George Osodi
By
Awesu Olaniyi Williams
If America was to have an assigned gender, it would be a male. Forget any misogynistic tendency, the US has always been a master charmer from the days of the Marshall Plan to the post cold war era.
During the height of the Arab oil embargo of the 70’s, the American government swiftly put up the Tonga of Mr Playboy charming countries with easily processed oil in Africa and America’s with the called for Sweet Crude.
At that point the Gowon government lost it cool during the petrol dollar rain. Udoji reports meant for excessive expenditures, were met with the indulging response “Money isn’t the problem but all to spend it is;” this sort of brazen extravagance becoming the order of the day.
Some of our parents and uncles had forgotten that not only did they eat up their bountiful harvests during their time, they also watched while politicians even ate up the seeds which posterity ought to meet. Painfully, they go to intimidate us about how schools were better funded and how they ended up buying their first Beetle or Peugeot after school, which obviously came with air conditioning.
It is nearly 45 years after the Sweet Crude era with less than 0.42 % sulfur that sent the Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa to his early grave for asking and calling for both environmental and social justice. Now, our oil lies on our harbour weeks unending without buyers.
Where are the Americans with their charming tongues, you may ask? Well they’ve moved on with life, nor do they buy one drop of oil from us again. Ever, since they discovered shale oil in abundance which is a better version of Sweet Crude.
Our situation wouldn’t be this deplorable if we had gotten enough people to pray against these, our Asian lovers of which are the Chinese and Japanese who are currently our largest customers, now that they have started exploring a world free of oil with Japan having more car electric charging stations than that of petrol.
What then become of us as a nation? Maybe the reaction of Professor Osinbajo during his recent visits to the Niger Delta region will better capture the urgency of our situation. Hear him.
“I want to say that President Buhari and I are prepared to work with you. Societies are built on the resourcefulness, innovation and zeal of the people. They are not built on mere resources. Some societies do not even have any resources but are much richer than societies that have resources. India does not have a drop of oil, but today it is the largest refiner of petroleum product in the entire world. And it doesn’t have a drop of oil.”
Only time will tell about the relevancy of oil within a knowledge driven global economy. Hence, the Federal Government must muster enough political will for visible diversification plans.
