Crude oil,a curse in disguise or a blessing to Nigeria

[AmaGold70]

It is true that God has bestowed Nigeria with one of the most profitable natural resources, and upon that, Nigeria is also ranked very high when it comes to oil, and gas production, but this money is not really effecting changes in lives of many Nigerians. Because of the high volume of crude oil in Nigeria, there are many international companies doing oil business in Nigeria such as TOTAL E and P, SHELL, Exxon Mobil, Naoc etc. and all these companies pay revenue to the federal government, but the fund is not properly distributed, and people actually take advantage of it. When we talk about going back to agriculture, it is not wrong to do that, and many Nigerians are focusing on peasant farming, and the support of the federal government is also needed to engage in agriculture for commercial purposes.

[KiaKia]

The solution is simple but yet hard because we all can't think the same way, if 1 million Nigerians decide to go on strike 2 million will say no, if 1 million Nigerians decide to not buy fuel for 1500 you will see someone you know saying they can't join others.

Probably because they have somewhere to go or business to run, someone will spoilt the plan of others who bleeds for a change, some people likes showing their neighbours that they are the new boss, so they will buy that fuel because they can afford to.

Nigeria and it's resources are not the problem but the people living in Nigeria, this country lacks true love, everyone is fending for themselves that they don't care hurting millions of people doing so.

[#CapsLOck]

I think something that's lacking in this discussion is to not consider agriculture and oil as competitors. The true potential is in investing in infrastructure that will increase the productivity of agriculture, including storage, irrigation, roads and processing facilities, using the oil money. That would mean Nigeria not only gets income from export of raw agricultural products but also processed agricultural products. Meanwhile, the fact that government revenue is largely dependent on oil prices makes it susceptible to fluctuations in the price of oil. Diversification would thus not only change one sector for another but would make the economy more resilient.

[Leahized]

When you have fewer opportunities to earn money. Then you will continue to work to improve the situation. But when unexpectedly easy opportunities arise to earn more money. That is when everyone wants to change their position, even leaning towards various corruption, violence, and wrongdoing for it. And this kind of problem has occurred in Nigeria. When a state experiences disruption in its food production, it gradually transforms into the slavery of others. Because agricultural based states are self-sufficient.

However, natural resources maintain the balance of a state's development, but greed, influenced by corrupt individuals, ruins everything. Nevertheless, if a person finds an easy path, they will not tread towards the difficult one. Therefore, the previous farmers will not return to agriculture in large numbers now.

[Floczy]

My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

Nigeria never left agriculture, (you asked should Nigeria go back to agriculture like Nigeria abandoned it)
Nigeria still invests in agriculture, As a matter of fact in August 2019 Nigeria closed land-border to encourage Nigerians to produce more food items like rice, beans etc locally. The idea was mainly to make Nigerians investment more in agriculture.

So it's not about investing more in agriculture or what so ever.. the country is suffering corruption and that is the main cause of why the citizens are not benefiting from the natural blessing they have, focus should be to fixed their government and not about Agriculture.

[Samlucky O]

Before crude oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956, Nigeria's economy was built on agriculture and a few minerals. Basically Nigeria fed the world and built from the ground (soil). What happened, what changed now? Corruption before the discovery of crude oil was minimal but became a national anthem the moment crude oil was discovered. Suddenly everyone is a politician and that made Nigerians to abandon agriculture because there is free money from the dubious politicians to throw around.

Although agriculture was our major source of income, but today it has been abandoned for crude oil market. Well it is obvious that crude oil is more profitable than agriculture, but however agriculture is being practiced by many but not as before. I think it is more of subsistence agriculture instead of commercial. The reason why politicians are more concerned about crude oil instead of agriculture is because of its profitability, crude oil generate more revenue than agriculture. The reason why Politicians are dragging for power is just because of the oil money.

My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

How can Nigeria go back to agriculture when bandit are killing farmers? The farm are no longer safe for the farmers, insecurity needs to be tackled before we can think of agriculture. Moreover agriculture sector has been abandoned even before that killing of farmers.

