Oil Wealth and Corruption
What does a population do when they cannot depend on their central government to protect them from harm? They either huddle together, their hopes for the future eviscerated in a constant state of fear and trepidation boosted by continuous news of assaults on nearby communities leaving hundreds of people dead, their homes and places of worship torched, their fields and shops destroyed, or they commit themselves to throwing aside helplessness and meeting the challenge head on.In an area of Nigeria where Boko Haram has pillaged, abducted children, slaughtered residents with impunity and created countless refugees fleeing their looted and burned-out villages, some villagers have killed and detained scores of the Islamist militants suspected of planning a fresh attack on them. In Nigeria's northern states, the impoverished, government-ignored areas of a country whose oil wealth is ransacked by government authorities, villagers have taken their security into their own hands.
In Kalabalge, about 250 kilometres from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, villagers decided to fend for themselves because it was clear enough the Nigerian military has no interest in defending them from the rampages of Boko Haram. After learning of an impending attack by militants, locals on Tuesday morning ambushed two trucks and the gunmen that were with those trucks, detaining ten of them, killing many more.
Borno state is where over 270 girls had been abducted a month ago. It represents one of three states where Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency, leaving his military with special powers to battle the Islamists in their stronghold in northeast Nigeria. The trouble is, although the state of emergency has been imposed, residents of the three states complain that the military oppresses them, while doing nothing to apprehend the terrorists.
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer with an annual revenue of $55-billion despite which the national statistics agency reveals that 61 percent of its people, representing about one hundred million population live on less than a dollar a day. In the heartland of Boko Haram, 76% of the population lives in abject poverty while oil revenues soar and no one can quite pinpoint where the profits have been used.
The governor of the Nigerian central bank was no doubt risking his life to complain, writing to the president directly that out of $65-billion earnings from oil sales over a period a year and a half, a mere 24 percent -- $15-billion -- managed to trickle its way through to state coffers. The balance was unaccounted for, the governor demanding an investigation for corruption.
Labels: Corruption, Economy, Nigeria, Poverty, Resource Extraction, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Friday, May 16, 2014
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