That is a problem that a country which is rich in natural resources and then they've allowed foreign investors and businessmen to come to them. The necessity for these investors to get their natural resources will rotate to their business and it comes with a hefty fee. The profit is high from these and yet, it is the people that suffers from that innovation and business deals. There's little to no return to the locals who are near in the exploited area that's being dug for their natural resources. Like now, the EVs are becoming more and the materials need to create battery is important through mining the components of it in vast lands.
There is nothing wrong in foreign investors having interest on your natural resources because as a nation, you need foreign investment, most countries have foreign minister and ambassadors, they all work together to market the country to other people. However, it becomes a problem to me when they try to sell the resources to a particular country or groups because of behind deal that has already been seal before the public was later concluded and that gives room for massive corruption and public looting.
The oil barrels produced in Nigeria, the government has borrowed money from the foreign companies that are extracting oil here, so everyday that the government are extracting some barrels of oil, there is a percentage that goes to them, which shorting the amount the government makes in a day. As of that's the worst, the crude oil are not refined in Nigeria as the government doesn't have one working refinery. They sell this crude oil at cheap rate to other countries and rebuy at high price to use the refined oil for motorcycle and others.
If they explain how useless some government are, you will never understand them and I think my government are the worst if you compare them to other countries.
Situations like Nigeria, having the resource is somehow worse than not having it. The countries that have oil are underperforming on virtually every human development indicator when compared to those that do not have oil.
The government borrowed money from the same foreign companies that are extracting the oil, you said. Read that again. They borrowed against themselves. That's a debt trap wearing a suit. And the deal terms are negotiated in rooms that citizens will never be in.
This huge refinery was built by Dangote, the biggest one in Africa supposedly. At this moment it cannot even secure consistent crude from NNPC. They are importing oil from UAE and Libya literally. A country that produces oil. I cannot even find words for that other than institutional self-sabotage. Whether its intentional or just incompetence at a scale that borders on criminal.
