Latest update October 28th, 2026 10:25 AM
Numbers that tell Guyanese horrors
(Kaieteur News) – The PPPC government has a defence for any development that reduces it to an embarrassment. Data used to make a point is aged, or those taking the government to task are anti-PPP, so they are biased contributors, who always have an axe to grind. We do not know what government leaders and spokespeople will do now, but we know what the numbers tell us about Guyanese circumstances, the forbidding nature of them.
Two responsible local institutions, the University of Guyana with a study, and the Bank of Guyana through its recent Annual Report, informed the world what it is like to live in Guyana. Rising prices can be compared to a raging virus that strikes the vulnerable and weakens them further. The numbers, from two of the higher national institutions, report the horrors of living in this oil rich country, where current daily production of oil is over 900,000 barrels. Something has to be grievously wrong when a nation that is celebrated for being a young and vibrant oil producer at the edge of producing a million barrels of oil daily cannot take care of its citizens. Not even a million citizens, and there are those who sometimes, are forced to go more than a day without a meal, not even a snack to eat. A rich oil producing country that the government likes to boast about, or an impoverished one, where the voices of the hungry are ignored, or overwhelmed by a barrage of feel-good propaganda.
Reality in the villages and streets indicate how Guyanese are forced to tighten their belts and cut corners to manage in an environment of spiraling prices. The UG study showed that, the Central Bank annual report presented it, then an ExxonMobil consultant confirmed how difficult life is for Guyanese. The ExxonMobil consultant, Acorn International, is no stranger to Guyana, and its own Environmental Impact Assessment was brutally frank in presenting the results of its work on the eighth oil project, Longtail. In addition to those who have no choice but to go with smaller, or fewer, meals, there are those citizens who, in this oil rich country, are buying cheaper, less nutritional meals in efforts to stretch their dollars.
Another oil project adds more pressure on food prices already skyrocketing. More workers mean more food have to be supplied to the oil boats operating offshore, plus those working on land in supporting capacities. Imported food items are contributors to the foreign exchange burden that Guyanese businesses and citizens struggle to get their arms around. This is part of what Acorn International warns could be among the consequences of the Longtail oil project, the eighth, for strapped and anxious citizens. More oil exploration, new oil projects, and greater levels of oil production all race ahead at breakneck speed. Guyanese on the lower end of the economic ladder, however, are falling behind and losing out. From straight out of Acorn’s review, Guyanese voices seeped through: “They don’t feel like oil money is helping them directly.”
That is an indictment of the PPPC government, cuts to pieces the claims of its leaders that all Guyanese are benefiting, that policies designed to steer oil money to the people is making a difference. How could that be so, when approximately a third of Guyanese sampled admitted that life is such a challenge for them that they are eating less and less nutritionally? Moreover, when 1 in 20 citizens stated that sometimes they have to go without a meal for a day, or more, are they benefiting from their oil bonanza? For sure, it is a bonanza, but only less than one percent in Guyana’s population have truly prospered from it.
We have consistently pounded the drum about government’s misplaced priorities that have inflicted severe pain on poor Guyanese. Annual budgets provide the best evidence of where leaders are, through what and who they favour. Further, how record budgets squeeze those who desperately need help, but the PPPC government ignored that, too. Leaders like President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo take offense at such representations, even spoke lightly about where Guyanese are. ExxonMobil’s own study just revealed how Guyanese have it hard, and what is contributing to their predicament.
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