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Journal of Educational Research and Policy Studies (ESCJERPS) Vol. 1 
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AFRICA AND RESOURCE CURSE DILEMMAS: LESSONS FOR  

NIGERIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY  

  
Victor Chijioke Nwosumba PhD 

Department of Political Science 

Alex Ekwueme Federal University 

Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo Ebonyi State 

vcnwosumba@gmail.com; victor.nwosumba@funai.edu.ng 

 

Abstract 

That most African states are having resource curse is no more worrisome as it has been widely 

felt and acknowledged. What is worrisome now is that they are also facing the challenge of 

resource curse dilemmas and seem not to know what to do to break the curse. Against this 

backdrop, the paper discusses Africa’s resource curse dilemmas within the context of resource 

diplomacy conundrum. In adopting futures studies interdisciplinary approach, the paper focuses 

on Nigeria, the most populated and arguably, the most naturally-endowed nation in Africa to 

draw the attention of leaders and citizens alike on what must be done to break the dilemmas of 

resource curse in the second decade of the 21st Century in lieu of the newly found oil in the 

northeast and the need to urgently diversify the economy. The paper relies on historical and 

current documents and other pieces of information obtained through secondary sources, as well 

as on everyday observation to find that the major reason for the resource curse dilemmas is 

mainly resource diplomacy failure arising from not being people-oriented and centred. It argues 

that the reasons for this are that instead of making and implementing policies that could make 

the resource wealth a blessing to all Africans, such as diversifying the economy, being 

transparent and accountable to the people, investing in areas that could develop the people and 

the economy in the long run when the national resources might face revenue and macroeconomic 

volatility, Nigeria and by extension African states, embark on rent-seeking, policies that fail, 

corruption, inefficient/ineffective investments. The paper further contends that Nigeria like most 

states will never come out of this state of dilemmas because the benefits the appropriators of the 

resources are enjoying will continue to induce them to maintain the status quo especially when 

the suffering citizens are largely docile. To change the status quo, the people should face the 

challenge by taking back the power they gave to the state during the social contract signing 

because the power belongs to them. This paper therefore calls for the peoples’ revolution in 

Africa through the ballot boxes and not through violence or conflict in order to genuinely 

enthrone critical thinking leaders who can blend with the dynamics and realities of contemporary 

resource diplomacy which are people-oriented and participatory in nature. 

 

Keywords: Africa, Natural Resources, Nigeria, Resource Curse, Resource Diplomacy. 

 

1.2 Introduction 

Much has been said and written about 

Africa-resource curse nexus before the 

second decade of the 21st century 

(Mbabazi 2009; Mbabike, 2012; African 

Development Bank Group, 2013; 

Aborowa, 2014) but it is worrisome 

however that there is no strong effort or 

policy from most African states and the 

citizens that has been able to genuinely 

 

mailto:vcnwosumba@gmail.com


 

 

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Africa and Resource Curse Dilemmas: Lessons for Nigeria in the 21st century 

Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

change the status quo.  Rather than 

changing the status quo, the recurrent 

thing remains strengthening the existing 

policies and strategies that even place 

the states in a seemingly state of 

dilemmas because it favours those that 

are appropriating the natural resources. 

The consequences are far-reaching 

because instead of the abundant natural 

gifts from God bringing genuine 

economic and financial development as 

well as social welfare to all the owners, 

it is widening the inequality between a 

few capitalists who appropriate them in 

the name of the peoples’ leaders and 

majority of the people who are 

ostracised from the benefits. From the 

colonial days to the present time, this has 

been the way and manner through which 

African huge resources have been 

managed. This is against what resource 

diplomacy stands to achieve anytime.  

 

Resource diplomacy like every other 

type of diplomacy in international 

relations is meant to attract benefits and 

not curse. “In its very ordinary sense, the 

term diplomacy indicates the art and 

processes involved in the management 

of relationships so long as benefits are 

sustainably derived” (Orngu, 2017 :3). 

