OIL TO NIGERIA, BLESSING OR CURSE

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OIL TO NIGERIA,  BLESSING OR CURSE 



  
Oil exploration and exploitation  began in Nigeria in the year  1859 and was drilled by edwin L Darke. However  it was in the  year 1956  that petroleum  was discovered  in commercial  quantity  at Oloibiri a small community  in present  day Bayelsa state in Nigeria. 

The  discovery of petroleum  in the  country  brought  about  inflow  of multinational  oil companies, some of which include Shell. D petroleum  company and British  petroleum  who formed  a corporate  alliance in exploitation  and refining  of the  product  in the  year 1956.


Nigeria have since grown to be a notable,  prolific and Dominic force among the  oil producing  states,  she became the  10th member nation of OPEC in the  year 1971. 

As much as petroleum  have dominated  Nigeria's economy  since its discovery, the corresponding  change in productivity  of other sector which have been the  mainstay  of the  nation's  economy  before  the discovery  of oil have drastically  declined  due to neglect  from governments and lack of support to propel a steady growth  for the  dominant Agricultural  sector. 
 Then, Nigeria  was the highest  producer of cocoa(Theobroma cacao)  in the world  closely followed  by west African  neighbours Ghana and  Cote'd voire also the northern part of the  country was reputable  and renowned  for production  of quality products  raging from cotton, groundnut, beans, beniseed,date palm and various  agricultural  products  servicing  the local and international  market  but today many of those farmlands  are arid ghostlands due to lack of fund,aid or support  from government  who have almost  monopolize  the source of revenue to the  nation by solely  concentrating  attention  on the  oil sector  making Nigeria  a monocultural economy. 


The country witnessed a oil boom in the early 70s,  but it has made little  impact to better the lot of the country's populace as poverty level  has snowballed all-round  the country, this arising  out of unequal  distribution  of wealth, corruption and investment  on white elephant  projects.  The U. N has estimated that as a result of corruption  80% of energy  revenues in the  country  only benefit  1% of the  population due to corruption  and embezzlement  by public  office  holders and lack of infrastructures and basic amenities  that can ease life for the  people. This has broaden the disparity  between  the poor and  the rich making over 70% of the population  earn less than  $10 a day and often have no savings  due to little  income.

A statistical  data had been analysed  to give an hypothetical  picture of standard of living  in the country. The  Base year for this  Analysis  is taken  to be year 2012 while  the data is sourced from World Bank records.  Correlation  between  fuel exports growth and GDP per capita  growth shows that an increasing fuel export of one percent  leads to an increase  in GDP per capita  growth of about 0.13 percent. Also the GDP per capita increased from $92.81 in1960 to $1555.41 in 2012 which shows an annual average growth of 5.46%.The  poverty head count  ratio has increased from  53.93% in1986 to 67.98% in 2010 Despite  the  intense growth of the  GDP per capita  which is commonly  associated  with  a decrease in poverty,  the  Nigeria's case study  shows the contrary, as increase in GDP does not reduce  poverty level. 

Recommendations

Federal  government should  develop  the natural gas sector so as diversify the oil sector  from solely  concentrating  on pms, diesel, kerosene and the  rest. As there are abundant  natural deposition  which estimation  shows is more abundant  than the crude oil as this will help prospective  investors  to delve in the  gas business and Nigeria's economy  will be  better  for it.

Federal government  should put in place  appropriate measures  to abate the mismanagement  of revenues derived  from exportation of crude oil and make realistic  monetary and fiscal policies that will help alleviate the suffering of the Nigerian  people. 

Diversification  and reforms should be made on the non-oil sectors, so as to capacitate other neglected  sector as decadence is the  order in other sectors. 

Infrastructure is a yard still for measuring  economic  development  but Nigeria  is lagging  amenities  that can better the standard  of living of the  people,  it will  be good if a weighty percentage  of revenue  from  oil sale is funded on basic, modern and development stimulating infrastructures. 

The Refining facilities  should  be upgraded  as many of the  facilities  are obsolete  and archaic limiting  the product  outputs. If better  and modern facilities are employed  in refining the product output will be increased  and Nation will be better  for it.

Author
AKINYEMI AZEEZ
Founder of 

https://amazonsophia.blogspot.com

 An experienced Analyst, Economist, Academia and Business Administrator.

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