In light of the April elections in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe, world renowned author and professor at Brown University, looks at the dark past of Nigeria and cites some of the reforms necessary to change the course of the country to that of assured prosperity in this article in the NY Times. He seems to place emphasis on the need to rein in corruption (over US$400 billion has been stolen from the pubic purse by the ruling class), increase and sustain transparency among those in public offices and strengthen democratic institutions that would establish and impose checks and balances on government officials. Though not Nigerian, I could not agree with him more.
The big question that lingers, though, is everything else constant, how far and stable would Nigeria be had it not had its oil reserves? How much of its underdevelopment is attributable to the so called "the Dutch Disease"? Achebe thinks that much of Nigeria's corruption is
linked to its oil. As such, he is of the view that a system that would dissociate the political class and the oil industry would be instrumental in not just curbing corruption but instilling some kind of discipline among the ruling elites.
One way, the only way, of doing this, I would think is through privatizing oiling mining and refinery industry. However, in a world where the private sector especially large businesses and firms has a lot a stake and is required to influence political outcome through contributing toward political campaigns and employing formidable lobbying groups, it is almost impossible to claim that natural resources, and this case oil for Nigeria, can be delinked from the ruling elites. More will have to be done.
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