Corruption and Poverty in Africa can only be ended by breaking all neo-colonial ties
The British charity Oxfam has recently produced an extensive report on inequality and corruption in Nigeria, entitled Inequality in Nigeria: Exploring the Drivers. Nigeria is currently Africa’s biggest economy but it is well-known that 70% of its population or about 112 million people live in abject poverty, without even basic facilities such as clean water and sanitation. Nigeria is an example of a global phenomenon that a capital-centred system is incapable of meeting the needs of its population, that those who are the wealth creators live in poverty, and that the rich are getting richer and the poor becoming poorer. It is now estimated that just sixty-two people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest 50% of humans, and the richest 1% have more wealth than the other 99% of humanity combined.
Nigeria is not only Africa’s largest economy and a major oil producer but also one of the fastest growing with annual growth rates of around 7% since the year 2000. Yet the number of poor people, those living on less than $2 per day has grown overall and as a percentage of the entire population, although in the same period the number of millionaires has grown by 44%. According to the Oxfam report lifting all Nigerians out of poverty would cost $24 billion a figure lower than the wealth owned by the five wealthiest Nigerians. Nigeria, in addition to having growing economic inequality, is also known as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. It is estimated that between 1960, the year of Nigeria’s independence, and 2005, about $20 trillion was looted from its treasury by public officials. This despite the fact that Nigeria’s lawmakers are some of the highest paid in the world.
Nigeria is not only Africa’s largest economy and a major oil producer but also one of the fastest growing with annual growth rates of around 7% since the year 2000. Yet the number of poor people, those living on less than $2 per day has grown overall and as a percentage of the entire population, although in the same period the number of millionaires has grown by 44%. According to the Oxfam report lifting all Nigerians out of poverty would cost $24 billion a figure lower than the wealth owned by the five wealthiest Nigerians. Nigeria, in addition to having growing economic inequality, is also known as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. It is estimated that between 1960, the year of Nigeria’s independence, and 2005, about $20 trillion was looted from its treasury by public officials. This despite the fact that Nigeria’s lawmakers are some of the highest paid in the world.
However, although the Oxfam report is full of such statistics, it provides little to explain why Nigeria is in this calamitous state, other than pointing out that it is mismanaged and misgoverned. What is also curious is that the report says almost nothing about those foreign monopolies and financial institutions that continue to loot from Nigeria and its people and are those most guilty of perpetuating and institutionalising corruption. Since 80% of Nigeria’s government revenue and 35% of the country’s GDP is from its oil wealth, it is curious that Oxfam’s report says nothing about the exploitation of that wealth by Shell, Chevron, Petrobas, Total, Eni and the other major oil monopolies, the corruption that they continue to perpetuate and nothing about the neo-colonial ties that still bind Nigeria, almost as if nothing of substance occurred in 1960.
After over two years of investigations it has recently been revealed that Shell, Eni and other oil monopolies have been involved in yet another major corruption scandal in Nigeria. In 2011 Shell and the Italian oil monopoly Eni paid $1.1 billion in bribes to corrupt Nigerian government officials, including the former oil minister, to acquire rights to an off-shore oilfield. It is thought that the oilfield could generate $500 billion worth of oil at current prices. Investigations have shown that senior figures at Shell, the world’s fifth biggest company approved the bribe and employed former MI6 officers to facilitate it, one of whom had been the British security service’s representative in Nigeria. The transfer of bribery funds to a Swiss bank account was then organised by JP Morgan, one of Britain’s largest banks and a subsidiary of Morgan Chase, with the connivance of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, established in 2005 and answerable to the Home Office. Shell has continued to deny the charges of bribery although emails now available show that it’s official were fully aware of the corruption, according to reports by anti-corruption campaigners Global Witness and Finance Uncovered.
After over two years of investigations it has recently been revealed that Shell, Eni and other oil monopolies have been involved in yet another major corruption scandal in Nigeria. In 2011 Shell and the Italian oil monopoly Eni paid $1.1 billion in bribes to corrupt Nigerian government officials, including the former oil minister, to acquire rights to an off-shore oilfield. It is thought that the oilfield could generate $500 billion worth of oil at current prices. Investigations have shown that senior figures at Shell, the world’s fifth biggest company approved the bribe and employed former MI6 officers to facilitate it, one of whom had been the British security service’s representative in Nigeria. The transfer of bribery funds to a Swiss bank account was then organised by JP Morgan, one of Britain’s largest banks and a subsidiary of Morgan Chase, with the connivance of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, established in 2005 and answerable to the Home Office. Shell has continued to deny the charges of bribery although emails now available show that it’s official were fully aware of the corruption, according to reports by anti-corruption campaigners Global Witness and Finance Uncovered.
The recent revelations are, of course, just the tip of the iceberg, since Shell has been active in Nigeria since the late 1950s. They demonstrate that corruption and the looting of Nigeria’s resources are a partnership between the rich in Nigeria and the financial oligarchy in Britain, the US and other countries, a relationship where the former act as the junior partners and agents of the latter.
