We Have Traveled This Road Before - A Nigeria Without Oil: Imagine a Nigeria without oil! After the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates, agriculture was the mainstay and mitochondria of the Nigerian economy until we stumbled upon the black gold in Oloibiri, Bayelsa state. The fallout of this discovery was that oil became inserted into the genetic sequence of the DNA bases of our economic drivers of growth with the attendant relegation of agriculture to the background Growing up as kids in the early 80s, we were regaled with abundance. Choice of food was not a problem, just as money was not much of a problem. How proud we were to be Nigerians from our lessons in civics, and subjects like Agricultural Science and Social Studies. The high point was Practical Agricultural Science where every student had a piece of land allotted to him/her to cultivate farm produce. Pictures of the intimidating height of the groundnut pyramids in the north, the cotton farms that provided raw materials for the now interred textile industries and the extensive cocoa farms and other cash crop plantations in the south, were indelibly engraved in our hearts. Nigeria was indeed a giant and the forecast was good as we looked promising after the amalgamation. The Groundnut pyramids was a replica to the famous Egyptian ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt. The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built. The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. The huge success of the agricultural sector of the northern part of the country took a nosedive as the pilot our ship of state went on a May Day hail sequel to the discovery of the black gold in the south south of the Lugardian enclave and the disappearance of the famous pyramids of groundnuts off the radar from the control tower in Kano. A brief lesson in history may suffice. Festus Akanbi writing for ThisDay surmised thus, the formation of groundnut pyramids was the idea of late Alhaji Alhasan Dantata, a business magnate who was also a merchant of kolanuts, based in Kumasi, Ghana from where he shipped his goods to Nigeria by sea. In 1919, late Dantata returned to Kano at the height of the groundnut boom and became the most prominent Hausa trader to benefit from its commercial success and in five years of his involvement, he became a major supplier of groundnuts to the Royal Nigerian Company (RNC). Kano in northern Nigeria became famous in world commerce during Nigerian’s period of agricultural boom, especially between the 50’s and 70’s and it contributed 70 per cent of the region’s export earnings. In other regions of the country, agriculture played a very prominent role especially during the period of the Second World War (1939-45) when conscious efforts were made by the colonial administration to encourage massive production of food for the army and civilians in Nigeria and Europe. Production of export crops like palm products and rubber which could not be obtained from Malaysia as a result of Japanese war activities in South-East Asia, and such food items as sugar, wheat, milk, eggs, vegetables, Irish potatoes and rice whose importation was prevented by naval blockade of the high seas increased. A special production section of the Department of Agriculture was set up to deal with the situation. Achievements of the period include the development of “Alien Cotton” in the south; rice cultivation in the Sokoto, Niger, Ilorin, Abeokuta Colony and Ondo provinces; the introduction of wheat cultivation in more northern parts of the northern provinces; the expansion of production of such export crops as cocoa, oil palm and groundnut; development of agricultural implements, among others. During this era, Agriculture was the Biggest contributor to our Economy and accounted for 60 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The amazing thing here was that this was earned by peasant farmers. Also Agriculture accounted for over 75 per cent of Nigeria’s export during the pre-independence era. In 1958, Nigeria exported 800,000 metric tonnes of groundnut and over 130,000 metric tonnes of cotton. In 1960, 157,000 metric tonnes of cocoa were exported. It is said that during the heydays of agriculture in Nigeria, Malaysia came to the country to understudy her processes of cultivating palm oil and exported her seedlings to that country for cultivation. Today, Malaysia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil in the world and this product accounts for 10 per cent of her GDP. According to reports, agriculture started to lose its place in the nation’s economy in the early 60s due to the discovery of crude oil in large quantity. Data shows for instance that, the share of agriculture in the GDP fell from 53 per cent in 1960 to about 34 per cent in 1974. Since then it has been a downward trend and by mid-1990s, agriculture’s share of exports had declined to less than 5 per cent. Their Oil, Our Scourge: From modest beginnings especially after the discovery of oil in large quantity at Oloibiri in Bayelsa State and Afam in Rivers in the 1950s, oil production accelerated rapidly in the 1960s. The era of boom was such that we had too much money and our problem was what to spend the money on. No wonder the Udoji Award which acted as the catalyst for the hyperinflation in the economy. Successive administrations, who were confronted with the reality of the global economic depression and the attendant crash in prices of cash crops, relied on the increased demand for oil. In 1974, after the first world oil price increase, Nigeria was producing 2.2. million barrels per day. Later in the 1980s, prices and production levels dropped dramatically. By 1980, Nigeria’s revenues from oil rose to approximately $23 billion and the upward trend continued for about two decades before the crash in the prices worldwide and the subsequent global economic meltdown. Today, most economic crises in the country revolve round oil and experts say this is because of the undue reliance on oil resources, a development that has pushed other sectors of the economy, especially agriculture, to the background. The activities of the Niger Delta Economic Saboteurs, the self proclaimed Freedom Fighters and Militants in the South South made matters worst with their resort to crude stealing and destructions of oil installations, while they used environmental degradation as the fons et origo of their agitation and resort to criminality. Asari Dokubo, one of the leaders of the criminal gangs in the creeks justified his role in oil bunkering with this quote attributed to him in 2005. In the words of the self styled Ijaw nationalist; I dont engage in bunkering, I take that which belongs to me. It is not theft, the oil belongs to our people. - Asari Dokubo Ebikabowei Victor Ben aka Boyloaf put it into proper perspective recently in 2013. In his words: I hate to hear the word Oil thieves or oil theft because the people you want to label as thieves are simply trying to make use of their God given resources. In other words what they are doing is the legitimate resource control that we have been talking about....... The truth of the matter is that the Niger Delta people are simply controlling their resources and not stealing any oil. - Boyloaf Sorry to bore you with this narrative, but in the light of the steady crash in the price of crude oil and developed nations of this world looking for cheap, safe, renewable alternative source of energy, one cannot help but imagine a Nigeria without oil? We have traveled this road before............ Let us pray! S.A is a Bishop of TSA. Follow on Twitter @adumaya1.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 08:39:27 +0000
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