Nigerians continue to die from incidents related to oil theft, tragically showing in stark terms the true cost and real curse of Nigeria’s oil.
When Nigeria fortuitously struck the black gold deep in the nondescript sands of Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, even the colonialists who were packing their bags to leave Nigeria at the time could not have foreseen how completely the precious resource would rewrite the country’s history, largely in black.
More than 60 years down the line, while Nigeria as a country has largely flown under the radar of international development, languishing in what is largely a rut, oil has arguably become the most valuable natural resource in the world. It is a profound irony that just as Nigeria has become one of Africa’s richest countries as oil wealth has poured in, its citizens have travelled dourly and sourly in the other direction, becoming some of the world’s poorest people. Indeed, according to the World Bank Group, more than 100 million Nigerians live below the international poverty line, living on less than three dollars per day. Beyond forging and fostering a deleterious culture of corruption, this disconcerting disconnect between Nigeria’s national oil wealth and the quality of life of its citizens frequently unleashes a fusillade of deadly consequences.
Almost every year, Nigerians die from one unnatural disaster or the other involving oil. The cases have been heartbreaking. The death of about 37 people at Okari Jetty in Okrika, Rivers State, in early September, after inhaling toxic fumes during an oil theft is just one case. In October 2024, about 150 persons died in Majiya, Niger State, when a fuel tanker exploded while they were stealing oil.
It bears questioning the desperate circumstances that have made Nigerians thieves and victims of that which is ordinarily their most prized possession.
Oil was supposed to bring life to Nigeria, yet what it has ultimately done in the past 60 years is to slowly bleed life out of Nigeria.
Money has come into the country, but everything else that is valuable has gone out, lost in the petroleum haze and hysteria. Public health and public services have all collapsed, dragging public dignity, decency, and decorum down with them. Nigeria’s major tragedy is that a country that thought it found something valuable enough to sell everything else sold everything only to discover that it had sold its soul.
Over many incredible years, Nigeria has failed to devise a system to ensure that everyone benefits from its oil. This pathetic lack of planning and emphatic absence of equity and empathy has resulted in a citizenry always in a rat race to steal their oil. No dog chews a bone tied around its neck.
Desperate Nigerians cut off from Nigeria’s oil pipeline and caught out by harsh economic realities are forgetting their dignity and embracing agonizing deaths.
After these many years, it has become clear that Nigeria’s oil resources have been a curse not a blessing. While Nigeria has not exactly used its oil resources to build up like other countries, Nigerians have not covered themselves in glory either. Oil spills are not occasions to scoop oil. Instead, they should be treated as a public emergency to safeguard lives and property.
Ike Willie-Nwobu is a social thinker and development expert