Re: ‘Oil Money’: Honey or poison?

I would like to comment on the above caption that was written by your cerebral columnist and a veteran journalist, Mallam Muhammad Haruna, which appeared in yesterday’s edition of Daily Trust. Sir, oil is not the real problem of Nigeria. Oil is just an object. But if you believe that the oil that God endows […]

I would like to comment on the above caption that was written by your cerebral columnist and a veteran journalist, Mallam Muhammad Haruna, which appeared in yesterday’s edition of Daily Trust.
Sir, oil is not the real problem of Nigeria. Oil is just an object. But if you believe that the oil that God endows us with is a curse, then why it hasn’t been a curse to countries like Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait and Iran?  Why do you people always want to blame our natural resource for our selfishness? South Africans, for example, are not blaming diamond for cause of unemployment in their country? This shows that by blaming oil, a God gift natural resource, for our frailties is equal to avoiding the root-cause of our predicament which is selfishness and injustice.
The real problem of Nigeria, are the people of Nigeria. God has endowed us with oil to enjoy, using it and helping the poor; the ailing, the sick, the old and our country in general. We don’t leaders in Nigeria. What we have here are wicked rulers. Look at the life of average Nigeria elite today. How many state governors go bed hungry? They don’t know the meaning of hunger, they don’t know how an unemployed feels, they don’t understand what one feels when he was expelled from the college over failure to pay school fees; they don’t know the trauma of poor tenants when they are threatened by their landlords. Another problem with Nigeria is lack of effective citizenship. We are not patriotic; no sense of compassion; we lack moral values and discipline. It is not about oil or any natural resource.
Comrade Bishir Dauda, Sabuwar Unguwa, Katsina, [email protected]