The Oil Wells May Dry Up For All We Care !

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER. A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 4. NO 128. 24th January, 2016.} “… ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32).

“ THE OIL WELLS MAY DRY UP FOR ALL WE CARE ! ”

At independence in 1960, Nigeria’s economy was solely dependent on a sound colonial legacy of an agricultural-driven export economic base of massive production of grains, tubers, rubber, cocoa, hides and skin and some mineral resources in their infant stages which supplied the much-needed foreign exchange reserves for international trading however it is on record that in 1958 , after decades of intensive crude oil exploration some comme rcial quantity of about 121.000 barrels was exported from deposits found in Oloibiri, Ogbia Local Gov ernment of present Bayelsa Stat e by Shell-BP Petroleum Development Company ! The divers grains and groundnuts pyramids of Northern Region, c ocoa seeds of the West ern Region, palm o il and coal from the Mines of the East ern Region and rubber of the Mid-West Region plantations were some of the foundation export products that found their ways into the international market s of England and most of Europe before the Union Jack was lowered for the Nigerian Flag!

It is no longer news that though the three Regions had profitable economic gains from agricultural exports, crude oil so on gained prominence from the seventies into the nineties due to continuous and persistent exploration and exploitation of the liquid ‘black gold’ by six other non-British international oil companies who were granted licences to bombard and devastate the well-endowed coastal region of the South-south Niger Delta B asin from where they dug out a total 159 oil fields and 1481 wells according the M i nistry of Pe troleum Resources and as a result (agriculture), the foremost foreign exchange earner was soon abandoned and paid with less attention! Nigeria subsequently became the leading petroleum marketer in Africa and as of the year 2000 oil and gas exports accounted for more than 98% of export earnings and about 83% of the Federal Government’s revenue as well as generating more than 14% of its G ross D omestic P roduct (GDP); also 95% of foreign exchange earnings and about 65% of government’s budgetary revenues! One decade and a half down the line, the story changed from affluence to absolute national degradation due to leadership mismanagement of crude oil acc ruals and fore ign e x change earnings , deprivation of the cit izens ’ fundamental rights to decent living wages through regular employment , when suddenly, inter national crude oil prices plummeted from US$ 110 in December 2013 to US$ 28 dollars as at the time of this expose’ ! The new management team of the Change Administration now has to grapple with a ba ttered economy, a near EMPTY TREASURY and a 2016 Deficit Budget Appropriation now predicated at US$ 35 per barrel of crude oil (US$ 7 dollars short of market price), and which had been under the hammer on arrival at the National Assembly (NASS) since 22 December, 2015 because the envisaged revenue from the mono-product would not materialize due to global glut and fallen prices ! For the past 16 years, democratic administrations in Nigeria played lip-service to the burning issue of diversification of the economy from the single to the multi-products for multiple sources of foreign exchange earnings, just as it was in the beginning at independence in order to avoid the quagmire the nation has now been forced into but with no success due to successive choice of the helmsmen for avarice and endemic institutional corruption with impunity ! It was revealed b y the new administration that 55 Nigerians in position of authority stole over N1. 3 4 trillion naira in EIGHT YEARS (2006-2013 ) , an amount that was more than a qua r ter of the 2015 Budget estimates, which could have built 635.18 kilometres of road; built 36 ultra modern hospitals, 183 schools, educated 3.974 children from primary to tertiary and built 20.062 units of 2-bedroom houses!

HOW HAD THE IMPOVERISHED NIGE RIANS FARED IN 55 YEARS OF BRUTTISH DEALS? Starting with the battered good people of the oil rich states of Rivers, Balyesa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Edo, years of research had revealed the same watershed:

1. Emphasis of social development of the oil-rich states are found in the ir state capitals where social amenities like “ good access roads, portable waters and electricity; public health care centres ; kindergarten t o tertiary education facilities; modern motor parks and railways systems; maritime facilities , the civil service structure of ministries, departments and agencies for smooth administration ; state-of-art residences for the elites in government and the industries ; modern restaurants, night clubs and hotels, all sandwiched within the limited landscape of their various state capitals, for the pleasure of an insignificant percentage of the populace! ”

2. Although state capitals were presented as the “show cities” of great expectations in other parts of the states, the reality is that outside of the “window dressing,” travelle rs or tourists were greeted and shocked at the degradation of slums and ghetto rural dwellings of the dehumanising forms in which the underprivileged able-bodied b ut dormant workforce unemployed in their thousand of thousands that dwell in thatched - roof houses or rusty zinc compartments which were battered by acid rains , roam about for menial errands in market places or motor parks, feed on non-nutritional victuals, defecate in the rivers or nearby bushes and permanently exposed to diseases and self- aggravated epidemics due to poor sanitary conditions/exp osures!

