Nigeria has oil wealth but poverty still hit the people hard in addition to poor public infastructures. So what if the oil wasn't there? I guess Nigeria would have been relying on agriculture. But can agriculture alone fund the corruption in our democracy together with the "small-small" development the way oil is funding it? By the time our leaders cut their bogus share from the agricultural revenue will the balance be enough to drive any development?

If there was no oil, the government of Nigeria would have largely been relying on taxes and levies to survive.

I think that would have been better for Nigeria because I think that tax-paying citizens tend to be more interested in how their money is spent and so hold their leaders accountable than citizens of countries which rely on extractive minerals or natural resources.

Oil is a curse to Nigeria. If we didn't have oil then the US wouldn't have been in our business and our government would have been better. Less corrupted because the CIA wouldn't have corrupted them ass much. We would be using our resources to benefit ourselves not other people.

GET THE DEVILS OUT!!!

@pukkah. But where will the citizen's tax money be coming from? I thought the money in the citizen's possesion comes from their monthly wages. And the wages are part of the nation's generated revenue.

The money in the possession of citizens comes not only from wages (public and private) but also from profits made from their businesses which may include agriculture, manufacturing, services, etc.