CPA - The Guardian

The on-going Second South-South High-Level Meeting on Oil and Gas Management taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, has raised one fundamental question among delegates present: is oil a blessing or curse?

During the opening ceremony two highly-placed participants at the symposium posed that question with clear concern.

Director, UN Development Program’s Special Unit of South-South Cooperation Yiping Zhao and Kenya’s Minister for Energy Kiraitu Murungi confronted the subject during their respective speeches.

“History suggests that petrodollars do not necessarily help developing countries reduce poverty. In many cases, the money has actually exacerbated poverty conditions and worsened income inequality,” Zhao said.

Murungi on his part said, “There are those who see oil as evil. Oil extraction in Africa has been associated with dictatorship, tyranny, corruption, abuse of human rights and civil strife amongst other ills. Hence the question: “Is oil a blessing or a curse in Africa?’”

The minister said stereotypes usually portray governments of oil-producing countries as corrupt, villains and enemies of the people while portraying NGOs as heroes and protectors of the impoverished and the exploited masses.

Discoveries of oil and other mineral deposits are often hailed as offering a way out of poverty. But hopes are dashed as corrupt officials pocket the money or squander it on grandiose projects.

Zhao said this has applied to Africa more than any other region of the world.

“As a United Nations official, I am not permitted to talk negatively about a UN member state but some African countries have made this belief a reality,” Zhao said.

“However, it is a fact most of the proceeds of oil wealth have ended in the pockets of greedy leaders. These countries have suffered from a resource curse with little or nothing to show as a country.”

Zhao said a weak system of public governance fuels high level of corruption where governmental officials are susceptible to bribes from multinational companies with the latter encouraging non-transparent relationships.

“Resources such as oil and gas are non-renewable and will soon be a thing of the past. It will be very sad for a country that once had oil to have nothing to show for it at the end of its exploration. Unless new reserves are found oil wealth is expected to shrink very soon.”

The director, however, said there are developing countries that have managed their oil resources well to speed up socio-economic growth.

“Malaysia, Venezuela and Qatar have made good use of the ‘black gold’ to turn their economies around and develop high quality infrastructure.”

In Nigeria, there is strife over resource control in the Niger Delta where oil workers are often kidnapped, the environment is desecrated and the mass of its people in abject poverty.

Xinhua

Next article – CPA 11th National Congress – Delegates speak

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