From (Palm) Oil to (Crude) Oil: The Changing Phases of the Niger-Delta Oil Economy
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Date
2020
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Department of History and War Studies, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna
Abstract
The economic history of the region that is known today as the Niger-Delta has always revolved around oil, palm or crude. Indeed, the rat race from farms to oil firms in the creeks and mainland in this region was occasioned by the change from palm oil economy to that of crude oil. The abandonment of the agricultural sector for the oil sector, following the discovery of oil, came despite the economic sustainability that the former had given prior to the coming of the latter. The methodologies adopted in this paper are largely historical and analytical, employing the use of both primary and secondary source materials, with careful internet surfing. Findings reveal paradoxically that while Malaysia, where the British introduced oil palm to in the early 1870s just as an ornamental plant, is still raking economic fortunes from it till date, Nigeria, part of the tropical West Africa where oil palm groves grow as indigenous plants, abandoned its oil palm for crude oil in the 1970s, despite its humongous contribution to the state economy prior to the discovery of crude oil. It could therefore be said that Nigeria played the prodigal, by selling its birth-right—palm oil—to Malaysia. The consequences of this abandonment, to say the least, have been grim. The paper concludes that while oil palm was a blessing to the Niger-Delta region and Nigeria by extension, crude oil is more of a curse than blessing, as the present realities portend clear indications that the country’s economy is heading straight for the rocks. The recent further crash in global oil price, particularly at the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, and general developments in the international energy market further dealt an even heavier blow on Nigeria’s monolithic economy. From the foregoing analysis, we therefore recommend, inter alia, an urgent and sincere need for the Nigerian government to declare a “state of emergency” on its economic sector for possible resuscitation from the imminent disaster. In tandem with this, urgent and provocative measures need be taken to rescue Nigeria’s monolithic economy from the precipice of economic cataclysm.
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Keywords
Niger-Delta, Oil palm tree/Palm oil, Crude oil, Diversification, Economic Development
Citation
Aboyeji, A. J. (2020): From (Palm) Oil to (Crude) Oil: The Changing Phases of the Niger-Delta Oil Economy. In History and the Niger Delta: Oil, Politics and Culture (Festschrift in Honour of Professor Samuel Ovuete Aghalino) Osakwe, C.C.C. & Odeh, L.E. (eds.), 25-48. Published by the Department of History and War Studies, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, “Amazon.com” URL https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Samuel+Ovuete+Aghalino&text=Samuel+Ovuete+Aghalino&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=digital-text