Oil once fueled a boom in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.
But plummeting oil prices, persistent terror threats and drought have caused economic turmoil in this West African nation of 170 million people.
Petroleum exports comprise some 70 percent of the Nigerian government’s revenues. So when oil prices began to plummet a few years back, public spending sagged, forcing the country to fall into recession last year, according to African Economic Outlook figures.
Thanks in part to help from OPEC, Nigeria is expected to post anemic growth this year.
But persistent corruption and sabotage at the hands of terror groups, insurgents and criminals have severely undercut the benefits of that turnaround, Reuters reported.
As much as 30 percent of the oil sent through the Niger River Delta is stolen, reported Stars and Stripes, citing oil industry estimates. Authorities claim former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has absconded with $615 million, for example, wrote Bloomberg.
Last month, meanwhile, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram – an Islamic State affiliate in Africa that has plagued Nigeria for the better part of the last decade – ambushed an oil exploration convoy, killing 10 people and abducting several others.
Despite the Nigerian army’s sometimes-controversial advances against them, Boko Haram militants also continue to occupy much of the country’s remote north, exacerbating a famine already gripping the region. Around 1.7 million people have yet to return to their homes in the wake of the jihadists’ rampage, too.
The United Nations said in a recent report that famine conditions affect roughly 5 million people in northeastern Nigeria. But Boko Haram’s grip on the region means that aid workers simply can’t reach those in need.
These hardships have put Nigeria’s youth in a dire situation, the Washington Times reported. According to UNICEF statistics quoted in the article, 45 percent of the population is younger than 15, and 10.5 million of those children aren’t attending school.
Meanwhile, unemployment stands at 14.2 percent.
The grim irony of Africa’s energy superpower not being able care for its own has forced the nation to face a bleak reality.
“Having 10 million children out of school is literally a ticking time bomb for our nation,” said Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki.
“An uneducated population will be locked in a cycle of poverty for their entire lives. These children could constitute the next generation of suicide bombers and militant terrorists.”