No OPEC country will be better than Nigeria if much of Nigerian oil money is invested in Nigeria as done in other OPEC countries. We need the WILL, backed by common sense, to invest our oil money in our country - Nigeria!

Attention Nigerian Leaders:

President Obama won $20 Billion Compensation from BP
by
Bedford Nwabueze Umez, Ph.D.*

Fellow Nigerians,

"President Barack Obama won a $20 billion commitment from BP executives on Wednesday to reimburse individuals and businesses for economic losses from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill" (WCSH6).

YES, just within 60 days of the oil spill, British Petroleum/Beyond Petroleum (BP) will be paying those Americans affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill a sum of $20 billion.

No doubt, President Obama's action once again proves what we have been saying all along, namely, leadership is parenthood. Just as parents take care of their own children, leaders must take care of their own people.....nothing more, nothing less.

Again, the present oil spill in the Gulf Coast and the $20 billion compensation must teach Nigerian leaders some lesson. As we ALL know, decades of environmental destruction of Nigeria by some foreign oil drillers did not result (and probably will NEVER result) to $20 billion compensation to Nigeria and Nigerians. Indeed, a minimal attempt to get some oil drillers in Nigeria to pay Nigeria for such environmental damage resulted to an arrest, hasty military tribunal, and the brutal hanging of a Nigerian television producer, an environmental activist, and a winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, Ken Saro-Wiwa, in 1995 by NIGERIAN GOVT -- yes, by our own government then.

Our hope this time:

(1) We hope that the present Nigerian government of President Goodluck Jonathan must take a fresh look at what Ken Saro-Wiwa started, and fight for Nigeria and Nigerians. It is about time someone removed the veil of inferiority complex, and boldly fights for our people – the Nigerian people.

(2) We also hope that if and when the compensation is paid, that the money received must be invested in Nigeria, and not to be recycled back to the banks of those who will pay the compensation by some "frequent flyers." [The point ought to be clearer by now: No penny, out of this $20 billion compensation, will be deposited in Nigerian banks by some American leader. Why? Because it is obvious, and well understood within those countries we call “developed” and “civilized” that a rat does not labor for a squirrel.]

All told, leadership is parenthood; leadership is action, not a position.