( Kaieteur News ) – Businessman and social commentator Glenn Lall has questioned what he described as the misplaced priorities of the Guyanese public, arguing that the country is consumed by debate over President Irfaan Ali's massive farming operation while remaining largely silent on what he considers the far greater issue, the management of Guyana's oil and mineral wealth.

Speaking during one of his recent social media commentaries, Lall said the nation has become fixated on the President's cattle, sheep, poultry, aquaculture and cash crop farm, even as Guyana continues to receive what he called an unfair share from the Stabroek Block.

8 million acres; or how foreigners got thousands upon thousands of acres of your mineral-rich lands.

"Guyanese have gone wild over President Ali's cattle, sheep, poultry, fish and cash crop farm, but have shown little outrage over the giveaway of the Kaieteur, Canje and Stabroek blocks assets that are worth trillions of US dollars and could have transformed the country's landscape and uplifted every Guyanese had they been properly negotiated."

Businessman, Glenn Lall

According to Lall, public attention has instead been consumed by calls for scrutiny of the President's farming operations while fundamental questions surrounding Guyana's oil wealth continue to receive little public pressure.

He argued that Guyana continues to accept a two per cent royalty from ExxonMobil under the Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement, while citizens remain unable to independently verify the volume of oil being produced each day.

"Still accepting two per cent royalty from Exxon, where Guyanese are blocked from seeing the meters with the true figures of what is being pumped every day that is not something for Guyanese to roar about. Ali sheep farm is more important," Lall said.

He further contended that Guyanese have not demanded greater transparency regarding what he described as ExxonMobil's inflated expenses, which directly affect the country's share of profit oil.

"Not getting even a glimpse of Exxon's inflated expenses that affect the country's share of oil profits, your pockets, Guyanese not roaring, protesting or putting up a fight over that," he said.

Lall also questioned why there has been no comparable public outrage over the transfer and sale of interests in Guyana's offshore oil blocks.

"Imagine the whole country getting shafted daily inside out, and all we hearing about is the call for an investigation, not an investigation of how Exxon is shafting the country daily but on Ali farm house."

He noted that ExxonMobil and its partners were able to sell portions of their interests in Guyana's oil blocks for billions of US dollars after acquiring them at no cost, while Guyana at the time was struggling to meet debt obligations.

"Exxon and others turned around and sold huge portions of those oil blocks that was handed to them free, pocketed billions of US dollars, when Guyana was finding it hard to meet its debt payments. I didn't hear any roar from Guyanese on that, but I am now hearing a big roar about Ali chicken farm."

While acknowledging the calls by some for accountability regarding the President's farming operations, Lall argued that citizens should apply the same intensity to the country's natural resource agreements.

"He must resign and get out of office? When will I hear from the Guyanese people, 'Exxon must make this oil deal right or get out of Guyana?"

Beyond oil, Lall said Guyanese should also be demanding accountability for the country's other natural resources.

"When will I hear Guyanese roaring over the highway robberies going on in our gold and diamond fields, our bauxite, timber, manganese and uranium fields that the foreigners moving mountains for? That is not on Guyanese lips, or on their minds."

He also questioned the public focus on the acreage associated with the President's farm while, in his view, paying little attention to the vast areas of mineral-rich lands controlled by foreign companies.

"Everybody asking how he get 150 acres, but not how Exxon alone get 6.6 million acres; how the owners of Kaieteur and Canje got 4.8 million acres; or how foreigners got thousands upon thousands of acres of your mineral-rich lands. That doesn't bother Guyanese."

Lall warned that Guyana's wealth "beneath your feet and beneath your ocean" continues to disappear while national attention remains fixed elsewhere.

"Your wealth is vanishing daily, all in total silence. But when it comes to Ali aquaculture farm, the country wakes up in an uproar."

He argued that the national conversation should instead center on ensuring Guyanese receive every dollar to which they are entitled from the country's oil and mineral resources.

"That is the conversation Guyana should be having, because that is what will shape and protect you, your children and your grandchildren's future. That is the question I leave with you."

Lall concluded by warning that history would ultimately judge not merely the scale of Guyana's oil discoveries, but whether the country's people truly benefited from them.

"One day, the history books will record Guyana as having made the greatest oil discovery on planet Earth. But the chapter that will matter most will not be how many billions of barrels of oil were pumped. It will be whether that wealth lifted the people of Guyana out of poverty, or whether Guyanese watched in silence while it built empires for other nations.

"That chapter has not yet been written. It is being written every day by the decisions you make, and the issues you choose to focus on as a nation."

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