Management here includes negotiation 

whereas relationships refer to both 

national and international relations. 

Resource diplomacy as Orngu argues 

can be a potent instrument of negotiation 

in international relations whenever any 

resource issue arises between concerned 

international actors. The question, 

therefore, is whether the negotiation is 

done in line with the fundamental 

objective of resource diplomacy or the 

primordial interest of a clique. The 

answer to this question is not far-fetched 

because it is the outcome of any 

negotiation that justifies if the 

instrument, tactics, expertise and 

strategy adopted are potent and result-

oriented or not. 

 

 As observed by Delabre and Okereke 

(2019) while exploring “The Roundtable 

on Sustainable Palm Oil” in Malaysia 

and Indonesia where oil palm is one of 

the most profitable land uses 

(accounting for a combined total of over 

80% of global production of palm oil) 

governments and companies commonly 

argue that oil palm production generates 

jobs, foreign currency, and improves the 

quality of life of poor farmers. To avert 

the chances of argument over the 

genuine position of government and 

companies arguing on behalf of the poor 

farmers, Delabre and Okereke refer to 

GAPKI (2011) who earlier observed that 

the campaign slogan of the Indonesian 

Palm Oil Association is oil palm, a gift 

from God for Indonesian welfare.  In a 

similar vein, MPOC (2018) as cited by 

Delabre and Okereke also refers to the 

Malaysian Palm Oil Council which calls 

oil palm nature’s gift to Malaysia, 

nature’s gift to the world. More so, 

despite the fact that the oil sectors of 

these nations carry social impacts, they 

generate significant incomes for the 

states and their citizens (Aiken & Leigh, 

2011; Varkkey, 2012; Gelbert, 2015). 

This foregoing examples cited here are 

evidence that resource diplomacy of any 

kind is primarily designed and deployed 



 

 

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to attract significant benefit to the state 

and citizen alike whether it is in a 

resource cursed state or not. In Indonesia 

and Malaysia for instance, ‘Roundtable 

on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is one 

of the numerous commodity roundtables 

established since the 2000s to address 

sustainability problems associated with 

commodity production, including 

habitat destruction and deforestation, 

unsustainable and polluting operational 

practices, and land and labour rights 

issues’ (Delabre & Okereke, 2019). 

                               

The two countries referred to here are 

not resource cursed but referring to them 

serves two purposes. First, they confirm 

that any type of natural resource (not 

only when they are many) is a source of 

foreign currency and welfare of state and 

citizen if well harnessed through the 

instrumentality of well- intended 

resource diplomacy. For instance, 

despite criticisms and critiques that 

follow RSPO, as observed in Delabre 

and Okereke, stakeholder participation 

is a central feature through which 

commodity roundtables gain legitimacy 

and emphasize the importance of 

stakeholder inclusion at international 

and local levels. Second, because of the 

potency of their resource diplomacy the 

state and citizens are benefitting 

substantially from the highly-valued 

natural resource (oil palm) which 

Nigeria undervalues and undermines 

because of petroleum and gas.  

 

