Chris Cleave's Little Bees

Nigeria is still today a prosperous country, and although they have had their downfalls, they have had many

Nigeria would be of a seed if there was any Nigeria before 1914. Britain was so ambitious to change our way of life; hence Biafra problem started. Maybe Biafra would be beautiful and civilized if there was no Fredrick Lugard in 1914. Lugard tampered with what was organic that has led to early graves over 5 million Biafrans, that was when Biafrans rejected fact of being unjust. The death of the over five million Biafrans cannot be in vain. Then read the New York Times report of 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1970 about the persecution of the Biafran people. We must agree that Nigeria was created as a trap to destroy Biafran people and to serves the interest of Britain. Radio Biafra (Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB) has made it clear that Biafrans do not understand what Nigeria

Nigeria has become the fastest growing country in Africa, its coastal ports are the heart and soul of its economy. Since its creation by the British Empire, there has been a civil breakdown and conflict among its tribal leaders. However, their religious understanding between Islam and Christianity has kept them at peace amidst themselves throughout time. The last few years, the government has developed itself into a functioning federation, the people are able to notice how outside influence has improved their daily lives.

The poor relationship between the oil companies and the communities in the Niger Delta is not sudden, it 's historical context dates back to as early as the 1930 's and 1950 's. It was 1937 when two British oil companies merged into what today is known as Shell. Shell replaced the initial German oil company in the area from 1908 (Umejesi, 117). Shell set up impressive human and material forces and conducted their first drilled oil well in 1951 in the city of Iho. Worry quickly struck everyone in Nigeria. Shell worried they would not find

The first chapter of Little Bee, which was narrated by Little Bee, herself, is titled as “How I Wish” because the first thing she tells her readers was that she wanted to be a British pound coin. Little Bee wished to be a coin so that people would be pleased to see her; also, a coin can travel anywhere. The second chapter is titled as “Batman’s tragedy” because Sarah explains Andrew’s tragic death and how her child, Charlie, which is also known as Batman, handled the situation. It is a tragic moment for Batman because he failed to save his father from the “baddies” which in their situation was metaphorized as Andrew’s severe depression. The third chapter is titled as “Thanks or No Thanks, Yvette”. The four girls got released without their papers and their assigned

The Nigerian oil production has been an issue that has become a cruse to the people for so many years. According to reports, the oil production has lubricated to Nigeria’s failure because it has damaged the economy as well as the environment and democracy. Anyone would think that a country that has an enormous resource of petroleum would be economically stable but this is not the case in Nigeria. For many years Nigeria has suffered effects directly as well indirectly from the oil industry. For my research I am drawing from two sets of sources. I will be referring to the books that I have researched as my A-sources. The newspaper articles will be referred as my B-sources in this paper. Through out my paper, I will show you how and explain why the media today only reports one side of the story while the books on my geopolitical topic will tell the background to the events occurring.

The paper’s intent is to demonstrate that oil producing communities in Nigeria are adversely affected by oil exploration. The first part

The colonial era of Nigeria was a long and hard experience for many Nigerians. The country was slowly colonized by Britain in 1885. Through newfound radical nationalist beliefs, Nigeria fought its way through the struggles of making itself into an independent nation. In 1960, the goal of independence was finally reached. Soon after Nigeria found itself in a social crisis of too many clashing cultures, while simultaneously attempting to assert itself as a power nation into the world. The anticolonialization of Nigeria would not have been possible without the Nigerian’s increasingly negative views of European power, which allowed the different cultures to unite in the goal of independence.