[Freeveto]

Before crude oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956, Nigeria's economy was built on agriculture and a few minerals. Basically Nigeria fed the world and built from the ground (soil). What happened, what changed now? Corruption before the discovery of crude oil was minimal but became a national anthem the moment crude oil was discovered. Suddenly everyone is a politician and that made Nigerians to abandon agriculture because there is free money from the dubious politicians to throw around. My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

This is a serious discussion; you have pointed out what has been disturbing Nigerians for long, and all these have had a negative effect on the Nigerian economy because before the discovery of the crude, Nigeria depended on agriculture, and when the crude oil came, they abandoned agriculture for some time, even though we are now going back because our bad governance has ruined the country's economy because they didn't do the right thing with the natural resources they have; they used them to build themselves and their families and left the citizens out, and now the economy of the country isn't in good condition because the Nigerian citizens are buying petroleum products as expensive as other countries that don't have any, which is mismanagement and it has become a desaster to Nigeria.

[Localhostspeed]

My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

Nigeria never left agriculture, (you asked should Nigeria go back to agriculture like Nigeria abandoned it)
Nigeria still invests in agriculture, As a matter of fact in August 2019 Nigeria closed land-border to encourage Nigerians to produce more food items like rice, beans etc locally. The idea was mainly to make Nigerians investment more in agriculture.

So it's not about investing more in agriculture or what so ever.. the country is suffering corruption and that is the main cause of why the citizens are not benefiting from the natural blessing they have, focus should be to fixed their government and not about Agriculture.

My problem with people that make.his kind of comparisons is they make comparison of early Nigeria to today and when they make the comparison, the maths doesn't add. Then before oil was found in Nigeria, we rely solely on agriculture but today the oil has made a shift in Nigeria dependency and I'm not going to blame them, other countries do it and they make money from it. Arabs depends on oil like the way we do but we have too much population.

Nigeria is more than 250m people, if you compare this number to other crude oil countries, they have low population, this is why they leave better and have a better economy than Nigeria. Don't forget that some of those oil producing countries are surrounded by other countries that are rich. Check Nigeria, all the countries surrounding Nigeria are poor countries that are barely trying to survive.

[Yeesha]

Before crude oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956, Nigeria's economy was built on agriculture and a few minerals. Basically Nigeria fed the world and built from the ground (soil). What happened, what changed now? Corruption before the discovery of crude oil was minimal but became a national anthem the moment crude oil was discovered. Suddenly everyone is a politician and that made Nigerians to abandon agriculture because there is free money from the dubious politicians to throw around. My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

Maybe that's because everyone wants to have it to themselves. Greediness is one of the major things that is hindering the growth and development of Nigeria. Greediness is what is causing corruption, and as long as it still persist in Nigeria, it will be very difficult for the country to grow. The mineral resources are not properly utilised in the way that they suppose to. You shouldn't be surprise at all. After the discovery of the mineral resources people developed their own aim. Is not about population, there are countries that have higher population than Nigeria, and things are working perfectly for them.

[abhiseshakana]

My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

How can Nigeria go back to agriculture when bandit are killing farmers? The farm are no longer safe for the farmers, insecurity needs to be tackled before we can think of agriculture. Moreover agriculture sector has been abandoned even before that killing of farmers.

For a moment, I couldn't believe what you wrote.
After i read some reference, i found out that those information are legitimate and make me shocked and I didn't know this information before. Losses on Nigeria's national agricultural sector due to banditry amount to billions of US dollars annually, and its caused the worst food crisis for nearly 100 million Nigerians.

The problems created by the bandits include :

• Reduction in planting area or cultivated land by up to 42% from 10-kilometer radius of the bandit attack site.
• Loses up to 40% of its total annual food production or equivalent to approximately +/- USD 3.6 billion
• paralysis and crippling of the food basket
• More than 180,000 hectares of productive farmland have been abandoned or damaged due to conflict and disasters that went unaddressed because of security concerns.
• Thousand case show that farmers have become easy targets for ransom kidnappings and must pay ransom payment.
• Due to the scarcity of staple commodity supplies from rural areas to cities causea surge in national food price inflation, reaching an extreme level of 40.87%.
• In the areas worst affected by the conflict, agricultural productivity plummeted by up to 70%. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were displaced and unable to cultivate their land.