For years, the increasing situation of 

series of conflicts, crises, wars, hardship, 

economic recession, exponential 

increase in poverty, hunger, 

unemployment, food insecurity and 

more importantly, underdevelopment of 

the economy and society in Africa keep 

prompting the question of whether 

African resource curse cannot be 

reversed. This is not to say that Africans 

are not desirous of being cured of the 

disease or trying to reverse the condition 

but the fact remains that despite the 

seminars, workshops, conferences, 

roundtables, and even all that has been 

written, the curse still persists. By 

implication, Africa, as it is presently, is 

in a state of resource curse dilemmas. As 

frequently as the question about Africa's 

resource curse dilemmas and the way 

out is being asked, no answer has been 

sufficient because the challenge is still 

looming large especially when there are 

new discoveries of natural resources in 

some places in Africa where such were 

non-existing before. For example, the 

recent discovery of oil in north east 

Nigeria to state the obvious has 

generated some concern about what the 

fate of the people of the geopolitical 

zone in particular and Nigeria in general 

will be now they have a new 

opportunity. More so, this type of 

question reappears to be answered when 

a multiply-naturally-resourced country 

like Nigeria faces series of domestic 

problems especially economic recession 

arising from the lack of harnessing the 

huge potentials for the good of all the 

owners. This has necessitated recently 

the emergence of a growing recognition 

among Nigerian students and scholars of 

international relations alike of the need 

to study in a more systematic way the 



 

 

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Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

resource diplomacy of the country, 

Orngu (2017); Oni and Taiwo (2016) for 

example. 

 

This paper therefore looks at this 

recurrent African challenge from a 

modified perspective as never done 

since the beginning of the second decade 

of the 21st Century. It argues that the 

people, that is, the collective owners of 

the sovereign wealth are not enjoying 

their blessing from God because of the 

violation of the social contract by the 

leaders or managers of their state 

resources as observed in the impotency 

of the resource diplomacy they adopt 

and apply as well as the result it 

produces. The present Nigerian case 

where many people are unemployed, 

hopeless, food insecure, exponentially 

poor and low self-esteemed because of 

being largely excluded from the 

processes of production, distribution and 

benefit sharing while the appropriators 

of the resources are not only enjoying 

with their families, cronies and 

collaborators but as well are dumping 

hard currencies in foreign countries 

without reinvesting the proceeds into 

meaningful productive areas in the 

country suggest that the newly-found 

northeast oil may not lift the country out 

of its state of resource curse dilemmas if 

the resource diplomacy conundrum is 

not resolved. From this standpoint, the 

rest of the paper develops as follows. 

The next section situates Africa’s 

resources within the context of the 

continent being exceptionally blessed. 

The methodology is then presented, 

followed by the theoretical framework 

that the paper adopted which is resource 

curse theory. The next section dwells on 

showing that Africa is in a resource 

curse dilemma and further analyses the 

policy implications of such a condition. 

The next section takes the case of 

Nigeria as an exceptional one out of 

many in Africa in the second decade of 

the century considering its position as “a 

giant in Africa” and as where oil has 

been recently found in a zone it has not 

been existing. The paper taking a 

modified position thus becomes primus 

inter pares in this decade owing to the 

fact that while many has considered the 

debate on resource curse a well-worn out 

issue especially within the international 

relations discipline thereby overlooking 

the need for more contributions to the 

way out, it, rather, sees the possibility of 

the country curing the curse before the 

end of the decade. The 

recommendations made herein however 

suggest the ways through which Nigeria 

can achieve this.  

 

1.2   Research context and 

methodology 

Methodology has to do with the science 

or study of method or a set of methods 

used in a particular research. This paper 

adopts a qualitative research approach 

which makes it to rely heavily on 

documents and information from 

secondary sources as well as 

observation. With the aid of futures 

studies’ interdisciplinary method, the 

paper telescopes the probability of an 

endless resource curse in Africa for the 

fact that as it is presently, the 

(mis)appropriators of nation-states’ 



 

 

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resources seem not ready to be willing to 

