Resource curse or resource blessing: the case of the Niger Delta ‘oil republic’ in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper explores the developmental outcome of resource abundance when the analytical focus shifts from the macro (national) to the micro (subnational) level, especially to areas where resource abundance is expected to have its greatest impact. It focuses on the Niger Delta, Nigeria's ‘oil republic’ whose resource curse has involved environmental devastation, relative deprivation, resource distribution injustices, political marginalisation and material underdevelopment. However, in spite of the huge resource flows to the core oil-producing states of the region and other political and social benefits, which were expected to obviate the curse, oil wealth has not made the region more developed than other parts of the country. This is due to the inability of subnational governments in the Niger Delta whose performances are crucial to this determination to translate the advantages to the benefit of citizens in the region and because the other material benefits from the national government have been monopolised by a privileged few. The paper concludes that the key to transmuting resource curse to blessing lies in how the abundance is used rather than who controls the resource.