3. Complete abandonment of the rural population to extreme poverty situation where government presence was not in place in any form and the unfortunate people had to fend for their daily bread through un-organized farming, poultry, fishing, animal husbandry where practicable in view of the fact that most arable lands have been robbed by crude oil pollution etc; make provision for “portable” water from dug wells, polluted ponds or small lakes, rivers, streams and brooks; construct paths to connect the motley communities; make provision for electricity through small generating sets for those who could afford them, and make do with herbalists and native doctors for their health matters and issues of pro-creation because of lack of any form of medical facilities from government !

What did the successive governments do with the fat monthly allocations from the Federation Account to cater for the provision of all of the above? Their governors embezzled and squandered all the monies to the detriment of their oath of offices and political manifestoes of their parties! Some of them like James Ibori (still in prison), Lucky Igbinedion (out of prison) and Die preye Alamieyeseigha (out of prison before he died), were some whom the long hand of justice caught, but others are still walking free! Did you know that the Federal Government is constitutiona lly vested as the sole custodian and legal administrator of all proceed s from mineral resources and oil deposits found in Nigeria? * Did you also know that althou gh the Niger Delta citizens had always claimed and boasted that they were the foreign exchange earner of the nation and should not be messed with? Now that crude oil has (temporarily lost its eminent position as the economic booster), why should a determined DIVERSIFICATION to the agrarian and mineral resources sectors not take the front burner through an aggressive thrust in that direction by the All Progressives Congress Change Government? But from all ind ications, APC’s economic team are either testing the volatile turf of global recession or are gambling with the idea of a miraculous bounce back of international crude oil prices in the twinkling of an eye; or how would one explain the stubborn idea of still predicating the 2016 Budget benchmark on US$ 35 dollars in the resuscitated version of the budget before the NASS instead of a REALISTIC US$20 dollars per barrel ? Only the resilient and those who can persevere through faith in God are among the categories documented in the preceding paragraphs but the restive, the uncouth, the discouraged and uneducated who have lost hope of any form of survival opted for the Creeks and became militants who had engaged both democratic and military administration s in fierce battles by ensuring they took by force crude oils which they sold for survival! The s e painted scenario s still subsist in the Nigerian Niger Delta Basin as we publish this piece ! H OW SH OULD THE NAGGING ISSUE OF INEQUALITY AND BRAZEN ECONOMIC MARGINALIZATIO N OF THE LARGER MAJORITY BY STATE GOVERNMENTS THAT CATER FOR THE ELITES ALONE IN THE OIL-PRODUCING STATES BE RESOLVED ?

First, we believe that the Niger Delta militants who are vandalizing the oil pipeline s should lay down their arms and ammunitions and opt for negotiation of peaceful resolutions. Second, crude oil sales must be judiciously channelled to social infrastructures of the REAL SECTOR of industrial manufacturing to create employment opportunities for the over-abused citizens most of whom are at their wits end and leaders should always remember that idle hands would remain the devil ’ s workshop ! Third, funding of the 2016 Budget should depend largely on accruals from non -oil sectors that have been mentioned earlier while all of the recovered loots by past administrators should be used to offset the N2.2trillion deficit figure w hich government intended to subs titute with external borrowing! Fourth, all frivolities and excessive government recurrent expenditures at all levels must be blocked while focus should be on local goods and services for instance the foreign BMW SALOON CARS AND PRADO JEEPS which the Executive and the Senators so much desired to purchase from the lean budget should give way to Nigerian assembled cars and jeeps from PAN and I NNOSON MOTORS, in order to preserve the much-needed foreign exchange reserves! Fifth, more attention should now be focussed on the rehabilitation of all marginalized citizens all over the nation; the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in all parts of the North, and others in the South East as a result of “Biafra” agitations, and the Niger Deltans who have become refuges in their various do main ! Sixth , a combined and synchronized I nternal Security Operation (IS Operation), by the Armed Forces and the Nigeria Police should be intensified in all territories already recovered from Boko Haram terrorists through immediate citizens occupation for social activities and industrialization and activities of multiple vigilante groups under the professional police supervision should be strategized! Lastly, the new attempt by NASS to amend the Federal Republic of Nigeria Constitution 1999, MUST ensure stronger federating states with fiscal independence through larger percentages from mineral deposits under the principle of deriv ation and a total cancellation of the “feeding bottle” arrangement!

Did you he ar what some Niger Deltan indi genes once said; “This o - y - e - l sef na curse for we land! Make e kuku dry make we for live beta life”! The earth is the LORD’S and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1). It’s time for all long-throat politicians in this nation to be voted out of office or be recalled for Nigeria to prosper under the watchful eye of GOD the Creator ! Amen. Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord.

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If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations. I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com .