change that status quo which favours 

and will continue to favour them if 

nothing is done by the mass of people 

who are ostracised from the benefits of 

their rich natural resources. For 

example, corruption in Nigeria has 

become endemic and appears to be a 

culture of a kind. Elections are still 

based on do-or-die approach, where 

winning of elections are rigged through 

the misuse of state security organisations 

at all cost and with impunity. Money 

politics cannot be overlooked in this 

context because everyday observation 

shows that during and after elections, 

results are being influenced when money 

is shared. Ayoade (2008) observes the 

emergence of two groups of elite in 

Nigeria’s fourth republic which are 

worthy of mention here. The two groups 

are those referred to as the moneybags 

and the godfathers. Moneybags are those 

who use wealth acquired from public 

office to sponsor political processes in 

expectation of personal advantage and 

the godfathers are those who by their 

financial status or command of violence 

or mobilisation of ethnic support rule by 

proxy and are shielded from the law by 

their protégés. Through these ways and 

means political leaders emerge and seat 

in positions where they dictate who gets 

what when and how, and for the fact that 

the mass of people are excluded from the 

process of electioneering they have no 

means through which they can 

checkmate the excesses of their 

acclaimed people’s leaders. These are 

the kind of leaders that go into 

diplomatic relations with other foreign 

actors on issues bordering on the 

nation’s natural resources. As already 

known, the resource diplomacy they 

adopt end up fanning the ember of 

resource curse. Jalloh (2013) for 

instance cites an example of a common 

view that the discovery of natural 

resources has played a key role in the 

conflicts that have plagued a number of 

African countries, both motivating and 

fuelling armed conflicts and the most 

disappointing thing is that revenues 

generated from the exploitation of 

natural resources are not only used for 

sustaining armies but as well for 

personal enrichment and building of 

political empires. Thus, as long as this 

type of system remains cyclical, the cure 

of resource curse is impossible. 

However, the aim of this paper is not to 

tow the usual cause- effect line of 

thought in which Africa’s resource curse 

has been debated rather, the choice of 

futures studies enables the paper to 

foresee against all inhibitions a future 

where it becomes possible that the yoke 

of resource curse is broken sooner than 

expected. Using Nigeria as a guinea pig 

in this study is based on the fact that if 

the newly found oil in northeast part of 

the country must be beneficial to all the 

owners (all Nigerians) and economy 

successfully diversified, there is a need 

for the change of the status quo.  

 

1.3 Africa; an exceptionally blessed 

continent 

Africa is arguably the most naturally 

blessed continent in the world. Hardly 

can you see another continent as blessed 

as Africa. Little wonder, around 



 

 

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Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

different places in the continent, some of 

these natural resources are visibly seen 

randomly located. This does not imply 

however that all African nations are 

naturally endowed equitably. However, 

while some are endowed more than 

others, no nation is left without any 

natural resource (Nwosumba, 2013). 

This table below summarises some of 

the natural resources in Africa according 

to countries. 

 

S/NO COUNTRY NATURAL RESOURCES 

1 Algeria Petroleum, Natural Gas, Iron Ore, Phosphates, Uranium, Lead, 

Zinc. 

2 Angola Petroleum, Diamonds, Iron Ore, Phosphates, Copper, Feldspar, 

Bauxite, Uranium. 

3 Benin Small Offshore Oil Deposits, Lime-Stone, Marble, Timber. 

4 Botswana Diamonds, Copper, Nickel, Salt, Soda Ash, Potash, Coal, Iron 

Ore. 

5 Burkina Faso  Manganese, Limestone, Marble, Small Deposits of Gold, 

Phosphates Pumice, Salt. 

6 Burundi Nickel, Uranium, Rare Earth Oxides, Peat, Cobalt, Copper, 

Platinum, Vanadium, Arable Land, Hydropower, Niobium, 

Tantalum, Gold, Tin, Tungsten, Kaoline, Limestone. 

7 Cameron  Petroleum, Bauxite, Iron Ore, Timber, Hydropower. 

8 Cape Verde Salt, Balsalt Rock, Limestone, Kaolin, Fish, Clay, Gypsum. 

9 Central African 

Republic 

Hydropower, Diamond, Uranium, Timber, Gold, Oil  

10 Chad Petroleum, Uranium, Nitron, Kaolin Fish (Lake Chad), Gold, 

Limestone, Sand and Gravel, Salt. 

11 Congo DR Cobalt, Copper, Niobium, Tantalum, Petroleum, Industrial and 

Gem Diamonds, Gold, Silver, Zinc, Manganese, Tin, Uranium, 

Coal, Hydropower, timber, Arable Land, Water. 

