;d ;d ;d ;d ;d

Abia state .lol

Oil is an added blessing to all the nations that process it but that is if it is well managed and the nation does not solely depend on it.if u look at most of the oil rich countries u see that the money is never in public circulation.It goes to only a few people therebye making them to buy the others with a little sum(that is the beginning of corruption)what we need for naija na industrialisation.
Nigeria should take nations like Turkey and USA as an example.Turkey isn't an OPEC or oil producing nation but they face the development of industries and exportation of it product.USA have more oil reserve and produces more Oil than Nigeria but they don't depend on it.they face industrialisation also.
THE BLESSING A NATION HAVE IS IT PEOPLE.So we need the development of our human resources.which is we Nigerians.
  So let thank God we have oil in Nigeria as "an added blessing" and pray that God give us a good leader that we optimally manage our added blessing.if anyone says it a curse then let them go and live in Malawi,Somalia,Congo,Comoros,Uganda to mention few http://www.aneki.com/poorest.html

No equivocation.

To say that oil has been a blessing to Nigeria, but that the way we manage it is a curse is simply equivocating, or even begging the question.

We know that oil could not have managed itself for us to consider it a blessing, the question is in the contex of all the extranous factors surrounding naija that makes the benefit from oil less beneficial or even inimical to our existence as a nation.

Once again, I use the fire example: a skilled hand uses fire to maximum advantage, while the unskilled fellow uses fire disastrously.

Since we cannot seperate fire from the user, our analysis then becomes from the contex of the user, so we can say that fire was an advantage for the skilled user and a disadvantage for the unskilled user.

Insisting that fire like oil is a blessing save for the unskilled nature of the user is simply making circular arguement endlessly.

The question is whether oil as we see it, manage it, and "enjoy" it has done us more harm than good, not whether we could have managed it better.

Hello everyone,
Oil is surpose to be a blessing, only the people that are and have been in charge of the revenues flowing out of the sale of oil has turned oil into a curse for the average Nigerian.
Those Nigerians who think that because Nigeria is rich in crude oil, they do not have to lift their hands anymore to earn a living will also see oil as a curse, when it eventually dawns on them that they're not profiting from the oil.
Further, me thinks it's what we do or not do with the oil that matters.
There was life in Nigeria before oil, and there will always be life after oil.

We don’t need more transparency.

A new group of well intention academicians who want to help those countries blessed with natural resources to transform these in development and wealth for their citizens has recently been created. This group will summarize its conclusions in something named “The Natural Resource Charter”.

Just like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, one of its guiding principles is that helping make more transparent the information of the origin and destiny of the funds obtained from the natural resources, will make the citizens request better results. Forget it!

We Venezuelans do not need more transparency to be absolutely sure that we are anchored in an infamous oil feudalism where or feudal lord on duty keeps all the seeds and shares out what is left or what he has digested. More transparency would be like the tortured clamoring for their rights to also be seeing how they extract their fingernails.

We Venezuelans do not need more transparency to be absolutely sure that the most we can expect substituting for the feudal lord on duty with another from the same tribe of the getoutoftheway-toplacemyselfs is that he will hopefully do just what the previous did a little bit better, though always running the risk he will do it worse.

We Venezuelans do not need more transparency to be absolutely sure that our lives are wasted fighting among each other for a share in our own net oil results, wallowing in a sort of eternal piñata at the feet of the benevolent on duty who distractedly observes us with a sarcastic smile.

We Venezuelans do not need more transparency to be absolutely sure that instead of a feudal system that administers our own net oil results we need a normal government that governs our country.

We Venezuelans do not need more transparency to be absolutely sure that we are much better off trusting each one of us a little, instead of trusting a chief so much that we elevated him to be our feudal lord.

In conclusion we Venezuelans do not need the slightest bit of more transparency to be absolutely sure that what we most need is the strength and will to free ourselves from this feudal oil state in which we are trapped by requesting they give us our oil results directly, so that we can plant them… instead of discussing so many stupidities and believing in so many pregnant birds.

Per Kurowski

Translated from “El Universal” Caracas, Venezuela, April 9 2009.
http://www.eluniversal.com/2009/04/09/opi_art_no-necesitamos-de-ma_09A2286661.shtml
http://theoilcurse..com/

Oil is not a curse to Nigeria. Our Federal Socialist system is the curse. States with oil should only pay a percentage of sales to the Federal government. States that do not have oil should look and work for other sources of revenue. Spreading of wealth in our federal system has made most states to be reluctant in looking inwards for sources of revenue since the federal oil allocation is there to be shared.
This is the reason the north which was once an agricultural giant region do not see agriculture as a viable source of income anymore. There is too much power within the federal government in area of resource control that have made states to wait for federal allocation before any project can be carried out.
I do not blame the states because in the south, if they use their internally generated revenue to develop their states then the federal government will go on a development spree in the north in a bid to bring equality of development without remembering that all states has the wherewithal to generate their own income.
The northerners that are killing southerners doing business in the north will have a rethink if they know that they need tax from those southerners as a source of income too. They will be able to protect businesses and people knowing that it is in the financial interest of the state.
The percentage of oil sold that is paid to the federal government should only be used to Maintain the Defence forces, Police, Judiciary and Legislative arm of the government, every other schedule shall be within the power of an individual state to finance from their internally generated revenue.
This scenario will set the pace for economic competition within states and eventualy a well developed Nigeria. Nigeria is a bad concotion put together by the British and as long as we do not encourage individual developments we will still be where we are till the end of the universe.
We can not deny the instituted racism and sectionalism in our federal system, the only way we can get out of this is to use that which is already visible and turn it to our own advantage and that will be providing a system where there will be racial and sectional race to economic development.

For those who will come here to tell me how stupid my idea is, I think is better to have an idea than come out here, say that oils is a curse and go to bed.

Dear my fellow comrade, oil is not a curse rather ablessing, a promise from God to his choosen ones- the jews. But because we are mixed up with those we are not supossed to mingle with, it was from there we began to experience some difficulties. If u can immagine what is hapning prasently in the middle Easth, u will not mistakenly conclude the case of the Ndigbos. But surely i promise that one day althese will become a tell of the past. It may not be now but i know that it must surely come to be- the period when Nigerians must deposite thier passports b4 they will be alowed to enter to merry with us- the choosen ones. History, surely must bear us witness.

This was my essay topic and from all indications, it is a blessing which turned to a curse which I come to term "Nigeria's Petroleum: A Natural Resource or a Natural Disaster", this was the title of my paper.

Alot of factors played into why it became a curse. Moreover, the "Economic Theory of Development" argues that states with adundant natural resources esp. rentier economies of which Nigeria is a prime example underdevelop compared with states with little or no natural resources. This I found to be true. However, if u find it otherwise, then critically examine how the political economy of that country is structured.

What part of Nigeria do you mean?
The answer varies from region to region you know

The United States Congress’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission heard a testimony about the negative environmental impacts of oil operations in the Niger Delta; including those of multinational oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.

http://assemblyonline.info/2009/05/us-congress-holds-hearing-on-shell-activities-in-niger-delta/

Depending on where you stand.

If you are Govt of Nigeria sitting in abuja and getting all the oil money, it is a blessing.

If you are doing bunkering succesfully, if you are marketer, if you are those that put 'oyel' money in your pocket  IT IS A BLESSING.

TO NIGERIA as whole, it suppossed to be a blessing but

For the common and man on  the street, it is quiet possible to be a curse, as they are not seeing the benefits of oil money.