When Nigeria discovered the oil in Oloibiri, the country could not have foreseen that the inauspicious discovery would prove life-changing. More than sixty years later, and with independence following a mere four years after oil was discovered, Nigeria as a country has seen all there is to see – sweet and sour – about oil exploration.
However, amidst the euphoria of oil discovery and subsequent exploration, Nigeria could not have foreseen that one of nature`s most important gifts could turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing.
A region run ragged with ruin.
For the good people of the Niger-Delta, the discovery of oil in their soil should have led to a change of fortunes for the golden goose that lays the golden eggs. Instead, their experience has been of a region raped and ruined.
Water sources have been contaminated as soil in the region has been rendered unfit for economic activities. Even the air people breathe is polluted and as Nigerian regions far away from the devastation continue to bask in the oil glow, with Nigerian leaders even reserving enough to be dubiously magnanimous to neighboring countries,the epicenter of the exploration remains in ruin.
The historic injustice and resentment provided the fuel that caused the militancy in the Niger-Delta to flare in the early 2000s. In many ways, it laid the groundwork of the insecurity which today ravages the country with vengeance.
If it appears that the region is at peace today, it is in many ways a peace of the graveyard as tensions continue to simmer just below the surface in a region that is no doubt more than happy to watch chaos eat up other parts of Nigeria.
Oil thieves and their tatters
Crime and criminals have always shown that they can adapt. Historically, crime and criminals have always come to take the colour of wherever they find themselves.
As oil has become the center of the Nigerian economy, oil thieves and snake oil salesmen have become more frenetic in their activities. As things stand, there are many who would shortchange Nigeria and deny Nigerians of all that should flow into their national treasury.
It is not just that petrodollars pouring into the country have spawned a succession of indolent and unimaginative governments, those wo have found their way into public offices over the years in Nigeria have been left with more than enough to steal, and how they have been very generous to themselves in this time.
Nigeria is said to be losing $40 million daily to the activities of oil thieves. In April this year, more than a hundred illegal oil bunkerers were roasted beyond recognition when fire broke out in an illegal refinery at Abaezi in Imo State.
The Federal Government is said have a list of some of those raking in billions of naira from the illegal oil business, but till now, Nigerians are yet to see it. Just as Nigerians are yet to see the list of some of those sponsoring terrorism in the country.
At the end of the day, it is a question of accountability and just how it continues to fail in Nigeria, thereby fostering an environment that is conducive for corruption.
Nigeria is up against it. Whether the government of the day can stand up to the thieves, many of who may be within its own ranks, is yet to be determined.
Determining that is key to how Nigeria can tackle a real menace.
Kene Obiezu,
Keneobiezu@gmail.com
