Nigeria, Mono-Product Economy and the Global Economic Recession: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Nigeria, an ex-British colony had an independence date that was heralded by the discovery and gradual exploitation of oil in commercial quantity in 1956 and 1958 respectively at Oloibiri. The discovery of this product (black gold) in a number of other nations like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya among others has contributed immensely to the social, political and economic growth of those nations. For Nigeria, available daily production data shows that the nation has equally earned over $760 billion from the export and sales of crude oil. Paradoxically, this huge revenue profile has not positively impacted upon the lives and environment of majority of Nigerians as is the case in Kuwait, Libya and others, rather most of it have been siphoned into foreign accounts by corrupt government officials. To worsen matters, for more than forty years now, all other sources of revenue earnings have been virtually abandoned. The political class has constantly fallen on one another, fighting over how the foreign revenue accruing from the sales of crude oil should be shared.