Nigeria: Pressure On Nigeria As the World Turns Away From Oil

By Bisi Daniels

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 It may assault sensibilities of some people to insinuate that Nigerians will have to drink their oceans of ‎oil, as it may be unscientific to suggest that the resource will dry up soon. But the alarm bells are ringing loudly as the world increasingly turns away from oil.

The rate at which major oil consuming countries are setting deadlines for the use of the commodity spells doom for any oil economy. And indeed Nigeria! Sooner than later we would be asking ourselves what we did with all that oil. A very expressive analyst puts it this way: "‎They say life is not fair, but God is fair. He compensated the Arabs for the harsh desert conditions with abundant oil resources, and evidently they have used it well, but why did He give Nigeria so much oil and gas?"

That may be a special favour to the country, but he doesn't answer the question. He continues another illustration: "A character will have to be added to the ancient story of talents to represent people and countries that waste their resources.

In the story, which is also a parable, a master empowers his servants with resources (talents) before he sets out on a long journey. On his return, he calls for accounts to be rendered. While some of the servants invested the talents for multiple returns, one servant decided to bury his. Some Nigerians prefer to keep resources in their domain untapped or abused rather than engage resources from elsewhere for exploitation because of the pride of ownership and other reasons - it is our oil, it is our refinery, it is our airport, it is our national asset, etc.

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