This is real problem and i think It should be easy for the Nigerian military to resolve the situation area per area, since Nigeria is not at war with another country. Allocating a large military force to the bandit area will not create sovereignty issues.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/398870445_Assessing_the_Impact_of_Bandit_Activities_on_Subsistence_Farming_and_Food_Supply_Chains_In_and_Around_Oyo_and_Kwara_State_Borders_in_Nigeria
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403807802_Implications_of_the_Problem_of_Armed_Banditry_to_National_Security_in_Nigeria
https://leadership.ng/nigerias-emerging-ransom-economy/

[Taricoins]

Suddenly everyone is a politician and that made Nigerians to abandon agriculture because there is free money from the dubious politicians to throw around. My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

I'm not from Nigeria, but if there's something that my country wishes to have, it is a supply of crude oil. We are an agricultural country, but without oil to sustain the transportation and manufacturing sectors, we cannot sustain and support our agricultural sector.

Oil in this modern era is very important; it powers the economy. If you're only importing oil, you are at the mercy of oil-rich countries; transportation fares and commodity prices will rise.

I understand the burden your country must be going through but having mineral resources in African countries, minerals like oil, diamond and other rare resources in abundant feels like curse and this countries are secretly under bandage. Bandage and control from western countries with the aim to control to the resource of that country even to the point of subjugation that country into civil wars. This may sound like a story but it's true.

Agriculture is the purest form of national revenue becaue it is sustainable. Nigeria used to be one of the largest exporters of cocoa but look at where they are now.

[Qhunman]

If we have to go back to a full scale agriculture, there's enough land for that, but do you think the government is ready to back to agriculture?

The government aren't ready to diversify into agriculture which is why they aren't giving much attention or pumping money into the agricultural sectors. There main focus is at the oil sector because there's plenty of money in crude sales than the agriculture.
There are interested in stealing crudes in the Niger delta, sponsor terrorism in the north so that they can be stealing the resources in the both regions while using terrorism and seas piracy as distractions. Nigeria could go back to full scale agriculture if the government wanted as we have fertile soils that can grow any crops,but first of all,they have to ensure that farmers are protected in the north.

[danherbias07]

It is a blessing, but only abused and corrupted. I don't think it's going to go back to agriculture because of the newfound profitability. Just like when a teenager starts working even if he hasn't finished school yet. When he receives his salary, it's difficult to go back to school again.
There's already money in oil, so why go back to something where gains are uncertain? Also, I don't think the politicians there will be stopped, especially the big companies that are paying them to let them keep the business running without any issues. Anywhere there's oil, there's a big chance corruption is happening.

[STT]

Agriculture is a commodity kind of wealth same as oil but easily it could be seen as more fairly distributed and peaceful in its annual growth to the nation.   Oil is centralized, more easily diverted by corruption and fighting with pollution effects a problem too.  
  
  With an elevated oil price and great demand for stability of supply, Nigeria has a real opportunity to move forward in its ranking in OPEC and globally as an economy.
  The wealth with oil is easily greater then a crop cycle across a year or more but also it requires far greater care and management to work out as a net positive for the population overall.   Its sad to see either wasted and some in the country worse off, true investment returns real wealth and the greatest returns are with the people of Nigeria gaining prosperity in their education and health, not just black gold sold to pay bills for a few.

[logfiles]

It's not just Nigeria but other third world countries as well. The curse is not only tied to crude oil but other minerals too. The curse is not only corruption but also wars and instabilities.

Have you noticed how the whole system is rigged? Most of the third world countries that happen to be so rich with the mineral are the ones that end of with lots of issues from endless wars, corruption, very high levels of poverty and unemployment, health crisis to unlawfulness while first world countries that barely have such minerals are so industrialized, peaceful and developed.

[stompix]

Most of the third world countries that happen to be so rich with the mineral are the ones that end of with lots of issues from endless wars, corruption, very high levels of poverty and unemployment, health crisis to unlawfulness while first world countries that barely have such minerals are so industrialized, peaceful and developed.

Reverse survivor bias!
Of course, third-world countries that are rifled with corruption will still be third-world countries even with resources, but this doesn't mean every 3rd world country with resources will keep being poor. This is the evolution of GDP per capita in some of those, telling the other half of the story:



But of course, as I see in this topic in some psots, some will still blame colonialism and Europe, and so on, rather than look in the mirror.