12. Republic of Congo Petroleum, Timber, Potash, Lead, Zinc, Uranium, Copper 

Phosphates, Gold, Magnesium, Natural Gas, Hydropower. 

13 Ivory Coast Petroleum, Natural Gas, Diamonds, Manganese, Iron Ore, 

Cobalt, Bauxite, Silica Sand, Clay Cocoa, Coffee, Palm Oil, 

Hydropower. 

14 Djibouti Geothermal, Gold, Clay Granite, Limestone, Marble, Salt, 

Diatomite, Gypsum, Pumice, Petroleum. 

15 Egypt Petroleum, Natural Gas, Iron Ore, Phosphates, Manganese, 

Limestone, Gypsum, Talc, Asbestos, Lead, Zinc. 

16 Equatorial Guinea Petroleum, Natural Gas, Timber, Gold, Bauxite, Diamonds, 

Tantalums, Sand and Gravel, Clay. 

17 Eritrea Potash, Gold, Zinc, Copper, Salt, Possibly Natural Gas and Oil, 

Fish. 

18 Ethiopia Small Reserves of Gold, Platinum, Copper, Potash, Natural 

Gas, Hydropower. 

19 Gabon Petroleum, Natural Gas, Diamonds, Niobium, Manganese, 

Uranium, Gold, Timber, Iron Ore, Hydropower 

20 The Gambia Fish, Titanium, Tin, Zircon, Silva Sand, Silva Clay, Petroleum 



 

 

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21 Ghana Gold, Timber, Industrial Diamonds, Bauxite, Manganese, Fish, 

Rubber, Hydropower Petroleum, Silver, Salt, Limestone. 

22 Guinea Bauxite, Iron Ore, Diamonds Gold, Uranium, Hydropower, 

Fish Salt. 

23 Guinea Bissau Fish, Timber, Phosphates, Bauxite, Clay, Granite, Limestone, 

Petroleum. 

24 Kenya Limestone, Soda Ash, Salt, Germ stones, Fluorspar Zinc, 

Diatomite, Gypsum, Wildlife, Hydropower. 

25 Lesotho Water, Agricultural and Grazing Land, Diamonds, Sand, Clay, 

Building Stone. 

26 Liberia Iron Ore, Timber, Diamonds, Gold, Hydropower. 

27 Libya Petroleum, Natural Gas, Gypsum. 

28 Madagascar Granite, Chromite, Coal, Bauxite, Salt, Quartz, Iar Sands, 

Semiprecious Stones, Mica, Fish, Hydropower 

29 Malawi Limestone, Arable Land, Hydropower, Uranium, Coal, 

Bauxite. 

30 Mali Gold, Phosphates, Kaolin, Salt, Limestone, uranium, Gypsum, 

Granite, Hydropower, Bauxite, Iron Ore; Manganese, Tin, 

Copper. 

31 Mauritania Iron Ore, Gypsum, Copper, Phosphate Diamonds, Gold, Oil, 

Fish 

32 Mauritius Arable Land, Fish. 

33 Morocco Phosphates, Iron Ore, Manganese, Lead, Zinc, fish, Salt. 

34 Mozambique Coal, Titanium, Natural Gas, Hydropower, Tantalum, 

Graphite. 

35 Namibia Diamonds, Copper, Gold, Uranium, Silver, Lead, Tin, Lithium, 

Cadmium Tungsten, Zinc, Salt, Hydropower, Fish, Coal, Oil, 

Iron Ore. 

36 Niger Uranium, Gold, Iron Ore, Tin, Phosphates, Gold, Molybdenum, 

Gypsum, Salt, Petroleum. 

37 Nigeria Natural Gas, Petroleum, Tin, Iron Ore, Coal, Limestone, 

Niobium, Lead, Zinc, Arable Land, Precious Stones, Forestry, 

Fish, Phosphates, Marble, Cocoa, Palm Oil. 

