The Slums and Nigeria Oil Money

No question, the entrapment called Nigeria is well known in the oil business it is one of world's biggest supplier of oil. That image of oil has set up a tone that Nigeria is a very rich country bubbling with life portrayed by the haves, even though when one takes a close look at the changing phases and events of the common man, bogus businessmen and government officials to see how oil has controlled and doomed the country in its entirety, the country is nothing but a jungle despite its oil wealth and its enormous human capital.

With all that oil, the nation seems to be underdeveloped and moving backward by the day, with the above picture of Njemanze Waterfront in Port Harcout, the hub of the nation's oil well taken by Candace Feit of New York Times. In President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's presentation of the 2008 budget he projected a total revenue of N1.96 trillion in which eighty percent of that will come from crude oil sales with a "presumed exchange rate of N117 to the US $1."




So, Mr President, how about the slums in the neck of the wood where oil is produced? What are you going to do about it? Would there be another Fela Anikulapo Kuti to tell it in your face that corruption has eaten the entire nation it is now baked in every Nigerian gene? Apparently, the oil boom is not ending anytime soon since war here and there has catapulted oil sales, once again to the top.

Nevertheless, the poisonous substance called oil has created all sorts of characters in Nigeria which is disturbing and bizarre. Nobody wants to get anything done but to engage in mysterious underground economy, using oil as a tool that fuels bitter conflicts often seen in the Niger-Delta crisis which indeed has destroyed any hope of ordinary development. The above picture speaks for itself.