THE Nigerian oil industry has continued to play a significant role in the nation’s drive towards economic growth and development.
Nigeria remains Africa’s leading oil producer and major crude oil exporter in the world. Although herpetroleum reserves, production and exports constitute only a small proportion of the world total, the contribution of the sector to the national economy is quite tremendous.
The sector has become the mainstay of the economy, pivoting other sectors and accounting for well over 90 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and well over 80 per cent of consolidated government revenues.
There is no gainsaying the fact that all the three tiers of government in Nigeria predicate their development agenda on revenue derived from oil and are therefore vulnerable to the vagaries in the international prices of oil. Indeed, it is to be noted that oil resources are not infinite, and the fear is already there that Nigeria’s oil assets may dry out in less than 50 years.
The question has always been asked: Without oil, does Nigeria and by extension the component states have a future? No, if we maintain our current attitude of rent seeking from an enclave economy. Yes, if we look beyond the ephemeral oil present and diversify the economy.
It is gratifying to note that Delta is already looking inward and thinking ahead of the possibility of Nigeria without oil. The Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, has successfully synchronized this into his Three-Point Agenda in the form of Delta Beyond Oil, DBO.
In point of fact, for His Excellency, the DBO is essentially ‘… an economic agenda; that will develop other areas of the economy, different from oil and gas but using the current funds coming from oil and gas to develop the other areas of the economy, especially in the areas of agriculture and solid minerals’.
The DBO initiative is also geared towards unleashing the alternative sources of revenue for the economy of the state, especially in terms of development of the dormant mineral resources, which the state is endowed with. The state is guarded by the fact that oil wealth is the catalyst that engenders corruption, kills creativity and also fuels low national productivity. This, as it were, has created what is called the resource curse.