38 Rwanda Gold, Cassiterite (Tin Ore) Wolframite (Tungsten Seed, 

Mathane, Hydropower, Arable Land. 

39 Sao Tome and Principe Fish, Hydropower. 

40 Senegal Fish, Phosphates, Iron Ore 

41 Seychelles Fish, Copra, Circamon Trees. 

42 Sierra Leone Diamonds, Titanium Ore, Bauxite, Iron Ore, Gold, Chromite. 

43 Somalia Uranium, Iron Ore, Tin, Gypsum, Bauxite, Copper, Salt, 

Natural Gas, Oil. 

44 South Africa Gold, Chromium, Antimony, Coal, Iron Ore, Manganese, 

Nickel, Phosphates, Tin, Uranium, Gem Diamonds, Platinum, 

Copper, Vanadium, Salt, Natural Gas. 

45 South Sudan Hydropower, Fertile Agricultural Land, Gold, Diamonds, 

Petroleum, Hardwoods, Limestone, Iron Ore, Copper, 

Chromium Ore, Zinc, Tungsten, Mica, Silver. 



 

 

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46 Sudan Petroleum, Iron Ore, Copper, Chromium Ore, Zinc, Tungsten, 

Mica, Silver, Gold Hydropower. 

47 Swaziland Asbestos, Coal, Clay, Cassiterite, Hydropower Forests, Gold 

Diamonds, Quarry Stone, Talc. 

48 Tanzania Tazalite, Gemstones, Hydropower, Tin, Phosphates, Iron Ore, 

Coal, Diamonds, Gold, Natural Gas, Nickel. 

49 Togo Phosphates, Limestone, Marble, Arable Land. 

50 Tunisia Petroleum, Phosphates, Iron Ore, Lead, Zinc, Salt. 

51 Uganda Copper, Cobalt, Hydropower, Limestone, Salt, Arable Land, 

Gold. 

52 Zambia Copper, Cobalt, Zinc, Lead, Coal, Emeralds, Gold, Silver, 

Uranium, Hydropower 

53 Zimbabwe Coal, Chromium Ore, Asbestos, Gold, Nickel, Copper, Iron 

Ore, Vanadium, Lithium, Tin, Platinum, Group Metals. 

(Sources: Aina and Salau, 1992:53; Afribiz Foundation (2009); The World Factbook). 

 

The list of natural resources in the above 

tables includes mainly natural resources 

of commercial importance such as rare 

earth elements; mineral, petroleum, 

hydropower etc. So, the appearance of 

the products indicates that they have 

made or are likely to make a significant 

contribution to the economy of the 

countries. Another evidence of Africa 

being arguably the most endowed 

continent on earth is that it possesses 

50% of the world’s gold, most of the 

world’s diamonds and chromium, 90% 

of the cobalt, 40% of the world’s 

potential hydroelectric power, 65% of 

the manganese; millions of acres of 

untilled farmland, as well as other 

natural resources (Aborowa, 2014). 

  

However, a wide range of literature 

agrees that Africa is heavily blessed by 

God in terms of natural and even human 

resources (Nwosumba, 2013, Mbabike 

2012; African Bank, 2007; Aina and 

Salau 1992), the problem is that these 

huge resources instead of being a 

blessing to Africans are also widely 

believed to be a curse to them. 

 

1.4   Resource curse theory as a guide 

Resources are natural when they are not 

made by man. As such, man is only 

involved in the use and modification of 

natural resources for his benefit. This 

implies, as argued by Aina and Salau 

(1992:10) that “natural resources and 

physical environment are productive 

assets which support economic 

development and sustain human 

populations.” More than this, natural 

resources, due to the premium 

importance man places on them, have 

become a major political factor in local, 

national, regional and global relations to 

the point of being a source of conflict or 

crises, wars, in fact a curse. 

