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RE: Crumbling Global Crude Oil Price: Is Nigeria On the Verge of Another Economic Recession?

in Project HOPE5 years ago

Nigeria, my home. I don't like talking about my home when i know there is very little i can do about it. Analyst have been warning for 5 years now that the government should shift concern from oil to other resources or trade but the government would prefer to seat with an almost finished resources (maybe not because Ogoni is still under cleanup, they haven't even started extracting, Lagos is still enjoying their newly found oil and Ogun state is still untouched). But that is not the issue. The price of oil has been dropping drastically over the last decade since the days of president Olusegun Obasanjo second term because more countries are starting to find oil (98 countries now produces oil leaving just 97 countries to depend on oil when the top 10 highest oil producing countries produces about 70% of the world oil and Nigeria isn't top 10). You see the supply is becoming higher than the demand.

The world needs more than oil and Nigeria can provide that. Agriculture is one thing from Yam, to cocoa bean (staying at the fourth most exported in the country) and others which Nigeria has left for the pursuit of oil. Gold in Osun (untouched),Abuja, Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Edo, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, Oyo State, Kogi, Zamfara, and Kaduna, what happens to this, or is it the Bitumen and Sand tar in Ondo, lagos, oyo and some other states that nobody wants to use which the country is saving for the future (i wonder what our roads are made off), or Iron ore in Kogi, Enugu, Niger, Zamfara, and Kaduna States which some foreign companies are just misusing because the government doesn't see it relevance?, or with lead-zinc (with reserve of over 10 million tons and un-mined in over 10 states), or is it the excessive limestone of over 2.3 trillion metric tons with 568 million tons of proven reserves, found in Ogun state (OTTA), Cross River stateSokoto, Sokoto state; Nkalagu, Enugu state; Okpella, Edo state); Ashaka, Gombe state; Gboko, Benue state (Ewekoro) and Obajana in Kogi state. Maybe we want to talk about Barite, coal, tin, salt, or the newly found diamond in ife?

Nigeria was depending on this resources and agriculture and was doing fine with a very good international reserve until the Black gold (oil) came and we abandoned the rest. I will say the same thing economics have been saying that the country should diversify else face financial crises in the future.

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@Gbenga thanks for the Economics and History lesson in this your well researched, thought-provoking post. Indeed, Nigeria needs to wake up and take up the challenge of the present day economic realities of the 21st century. I really do appreciate the vital points you made above. I guess the gold in Osun, Zamfara, etc were left that way because the cabals are benefitting from it secretly.

Thanks for stopping by.