Liquid Black Gold: The Blessing That Broke Us

Once upon a time in Nigeria, we were the envy of other black nations and blessed with so much natural resources. We were seen as the giant of Africa. One of the resources we relied heavily on was agriculture and it boosted the economy because 70% of the population was involved in farming and related activities.

Our lands was rich in cocoa, palm oil and groundnut, yam, cassava etc. People were proud to be farmers and skilled workers with less white collar jobs. Even though life wasn’t so rosy for the average Nigerian but we were self sufficient and the world took notice.

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Then came 1956,

When we dug deep into Mother Earth in an unknown community called Oloibiri in the Niger Delta… we discovered something.

It’s not water,
not even diamonds
but liquid black gold (crude oil).

There was a lot of celebration because we saw it as a blessing that could make the nations rich overnight.

And so, like a baby that is always distracted by their new toy, we forgot about our first love.
The farms became empty.
Agriculture that once made us envy to other nations was abandoned.

We dropped hoes and cutlasses and ran after the liquid black gold unknown to us that, it was the beginning of our undoing.

The liquid black gold money came so fast, and so was our problems as a nation.

Nigeria became so dependent on it that the leaders stopped thinking.

The budgets became bloated.

The elites and politicians became so greedy that corruption grew roots deeper than any palm tree ever could.

Military coup we witnessed as a country was still fueled by this same liquid black gold.

The shocking part is that even the goose that laid the golden egg, which is the Niger Delta region began to bleed and it became a shadow of itself as a result of oil spillage, environmental degradation, unemployment and poverty.

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This led to youth restiveness in the region and birth different militant groups like movement for the emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and Niger Delta avengers. In order to get the government attention, they started vandalizing pipelines and siphoning oil which caused the country billions of dollars, kidnapping foreigners in charge of the oil multinationals companies and forcing them to pay ransom and making the country unstable for foreign investors.

I still remember when the government came for them and their was heavy shoot out. You could see the militants in their white pants, charms tied all over their body holding heavy weapons use to fight the government. While some pushed wheelbarrow filled with bullets for the gunmen

Another set of people with explosives and white fetish handkerchief. They were waving it in the air, to repel any bullets coming close to them as they confront the government troops.

Those days wasn’t funny. Thank God for the presidential amnesty that was granted. The struggle gave birth to Niger Delta development commission (NDDC) and that’s where I work currently. Development started coming to the region gradually.

This liquid black gold has given us money but not development.

It provided us luxury in the cities and poverty everywhere else. A typical example is Oloibiri in Bayelsa. The first place this same oil was discovered in Nigeria. The place is like a ghost town plagued by neglect and underdevelopment.

Even till now, we’re still paying the price. Anytime you hear that there is a global fall in oil prices, we panicked. A nation rich with oil is still importing refined fuel from overseas. The three refineries is obsolete despite the millions of dollars that has been pumped into it to revive it back to life.

But guess what?

The cabals in “NNPC” in charge of fixing this refineries will never allow that happen. Why? Because they see the project as a golden opportunity to enjoy a slice of the national cake. This has been happening for almost ten years.

To the glory of God, the richest man in Africa, Alhaji Dangote, built a refinery that can supply the whole of Africa fuel and the citizens were very happy that at least a Nigerian has come to our rescue but you won’t believe who raise their ugly heads again to fight him??

The same cabals in NNPC and the marketers association that import fuel to supply Nigerians.

The excuse they keep giving is that he’s trying to monopolize the petroleum industry…. Like we care?? We can see through their fake cries already.

Sometimes, I wonder why we still retain the name “Giant of Africa” because as we speak now, the nation is staggering and standing on only one shaky leg - liquid black gold.

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And somehow, in all this madness been displayed in every sector of the country, we ask:

How did we get here?

For me, the answer is as simple as ABC.

The day we traded our hoe for the liquid black gold, that was the day we began to lose ourselves.

But the story doesn’t have to end this way.

The land still awaits us to cultivate it.

The cocoa trees still whisper in the wind.

The yams still want to rise from the ground.

And the “Africa giant” that we are popularly known as, is not dead but just asleep.

Maybe it’s time to wake it up by DIVERSIFYING!!

I will be inviting @bossj23, @samuelbrilliant and @etoro