Nigerian Economy Takes a Dive

After months of denial, the Nigerian government has finally come to terms with the fact that its country is experiencing much of the same economic crises as many other developing countries. Bloomberg recently listed the Nigerian Stock Exchange as having the 2nd worst downturn in the world, and this dropoff has affected not only the poor, but the wealthy as well. Additionally, many doubt that the Nigerian government has the capasity to deal with or even address the catastrophe in the making. Most banks have stopped loaning money altogether, and the country's budget is projected to shrink drastically from last year due to much lower prices of crude oil, which is the last thing that the government needs when trying to deal with an economic crisis. Compounding the problem, the country's infrastructure is in shambles and militants are disrupting trade. If the country is to quickly and successfully recover, reforms must be instituted from the top down that encourage foreign investment. This is essential in bringing in much-needed revenue to overhaul Nigeria's broken economy.

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Distribution of Oil Income not Equal

Nigeria's income from oil revenue is huge. But much of that wealth does not reach the common people. This article features some of the groups that have come out on the losing end of this unequal arrangement - the Rumuekpe Youth Council, comprised of armed young people from the formerly-inhabited town of Rumuekpe, and the Rumuekpe Justice Fighters, a more organized group of men from the same town who relocated to Port Harcourt, the regional capital. Both groups agree that the four multi-national oil companies opperating in Rumuekpe did not invest in the community and are willing to react, an example of pressure from the bottom up, if revenue is not, in their opinion, distributed fairly. The oil producers argue that they are paying the rightful owners of the land they opperate on.
There is no question that oil has the potential to boost Nigeria's local economies. What is in question is the method of delegating these revenues. The Rumuekpe Justice Fighters claim that the current method of paying landowners divides the community against itself, a coinciding cleavage, and that the only way to peacefully repopulate Rumuekpe is to distribute funds directly to the community.

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