I understand the burden your country must be going through but having mineral resources in African countries, minerals like oil, diamond and other rare resources in abundant feels like curse and this countries are secretly under bandage. Bandage and control from western countries with the aim to control to the resource of that country even to the point of subjugation that country into civil wars. This may sound like a story but it's true.

Yes, the famous European bandage! Bandage and control!
Fucking shit Europe gave you more money in aid than 10 times the resources it has paid for, but somehow we're to blame!
You had 10 millennia to take advantage of all that wealth till Europeans came; what did you do? Oh yeah, killed, enslaved, and ate each other!

[Mate2237]

It's a gift of nature that Nigeria has but no longer a blessing to the country and the reason why I'm saying that Is because the country no longer benefits from this, only people of a particular group or holding positions of power in the country are using it for their own selfish interest. Nigeria has a very large amount of crude oil which is supposed to be able to build the country in terms of development of all kinds but it has become a medium that increased corruption.


It would have been a big blessing to the country if only the masses were able to benefit from this. Crude oil is majorly the only product that Nigeria exports to other countries and the Major source of revenue the country has but the money isn't properly utilized to make the country grow. People are just looking for every opportunity that they have to monopolize this, greed has become a bug problem.

[Faisal2202]

Fourthly, crude oil, is just one of the many minerals that are found in Nigeria, uranium is way more expensive and abundant in Nigeria but not documented yet that’s the raw material for solar energy generation going right now. Their is a documentary online that says, western governments came together and had an agreement that Nigeria as a nation must not use its resources if not they will become one great economy that will power the whole Africa hence all the forceful destabilization of Nigeria is going on every now and then.

Uranium is the raw material for solar energy generation? How? Do you mean solar panels or what? Because if you mean solar panels, then they are not made by Uranium as far as I know. I checked the ingredients for solar panels, and they are.

A typical solar panel is primarily made from silicon, glass, aluminum, plastics, and minor amounts of conductive metals like silver and copper.

[Stormisover]

It is true that God has bestowed Nigeria with one of the most profitable natural resources, and upon that, Nigeria is also ranked very high when it comes to oil, and gas production, but this money is not really effecting changes in lives of many Nigerians. Because of the high volume of crude oil in Nigeria, there are many international companies doing oil business in Nigeria such as TOTAL E and P, SHELL, Exxon Mobil, Naoc etc. and all these companies pay revenue to the federal government, but the fund is not properly distributed, and people actually take advantage of it. When we talk about going back to agriculture, it is not wrong to do that, and many Nigerians are focusing on peasant farming, and the support of the federal government is also needed to engage in agriculture for commercial purposes.

The government really needs to come to the aid of farmers by supporting them with agricultural equipments, financial and moral support, the truth is that the lands are no longer fertile as it uses to be before, oil spillage is one big problem farmers in some regions are going through and which the government is aware of and they are doing nothing about it, Nigeria as a country is blessed by nature with natural resources but out of greed it now looks like a course and not a blessing.

This topic should be move to Nigeria local board, that is where it belongs if you as me.

[Stable090]

Before crude oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956, Nigeria's economy was built on agriculture and a few minerals. Basically Nigeria fed the world and built from the ground (soil). What happened, what changed now? Corruption before the discovery of crude oil was minimal but became a national anthem the moment crude oil was discovered. Suddenly everyone is a politician and that made Nigerians to abandon agriculture because there is free money from the dubious politicians to throw around. My question is should Nigeria go back to agriculture to compliment the crude oil? What is your take on this.

Do you know what our country problem is? It’s corruption. If we can solve corruption problem, then we don’t have problem in the country anymore. Either the economy will be built around agriculture or around crude oil, everything is going to be fine. Around 1956, Nigeria population wasn’t that much then, and corruption wasn’t that much during that period, and that was the reason why things were still working for Nigeria, if crude oil was discovered during that period, things will have been better because corruption wasn’t that much.

We have countries that depends on crude oil alone, and things are working so well in those countries, so corruption is just what’s affecting us, everyone cares about themselves, and they don’t even care if their actions will affect the country, and people leaving in it.