Realistically, while natural resources are 

not evenly distributed among peoples of 

the world, some have enjoyed them to 

the point of believing they are blessings. 

Conversely, those who are not enjoying 

the proceeds from their natural resources 

commensurately believe they are a curse 



 

 

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to them. Africa as this paper contends 

belongs to the later (though not all 

Africans). This paradox situation for 

many is referred to as “resource curse.” 

 

Resource curse has been a long standing 

theme in the literature. The idea that 

natural resources might be more of an 

economic curse than a blessing 

according to Morrison (2013) has been 

around for long but gained currency 

when scholars first systematically 

compared the experiences of resource 

rich countries with countries that did not 

have these resources.  

 

Richard Auty first used the term 

resource curse in 1993 to describe how 

countries that were rich in mineral 

resources were unable to use that wealth 

to boost their economies and how 

counter-intuitively, these countries had 

lower economic growth than countries 

without an abundance of natural 

resources (Auty, 1993). Following this, 

many benchmark works have been 

developed to debate on the idea of a 

resource curse; they include, Sachs and 

Warner (1995), Ross (1999; 2001), 

Collier and Hoeffler (2004), Morrison 

(2013) and others. 

 

In agreement with Auty’s thesis (1993), 

Sachs and Warner (1995) in taking an 

economic position in the debate estimate 

with evidence that countries with a high 

ratio of natural exports fully dependent 

on export of GDP in 1971 had 

abnormally slow growth rates between 

1971 and 1989, a fact which shows that 

a high ratio of natural resource exports 

to GDP correlate lower economic 

growth. Ross (1999), following his 

studies on the Middle East, East Asia, 

Latin America, the Caribbean, North 

Africa and sub-Saharan Africa confirms 

that there is strong evidence that states 

with abundant resource wealth perform 

less well than their poor counterparts. 

The work reviews efforts made by 

economists and political scientists to 

explain how the export of minimally 

processed natural resources, including 

hard rock minerals, petroleum, timber, 

and agricultural commodities, 

influences economic growth and 

summarises the evidence for a resource 

curse. Resource curse debate also has its 

own political side as Ross (2001) is of 

the view that it correlates with less 

democracy, controlling for other factors. 

 

Based on the foregoing points, resource 

curse also known as paradox of plenty is 

a puzzling empirical issue that associates 

natural riches with lower economic 

growth and so depicts a negative 

relationship between countries’ natural – 

resource abundance and dependence and 

their economic growth after controlling 

for other relevant variables (Torres, 

Afonso and Soares, 2013). Further, 

Gavin & Hausmann (1998) find a strong 

relationship between resource intensity 

and inequality. However, there are many 

approaches to understanding or 

explaining the resource curse which 

include; structuralist and Dutch Disease 

theses, rent-seeking behaviour, 

institutions and policies, namely fiscal, 

resource drag and possible endogeneity 

of initial income term, market volatility 



 

 

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among others. No matter the 

shortcomings of resource curse theory 

which borders on its sojourn in the 

context of multiplicity of theories or 

theses without eventually proffering a 

lasting solution to Africa’s worsening 

economic growth and development 

challenges, it still represents the best of 

theories that explain reasons why 

majority of Africans are not enjoying the 

full bliss of these gifts from God called 

natural resources which they have in 

abundance. It is therefore theoretically 

and empirically relevant to this study in 

the sense that no matter how multiple the 

debates on this theme seem to be, recent 

survey suggests that the resource curse 

literature has been progressing, 

especially in the estimation methods, 

and thus is closer to providing a more 

comprehensive and accurate answer to 

the curse paradox (Torres, Afonso and 

Soares, 2013).  

 

1.5   Paradox of plenty: Resource 

diplomacy failure  

In Africa, the enormous natural resource 

endowment has brought so much 

inequality between those that 

appropriate the resources and those that 

own them, that is, the mass of the people. 

