Sample for Nigerians
From Capter. 1:3
The Open Wounds of Global Capitalism …
… A Nigerian on the run and an employee from Shell to the rescue
Cash crops are naturally of less value if a country has mineral resources, especially, at the moment, crude oil. In Nigeria, Shell began searching for such resources in 1938. Production started in 1958. The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria was the first of six companies currently working in the area of mineral oil in Nigeria. That is 80 percent of Nigeria’s internal income and 90 percent of its export revenue. When Nigeria gained independence in 1960 (formerly a British colony), it had a functional economy of 70 percent export revenue from agricultural produce, mainly through a structure of small farms (peanuts and cocoa). The country survived many political crises, of which the most well known is the Biafra crisis in the 1960s.
As a result of the industrialization of crude oil, the diverse economy was severely diminished and, consequently, more and more people from the poorer north streamed to the south. Now Nigeria has to import food, but has managed to build itself a space station with the “National Space Research and Development Agency”.
Bright, a friend of our family grew up in Nigeria, and I must admit that I am reporting his story on these pages for personal reasons. However, it also serves as an example of the fate of many people today, and many more to come.