On September 11, 2022, The EU Parliament invited Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné to answer queries about the Tilenga and East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
Pouyanné's summon follows the environmental and human rights concerns raised by the EU Parliament that led to a resolution against it. However, he rejected the invitation because the parliament had passed a resolution to halt the EACOP and Tilenga projects for at least one year.
In his letter to Ms. Roberta Metsola, Mr. Pouyanné expressed his disappointment in the EU Parliament, accusing it of undermining the “fundamental principles of the institutions of our democracies”, and it provided him 8 minutes to express himself before the committee.
“Mr. Pouyanne has a point, said Olive Najjuma while commenting on the topic during The Fatboy Show. “If you want to understand something, you first go to the source, carry out an investigation, then get back to the parliament to deliberate on the same, but the EU didn’t,” she defended the decision.
She regarded it unfair for the EU to pass a resolution to halt the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) without hearing their stance and demanding they defend themselves in 8 minutes.
James Onen, the show co-host, related the situation to a broken relationship. “It is like your girlfriend dumping you and a week later call you to go and explain what you did wrong in 5 minutes, then you decline. Because the guy would think that if she is serious about him, she would have invited him before dumping him,” he stated.
Brian Kalachi, a participant on the show, stated that he is for the pipeline project. He also alleged that the EU is trying to halt the construction not because of environmental or human rights concerns but for its own political interests.
“How would they give someone eight minutes to defend himself from all the conclusions? The intention is related to meddling with the politics of Uganda and Tanzania, not the environment, as they claim,” he posited.
Brian added, “Europe claiming that the pipeline will contaminate the water, has over 50 pipelines. The recent one goes from the sea from Norway to the UK. That alone contaminates several water bodies.”
To dismiss their environmental concerns, Brian noted that the carbon emissions from Europe contribute to 25 percent, with 10 percent of the world’s population, yet entire Africa contributes only 3 percent of the emissions.
“How these people who pollute the world with 25 percent of gas emissions think that Uganda will destroy the entire world is ridiculous,” he said.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.
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