Nigeria is the world's sixth largest oil producer and exporter today in the world. Nigeria is synonymous with oil and oil wealth all over the world and Nigeria is also a major player in the powerful global oil cartel that is known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Any disruptions in the oil production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria today will affect the entire global stock markets, the value of the American dollar, the international price of a barrel of oil in the international oil markets and the economies of the nations that depend directly on the Nigeria's oil. Nigeria produces about 2.5 million barrels of oil out of the global daily oil production of about 88 million barrels a day. Nigeria's oil is also of a higher grade because of its less sulphur content and the today's most powerful nations and economies in the world, such as the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy and China are all highly interested in the Nigeria's oil and their own billions of American dollar worth of investments in the Nigeria's oil fields.
This oil has also put Nigeria on the international map for the worst environmental neglect and the massive degradation of the communities where this oil is found and drilled. The oil in Nigeria has also produced militants who are fighting for more political autonomy and resource control for the communities of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria coupled with the ongoing hostage taking of the international and local oil workers for ransoms. This oil in Nigeria is also projected by the global oil experts that it will dry out completely around 2040 at the current yearly production of about 1 billion barrels of oil by Nigeria. The Nigeria's oil reserves is estimated to be about 38 billion barrels of oil left untapped at the moment.
According to the reliable estimates from the World Bank and from the other western financial institutions today, Nigeria has made close to $700 billion from her oil sales alone as her state revenues since this oil was found in the commercial quantity in the 1960s. These international financial bodies also reported that between $300 to $400 billion from this oil revenue had been stolen or siphoned away by the past and the current Nigeria's leaders and their highly corrupt top government officials into their own private foreign bank accounts in the western world, the Middle East and the Caribbean. After almost 50 years of this continuous oil production and oil exportation in Nigeria, it is so sad today to note that there is nothing physically present or tangible on the ground today in Nigeria to show for this enormous oil revenue that had come for the last 50 years into the coffers of the Nigeria's successive governments.
Today in 2013, Nigeria can be described simply as a failing nation in all ramifications. The poverty rate has increased from below 20% when this oil was first discovered to over 80% today in the midst of this enormous oil wealth. The unemployment rate in Nigeria is now about 23%. Millions of Nigeria's workers in both the private and the public sectors of the economy are still earning poverty wages. The nation's infrastructures are so old, inadequate and over stressed. Nigeria's national health care system is still at the Stone Age level today in 2013. Our nation's educational structure is still at a century away and behind the rest of the world. The nation's social services in 2013 cannot meet the growing needs of the Nigeria's citizens and they are nothing to write home about today. The nation's population is left uncontrolled and it is projected to hit 400 million persons in 2050 at the current annual growth rate of about 3.2%. The value of the Nigeria's national currency the Naira is depreciating yearly, rapidly growing inflation controls the national economy and the standards of living of the ordinary Nigerians are falling yearly. Terrorism and genocide by Boko Haram, insecurity of life and properties, lawlessness, brutalities, religious uprisings, kidnappings for ransoms, hostage takings, public lynchings of petty thieves, political murders, sectarian killings, armed robberies and arsons are the order of the day in Nigeria today in the ocean of this enormous oil wealth in 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment