"I interacted with Shell quite recently during my recent work in the task force on oil revenue, and it gladdened my heart to discover that Shell is one large multinational oil company that is closer to becoming a fully Nigerian venture.
"Yet, I have my quarrels with you. I am yet to see Shell establishing a refinery here that will end the waste of our gas and environmental degradation similar to the Bintulu Gas-to-Liquid Plant in Malaysia or the new plant in Qatar. I would also be happier if Shell does what De Beers is doing in Botswana."
The lecture was part of activities marking the 53rd anniversary of Nigeria’s independence.
Below is the full text of the lecture by Nuhu Ribadu
“I feel happy to be among you this evening. It is always a delight for me to interact with an audience like this – professional ladies and gentlemen striving to make our land a better one. This is a significant place for me to deliver a talk like this especially as part of the activities to mark the 53rd anniversary of our independence. The history of Nigeria cannot be complete without the mention of Shell.
Shell has played a defining role in our history which changed the course of our life for good and otherwise. For good because Nigeria has, since the first exploration works by Shell, became richer though, sadly, it also made us to ignore other equally important aspects of our socio-economy.
I however thank the Shell Club Port Harcourt (SCP) and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) for giving me an opportunity, and yet another platform, to express my views on an issue that affects every citizen of this country.
Nigeria turns 53 next week. Shell has also been producing crude oil for the past 55 in this country. Congratulations to you, and to Nigeria. In the past 53 years, this country has recorded significant milestones. We have survived severe cold similar to what that saw some countries sneezing to death. We remain standing, though someone wrote that we are standing still! Yes, he could be right!
The country is endowed with abundant natural resources and brilliant human capital. Yet, the paradox is there is widespread poverty due to misused resources and untapped potentials. It is therefore true that wherever Nigeria is mentioned, what comes to mind is Boko Haram, oil theft, kidnapping and corruption. Nigeria also lags behind on every world index that signifies progress and development. Our lives are daily deteriorating in a frightening way.
This is not to give in to pessimism, I strongly disagree with those writing off Nigeria as a failed country. Agreed, we could do a lot better based on what we have in terms of natural resources and demographic advantages. Nigeria stands on a foundation built by our founding fathers who in their wisdom also salvaged and formed a stack of bricks with which we are to build the nation up.
But the generations following our founding fathers used those bricks only to form ever more insidious fences that divide us across the lines of ethnicities, regions and religions. Nigeria’s problems have been shifted from the actual, which is the collapse of our institutions after many years of military, political and bureaucratic imprudence, to an invented assumption which suggests that our peoples are unwilling to live together.
The foundation of this country, contrary to whatever is schemed to uproot it, can only be understood when you go round the country and interact with the larger masses, who are the actual patriots, from markets to schools, and to social gatherings where identifications are based only on individualities. Our people are bound by a common goal, the desire to have their lives improved.
They are united in the same struggle to have functional public and private institutions because their sufferings, their poverty and deprivations, have neither ethnic nor religious identities. And the exclusive sufferings amongst them, like insecurity as a result of religious and ethnic differences, can as well be traced to our politics and ill-advised political decisions and indecisions.
Nigeria: From Pyramids to Refineries
Before oil, there were groundnuts and cereals from the north, cocoa, timber and palm produce from the south forming the core of an agrarian economy. I’m always fascinated by what the FirstRepublic politicians achieved with revenues derived from the agricultural sector. It is indeed ironic that the major institutions in the country today were executed by proceeds of our agrarian economy.
It’s inspiring that with meagre budgets, those committed leaders built the legacies we have not with the trillions we’ve earned from the Oil sector. Those first sets of leaders are inspirations that what Nigeria needs today is actually not more money, but simply the will and wisdom for the contemporary leaders...
To drive all these we need honest and modern leadership that could be a rallying point for the citizens, and one that can tame the consuming tides of corruption. It is my belief that firm and sincere leadership is the precursor for industrious and patriotic followership, thus national development.
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