accountability.  Round and round Jagdeo’s pimpla bush.  When he is questioned about some of the biggest things in Guyana, Guyanese discover the strangest of revelations.  The biggest things in Guyana occupy the smallest space in Jagdeo’s head.  Thus, he sends inquirers to lawyers and auditors and doctors who are tightlipped and tied into knots.  He also has his reserve of fabricators.  Recall oil blocks and how some people got some, and nobody could say why and on what terms, and it is the same old beating about the bush from lawyers to records to ministry.  Until he latched onto the fact that there was no law in place to inhibit such political adventures, hence, none was broken.  Then, there was that big one, that mystery audit money, all US$214 million of it, that some very versatile rewrite man in one of Guyana’s ministries converted to US$3 million while everybody was watching closely.  And then back to US$214 million while the ink was still wet.  I wish I had those skills, those types of patriotic priorities.

But, it is the constitutional right of every Guyanese to the entitlement of his or her own priorities.  And if it is power and the money that flows from its acquisition and retention, then few should complain.  It is political Darwinism at its best.  And now Dr. Bharat was back with his best: the Wales gas-to-energy project.  Somebody is going to be energized, and it may not be Guyanese hoping for a cheaper light bill.  Once again, it was what Jagdeo rubs becoming rancid.  I encourage fellow citizens, the energy hopefuls to follow this track that the Wales Gas-to-Energy (Gte) has taken, compliments of Jagdeo’s expert navigational resourcefulness.  The easiest component of the Wales Gte was the miles of pipeline that Exxon laid undersea from the oil and gas sites to Wales without much fanfare.  After that, matters have gotten a little shaky.  A lawsuit has been filed by a foreign company, an American bank took an eternity to approve a loan for the onshore parts of the Wales Gte, and Guyanese only have what VP Jagdeo tells them is the basis for the project.  What Dr. Jagdeo has put on the table is nothing.  It is all of two words: trust me.

I remind all Guyana that this Wales Gte is the biggest one on land undertaken so far by any government in this country’s history.  It currently carried a price tag of US$2 billion.  The operative word is ‘currently’ because it is almost guaranteed to be a couple hundred million more.  Only a couple.  And only Dr. Jagdeo can enlighten citizens how this Gte project spiraled to between three to four times what was said to be its original cost.  I emphasize that whatever this national leader touches, some taint follows.  But the vice president is anything, but one-dimensional.  He not only has difficulty producing any pack of papers that provides the technical and economic rationales for the Wales Gte.  He can find neither the papers to lay in parliament nor anybody in his government who has ownership of them.

Prime Minister Phillips promised delivery of the Wales Gte documents thrice, and like St. Peter he thrice disowned his prior commitment.  Apparently, PM Phillips has a hearing problem, which could be as a result from all the artillery shells exploding near him during his army stint.  It is why he cannot hear all those roosters crowing after his third fall.  Hon. Minister Gail Texeira whose named was called said, ‘don’t come to me.’  Minister Vickram Bharat, another highly honourable Guyanese, was also fingered by BJ to be a trustee having access to the Wales Gte documents, and he was even rougher than Minister Texeira: don’t even look in my direction.’  After that patented Jagdeo mulberry runaround, he ran out of gas.  All of the Wales Gte documents will be shared when the US$2 billion project is completed.  That’s vintage Jagdeo: selling what he calls substance, but blowing smoke in Guyanese eyes.  Whenever there is a big jag, or momentous development, or cause for celebration, such news is broadcast to the widest audiences.  Here, Guyana’s oil and gas man goes in the other direction: under the bed, or deep underground.  I say this one last time: whatever Boss Jagdeo rubs becomes rancid.  Some have that spirit in them.  It blights all things that come out of them.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) 

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