Oil wealth is hardly a panacea.

last updated 8 January 2015

Uganda

Editorial

Will oil solve Uganda’s problems? asked the Kampala Monitor in an editorial. Don’t count on it. Last week, an oil prospector announced he’d found huge reserves in western Uganda, and his evidence was convincing enough to send shares of the British company Tullow Oil soaring on the Dublin and London markets. If the oil really is there in commercial quantities, then so be it, “and thank God.” But don’t expect the “quality of life of an ordinary Ugandan” to improve one iota. Plenty of African countries that are rich in natural resources harbor some of the poorest people on the planet. Congo, for example, “has the most enviable natural resources in the world and is probably the most hopeless place to be,” its cobalt, copper, oil, and gemstones fought over by brutal militias. Our neighbor Tanzania has gold, diamonds, and, of course, tanzanite—all of which has generated only corruption. And then there’s Nigeria, which somehow managed, just a decade after it started producing oil, “to become the heaviest debtor on the continent.” So we should treat this windfall gingerly. “Striking wealth from under the ground is not the same as using it well.”