By Idris Abubakar Katagum

First discovered in Oloibiri, a village in the creeks of Niger-Delta, crude oil or black gold as nicknamed in comparison with the precious metal has been a source of controversy for many years, as regards its impact on the development and general economy of the Nigerian nation. Many a pundit has fruitfully argued that oil has been more of a curse than a blessing to Nigeria. Others are of the opinion that oil can never be a curse, since it has brought riches and fame to this part of the world. Whether oil is a curse or a blessing depends on the spectacle through which one chooses to view the entire phenomena behind the three (3) lettered word.

The oil boom, over four (4) decades ago, has brought about dramatic increase in revenue generation and further brought the country in to limelight as the largest producer of oil in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the oil and gas journal, the Nigerian government has received over 500 billion US dollars in oil and gas revenues over the last forty five (45) years. During this time, Nigeria was globally recognised as the largest exporter of crude oil in Africa and was ranked sixth (6th) largest exporter in the world, and as such the country has gained a louder voice in the community of nations.

However, despite the huge wealth and fame it has brought, oil has also brought misery, wretchedness, woes and war. Even with the prodigious revenue realised as the proceeds of oil exploration and processing, Nigeria has over the years sustain a progressively elevated level of abject paucity, underdevelopment, augmented corruption as well as total and senseless defilement of the natural environment. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 112.519 million Nigerians live in horrible poverty as at 2012, and a 2014 report by World Bank put the Nigeria’s poverty rate at 33.1%.

The quest and subsequent exploration of oil has brought about issues of environmental degradation, which has continued to leave sour spots across many oil communities. Ogoniland, which until recently was left in anguish as a result of oil spillage, is an example of communities that have suffered serious damages. Many plants and animals species, which are extremely beneficial to man, are day-by-day being confronted with imminent danger of extinction due to the action of harmful chemicals and other hazards, associated with oil drilling and processing. Gas flaring, another lethal operation in crude oil refining has in no small measure polluted the ambient air with carcinogenic and a good number of other deadly substances, beyond the threshold limit value (TLV), thereby rendering it unsafe for inhalation, and at the same time increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases, which are responsible for the incessant warming of the globe. While oil may arguably be a decent source of revenue, the impairment it causes to the environment cannot be quantified in monetary value.

The decline in the competitiveness of other economic sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing was also as a result of the oil boom. The unearthing of oil has deterred us from painstaking planning needed to craft a robust economy that will provide job for our teeming population, generate reasonable revenue for the government and earn the country sufficient foreign exchange. Agriculture which the country was widely known for, prior to the advent of the black gold has now virtually fizzled out, and we have become radical importers of all sorts of foods. The groundnut pyramid in the north and the colossal farming of cocoa in the south have all, to some extent, largely owed their disappearance to the overdependence on oil revenue.

Another woe associated with oil is war. Severe internal crises have continued to thrive in most oil producing communities. The immediate and remote cause of militancy in these regions is nothing but oil. The people of these regions feel marginalised in sharing the resources they considered theirs, and hence their decision to take up arms against the perceived biggest beneficiaries of the oil proceeds.

Even with all these atrocities perpetrated as a consequence of oil, it will amount to blasphemy for one to out rightly infer that “oil is a curse than a blessing”. As countered by many, it is the management of this resource that is a curse rather than the oil itself. But without oil, perhaps one wouldn’t have to bother about the management.

Source: http://www.opinions.ng/nigerias-oil-curse-blessing/

Lalasticlala, Mynd44, Seun, OAM4J, Jarus, Gbawe what do you think: oil is a blessing or curse to Nigeria.


I think it is a blessing that is being misused.

A Curse in Disguise.

Yes it's blessing..the only curse Nigeria has are it's greedy leaders

I didn't read this article because even the title is flawed

Oil in Nigeria is never Nigeria's own!!! When last did we hear statements like "Nigeria's Fulani cattle a curse or a blessing?" or "Nigeria's -northern- cash crops a curse or a blessing" or "Even -yorubas'- self acclaimed sophistication a curse or a blessing?"

Until then, all the political activities in Nigeria has been a ponzi scheme. If the title had had "crude oil in nigerdelta region of Nigeria a curse or a blessing" or "Nigerdelta's crude oil a curse or a blessing to Nigeria" maybe I would've taken the article very seriously.

Until we start putting little things like this into consideration in this country, things won't cease to fall apart!

sorry1:
I didn't read this article because even the title is flawed

Oil in Nigeria is never Nigeria's own!!! When last did we hear statements like "Nigeria's Fulani cattle a curse or a blessing?" or "Nigeria's -northern- cash crops a curse or a blessing" or "Even -yorubas'- self acclaimed sophistication a curse or a blessing?"

Until then, all the political activities in Nigeria has been a ponzi scheme. If the title had had "crude oil in nigerdelta region of Nigeria a curse or a blessing" or "Nigerdelta's crude oil a curse or a blessing to Nigeria" maybe I would've taken the article very seriously.

