Suchergebnisse

Conventional explanations of the resource curse, or the paradox of abundance, correlate resource abundance and bad economic policies, underdevelopment, poverty and conflict. Such a conclusion has become debatable and has encour- aged analysts to develop conditional explanations that emphasize the role of the political rather than economic factors in the mechanisms underpinning the re- source curse. Using the Inter-governmental Fiscal Relations system in Nigeria as an example, this paper argues that, while the policy choices of politicians determines how resource rents are utilized, the extent to which political institutions promote the use of rational and meritocratic criteria in allocating public sector resources and ensure accountability is what matters. This is of crucial impor- tance in determining whether resource abundance will lead to resource curse.

Oil resources are neither a curse nor a blessing. The sound management of these resources can make them beneficial or otherwise. In order to translate Ghana's oil resources into inclusive development amid high expectations, several laws and regulations have been passed and new institutions created. Despite the presence of the new institutions, laws, and regulations, spending from petroleum revenues appears to be rather thinly spread and not efficient. This defeats the purpose of diversification and leads to high debt and cost overruns. On a positive note, the Minister for Finance, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, and Bank of Ghana have been complying with most of the transparency requirements specified in the laws. It is essential that spending from petroleum revenues is guided by a medium- to long-term inclusive development strategy that is based on proper needs assessment, global trends, feasibility studies, and possible growth dynamics of the country. In addition, expenditure of the annual budget funding amount needs to be rationalized and investment guidelines developed and implemented to focus within-priority expenditures to not more than three project/expenditure categories.

Recent studies show terrorist organizations that target only civilians almost always fail to achieve their ultimate objectives. On the contrary, groups that target combatants and civilians have better chances of success. Yet, most terrorist organizations do not directly target the state. When terrorist organizations shift their strategy from purely terrorist acts to confrontation against the target state, we may see a transition from terrorism to civil war. A terrorist organization's decision to engage in civil war largely depends on the organization's ability to alleviate the collective action problem. We argue terrorist groups with a territorial goal and groups operating in oil-rich countries are more likely to engage in civil war. The desire to gain a separate homeland is a powerful motivator to overcome the collective action problem. Terrorist organizations that operate in oil-rich countries are more likely to resort to civil war because oil dependence has the potential to increase grievances, which motivate rebellion, and resources provide a means of financing rebellion, while weakening target state institutions. Our findings confirm the existence of a territorial goal and availability of oil resources trigger transition from terrorism to civil war.

Since 1956 when crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity at Oloibiri, the Niger Delta region in Nigeria has remained the country's crude oil producing area. Crude oil is the chief source of revenue for Nigeria, yet, according to the UNDP's Human Development Report 2015, the region with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.514 remains the least developed crude oil producing region in the world. This means that the region is underdeveloped, hence the feeling of injustice, neglect and marginalization among its people. Another UNDP Niger Delta 2006 Report states that the entire Nigeria is also underdeveloped and riddled with material poverty. It is the concern of this study to find out why despite the revenue boom from oil, Nigeria has remained underdeveloped and how this can affect the unity of the country? This is coming as a result of the intensity of the underdevelopment of Nigeria and the region in particular and the prevalence of insecurity in the country. We examined the natural resource literature of the resource curse to explain and gain insight into why despite the revenue from crude oil, Nigeria has remained underdeveloped and how this underdevelopment can result in a national crisis that can collapse the country. Secondary sources were used to access data for analysis. Qualitative data analysis method was used to analyze data. The study finds that the continued underdevelopment of Nigeria and the Niger Delta in particular can lead to a national revolt capable of splintering Nigeria into national pieces. It is the recommendation of the study that the political leadership of Nigeria should quickly provide good governance that can take the Niger Delta and indeed the entire country out of the cold hands of underdevelopment.

Nigeria is a country blessed with various natural resources and one of the countries in Africa with regular discovery of new oil fields in the past decades. Nigeria is also endowed with human and better climatic condition which has enhanced the natural resources, which include the renewable and non-renewable resources. Despite these resources, Nigeria has continued to remain poor and underdeveloped than other countries without such potentials, a problem scholars have tagged "resource curse." Scholars have attributed this paradox to a number of factors ranging from corruption, wastage, poor leadership recruitment and conflict of interest. The study sets out to investigate Oil Resource Management in Nigeria and the Paradox of Development in the Niger Delta. The main objective is to determine whether the poor management of oil revenue is responsible for the paradox of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta. The study deployed the Content Analysis and Focus Group Discussion as sources of data while mixed methods of data analysis was used. The study observed that there are various contending interests over the management and control of crude oil resources in Nigeria. The study is of the view that the underground current and the inter-play among the stakeholder are responsible for the abysmal management of the oil resource in Nigeria and have affected the development of the Niger Delta region. We recommend among others the convocation of a National Conference on Natural Resource Management in Nigeria with a view to taking a common stand on how the oil resource can be better managed for rapid socioeconomic development of Nigeria.

The correlation between the achievement of development in Algeria andunstable oil resources due to the dominance of the hydrocarbon sector, whichrepresents 60% of the general budget and about 40% as a contribution to theGDP turnover shows the fragility of the economy, as an economy of singleproduction and resource, and given the scale of the financial resources of oil,especially in the period 2000-2014, and despite the improvement inperformance of the Algerian economy in terms of achieving internal andexternal macroeconomic balances, but it was momentary and did not contributeto stimulate growth and create conditions for economic take-off. Theimprovement of these effects has required the allocation of large sums of moneywithout creating productive sectors of value added. In the light of theinstability, the question of the need to work to reduce the degree of dependenceon the oil sector and to activate non-oil sources of income as an inevitablenecessity to achieve development is asked.