These attacks on the oil companies are serious enough for the government to ‘reward’ the violence by holding discussions with these warlords. The reason for this is that the country is a petro-state. This means that the country’s economy relies heavily on oil revenue, about 50 per cent of the GDP, 95 per cent foreign exchange earnings and 80 per cent of its budgetary revenues. This came about after the civil war, beforehand Nigeria was a relatively small producer of oil, but after it became a global producer of oil, 5th biggest producer in the group OPEC. Because of this civil war, oil companies such a Shell have had to form close partnerships with the Nigerian government, and indeed military dictatorships in order to exploit the abundance of oil in the country. Very little money from the oil production has gone into the communities where the oil is

Michael Ogbeidi recounts that ‘the First Republic under the leadership of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister, and Nnamdi Azikwe, the President, was marked by widespread grand corruption’. Ogbeidi maintains that ‘government officials looted public funds with impunity. Federal Representative and Ministers flaunted their wealth with reckless abandon… Politically, the thinking of the First Republic Nigerian leadership class was based on politics for material gain; making money and living well’.

Also, over dependent on crude oil revenues to balance the budget, lack of diversification of economy, and mismanagement of the revenues from crude oil sales. Others issues include oil thefts, pipeline vandalization, dwindling of oil revenue in the country contributed to the problem. For example, Shuaibu, & Mohammed, (2014), point out that, “over-reliance on crude oil for over 90 percent of Nigeria 's foreign exchange earnings makes its external account susceptible to international crude oil price fluctuations”. The large amount of proceeds earned from oil boom years were not properly utilized for meaningful and sustainable development, as such, poverty continued to be in the rise and people remain deprived of efficient energy services and sustainable livelihoods. The crude oil glut therefore induced huge dislocation in the economy, joined with gross mismanagement of resources and resulted into borrowing leading to increase in external debt. Abam, et al (2014) agreed that the high proceeds obtained from crude oil export in all the boom years brought about an unsustainable spending profile, which led to economic catastrophe when global petroleum prices crashed in 1986 and other subsequent years (Nigeria–Economy 2005; Suleiman, 2010). Some experts believed that Nigerian current woes are caused by resource curse or Dutch disease, while others argued that problem is caused by

Nigeria is the 7th world largest oil producer and is a major player in the world energy market. Oil and gas is Nigeria’s main source of revenue. It accounts for about 40% of the Gross Domestic Product and 70% of government revenues (Lawal 2004). Crude oil was first discovered in 1956 by Shell British Petroleum in a small village called Oloibiri present day Bayelsa State. Two years later oil in larger quantities was discovered in Ogoni.

The Oil Curse and the other articles under review discussed oil revenues and the effects it has on economic development, regime durability and civil wars in oil rich nations. What is it about oil wealth that seems to hinder development and trigger internal conflict? Scholars have examined the oil curse phenomenon from different perspectives and draw various conclusions from their analyses. Some have argued that oil wealth inhibits growth and development; others have questioned the resource curse thesis and argue that oil wealth over all has a positive effect on development. While some have outlined the circumstances under which oil wealth becomes a curse. The resource curse hypothesis generally assert that the inflow of wealth from

After 50 years of exploration, the first oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at the Niger Delta and was made by Shell-BP. Only in 1970 where there is rise in the oil price due to the end of Biafran war that Nigeria was able to become rich instantly from its oil production. In 1971, Nigeria then decided to join the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and established a state owned and controlled company which was named Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NPCC) in 1977.

In order to fully understand the mechanics of the clientalistic Nigerian oil governeance, one must first explore the structuring of the institutions tasked with overseeing the industry. First and foremost is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, or the NNPC. The NNPC is the parent company comprised of itself and 12 wholly owned subsidiaries that range from oil trade companies to petrochemical plants. With a workforce of over 9000, the NNPC oversees operation both down and upstream on the Niger river. The NNPC controls such a large percent through its subsidiary the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), an investment firm that acts as the concessionaire for the NNPC, brokering all the oil contracts on the behalf of the Nigerian government. Utilizing its incredibly high amount of government mandate in conjunction with its industry savvy personnel, the NNPC has postured itself as the leading influence over the Nigerian oil sector. Second in the pecking order is the minister of Petroleum, the official tasked with overseeing the NNPC. A position now (and much of history prior to 1999) held by the Nigerian president, the minister forms a tightly knit cabinet of advisors whose will governs the majority of oil-sector policy making. However, the position has lent itself to corruption, instilling concentrated amounts of power in an institution with