Until we start putting little things like this into consideration in this country, things won't cease to fall apart!

What country is the Nigerdelta in? Stop being petty to the point of incoherence.

A big blessing in the hands of few cursed persons.

maclatunji:


What country is the Nigerdelta in? Stop being petty to the point of incoherence.

It will sound incoherent and petty to your likes, I'm not surprised.

Tomorrow you will be here dragging who owns Lagos with igbos but you won't ask "Is Lagos not in Nigeria" and it won't sound "incoherent and petty" to you.

It's your reasoning power I pity and not your entirety.

maclatunji:
Lalasticlala, Mynd44, Seun, OAM4J, Jarus, Gbawe what do you think: oil is a blessing or curse to Nigeria.


I think it is a blessing that is being misused.

Is uncle Gbawe still al***?

sorry1:
It will sound incoherent and petty to your likes, I'm not surprised.

Tomorrow you will be here dragging who owns Lagos with igbos but you won't ask "Is Lagos not in Nigeria" and it won't sound "incoherent and petty" to you.

It's your reasoning power I pity and not your entirety.

We the Igbo people own Lagos. If you annoy me this night I'll tell Emeka my nigga to evict that talkative Oba Lil Wayne who came to squat after setting his palace on fire with mouth.

Hehe. Afonjo people want to claim "our oil" but don't know that FCTs Lagos and Abuja is also "our city".

sorry1:
I didn't read this article because even the title is flawed

Oil in Nigeria is never Nigeria's own!!! When last did we hear statements like "Nigeria's Fulani cattle a curse or a blessing?" or "Nigeria's -northern- cash crops a curse or a blessing" or "Even -yorubas'- self acclaimed sophistication a curse or a blessing?"

Until then, all the political activities in Nigeria has been a ponzi scheme. If the title had had "crude oil in nigerdelta region of Nigeria a curse or a blessing" or "Nigerdelta's crude oil a curse or a blessing to Nigeria" maybe I would've taken the article very seriously.

Until we start putting little things like this into consideration in this country, things won't cease to fall apart!

It's your own argument that's actually flawed... A sane mind shouldn't approach an issue through the lens of tribalism... Until the Niger Delta leaves Nigeria, Nigeria will always supersede it in any events that occurs there whether good or bad. That's why it's a region within Nigeria and not the other way around.

All of the above

Crude Oil will remain a blessing forever. The mis-managament and poor maintenance culture that has plagued Nigeria is what should be considered as a curse. It will be silly for anyone to say Nigeria was doing well before oil was discovered. What resource has the 'Nigerian people" been able to manage efficiently decade over decade. Even human resource has depreciated i.e quality of our educational system.
The problem is social i.e people problem. Deformed mind, hardwork and integrity not appreciated, mediocrity always celebrated e.t.c. If oil were to be a curse, other nations would not have exploited and used it to their numerous advantages.

If there were no oil, Nigeria would have broken up decades ago.
The North would have been derelict now.You

It's a 'big curse.'

A blessing... the curse is our foolish, theft leaders

it depends.......base on logistics

yeye kwession.........

If it is not a blessing...why is the president hell-bent on spending billions of dollars to search for oil in north?

A mishandled blessing

A mismanaged blessing.

A curse, but used to be a ble ble.

Russia have oil, America have as well, do they look cursed? Abeg leave that thing. Tribalism, Bigotry, Nepotism and monopoly are the virus an Average Nigerian is suffering from.

An average Nigerian is suffering sha, only you go suffer bad govt, only you go suffer bad road, only you go suffer Nepa wahala, only you go suffer poor education system, only you go suffer police harassment, only you go suffer bad weather, wetin sef, will this country ever get better?

A blessing handled by the cursed

Oil is the only reason Yorubas and Hausas are rejecting Biafra division...

but deep down, they hate igbos,

cause if every one were to be on their own, NigerDelta would be like America..

A blessing to the few elites all over Nigeria and a curse to all other average Nigerians

A blessing to the elite who have stakes in Oil and a curse to the masses who have been rewarded with tribalism and religion while they pilfer the resources away.

Make this what you will:

The Oil Wealth belongs to every Nigerian and especially the people who own the land that the oil is found. Go after your oil bloc owners and demand what belongs to you. We do not have up to 1 million slaves with guns (police, soldiers etc). They are ignorantly working to protect the very crooks who share the oil wealth without knowing. I believe a massive revolution of 180 million people to their homes and their assets and taking over these assets will send a message to the world.

Who will bell the cat ? Certainly not me. And you will say, not you. So we are where we are, and will remain where we are, and our children will continue where we stop in the college of lamentation until a crazy man, crazy enough to change the country comes along. And it does not happen in less than a thousand years.

What I am saying is, we can choose to act now or never. There is always Now.