“Curse of Oil” Fuels Corruption in Nigeria

A leading candidate in Nigeria’s upcoming presidential elections has attacked the country’s foreign-dominated oil industry for fuelling corruption.

“Corruption has been worse with oil because oil has brought more money,” said the former Nigerian military strongman General Muhammadu Buhari, who is running a presidential campaign based on an anti-corruption platform.

“Oil has been a disappointment,” said General Buhari, attacking the incumbent President, Olusegun Obasango. “Infrastructure has been allowed to rot away since [it was] found. Obasanjo has done the same thing… the President ignores it.”

Against the backdrop of endemic corruption, Nigeria is sitting on the brink of a west African oil boom that will see billions of pounds flow into government coffers – and could see the situation becoming even worse. An estimated $200bn in revenues will go to African treasuries in the next 10 years as new oilfields open throughout west Africa’s Gulf of Guinea.

So how do the communities in the Gulf of Guinea break the curse of oil?