In the 1970s, usually referred to as an oil 

boom era for Nigeria, the country 

generated a lot of revenues that 

misguided it to boast openly that the 

problem is not finance but shortage of 

executive capacity (Yahaya, 1989). The 

oil boom era were years of excess 

liquidity which offered the Nigerian 

government the opportunity to enter into 

an era of financial recklessness as it 

resumed a massive public sector 

expenditure in the social and economic 

fields. In 1970/71 for instance, 

government’s total recurrent revenue 

was put at N558 million, by 1975/76 this 

increased to N5, 252 million and as the 

earnings continued to rise, by 1980, they 

“have reached over N11 billion” and this 

was the time “when the Naira exchange 

rate was over N1: $1.5” (Yahaya, 1989: 

13). By implication, the natural resource 

earnings from the oil boom era, instead 

of being reinvested into productive areas 

of the economy and some of them saved, 

were recklessly misused. According to 

Federal Ministry of Information, Social 

Welfare, Youth, Sports and Culture 

(n.d.), misappropriation of public funds 

amounting to billions of naira from the 

national treasury were unaccounted and 

unchallenged, oil merchants and agents 

surfaced overnight owing their wealth to 

illegal oil deals. As observed by 

Gambari (1984), Nigeria pledged US$5 

million within the era and by 1990, paid 

up over US$3 million as part of its 

contribution to the establishment of a 

Special Emergency Assistance Fund for 

draught and famine in Africa.  

 

In the period under review, a good 

number of Nigerians (executive and 

political classes) in collaboration with 

foreign agents dipped their hands into 

the robust resources of the country and 

selfishly and consciously appropriated 

them through highly inflated contracts, 

staggering millions of naira were paid 

out in the name of mobilisation fees to 

contractors (both local and foreign) who 

disappeared on collection (Federal 



 

 

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Ministry of Information, Social Welfare, 

Youth, sports and Culture, n.d.). 

Through this official source the 

following is observed; oil, which is the 

live-wire of the nation’s economy, was 

tampered with in sales and in diversion 

of proceeds by Nigerians in 

collaboration with foreigners into 

private accounts and these unearned 

incomes which found their ways into 

circulation eventually started the spiral 

of inflation in the country. By the mid-

1981, Nigeria’s economic growth due to 

these wastes, have witnessed a down-

turn effect as economic recession took 

the centre stage and the nation 

unfortunately found itself in both 

economic and socio-political crisis. 

Funding of foreign policy and 

diplomatic activities began to dwindle 

(Yahaya, 1989). The military, 

capitalising on the backlash, overthrew 

the 4 year civilian regime of Alhaji 

Shehu Shagari to save the country and its 

economy from total collapse as 

promised by the head of the junta, 

General Muhammadu Buhari. Due to the 

foregoing situation, General Buhari’s 

regime adopted a diplomatic strategy 

that appeared to be confrontational in the 

eyes of the western countries and the 

result was Nigeria exchanging crude oil 

for needed items from available sources 

instead of taking developmental loans 

from IMF. 

 

Another diplomatic failure of note here 

is where Nigeria advocated for a New 

International Economic Order (NIEO) 

between 1973-1985, an order which 

sought for the redressing of the 

inequality that has prevailed in the 

international division of labour, trade 

and investment relations between the 

industrialised and non-indusrialised 

countries as facilitated by the World 

Bank, the IMF and Multinational 

Corporations through economic 

penetration and exploitation but couldn’t 

achieve this owing to the setback the 

search suffered in the country between 

1975-1980 (Asobie, 2002). Citing 

Asobie (2002), Nwogbaga, Nkwede and 

Chukwu (2016) further said the NIEO 

was later suspended as a component of 

the nation’s economic diplomacy 

especially owing to the reluctance of the 

industrialised countries to honestly 

engage in the North-South dialogue that 

eventually collapsed and as a follow-up, 

the Structural Adjustment Programme 

(SAP) was adopted as part of the efforts 

to redress the ailing economy of a – once 

– oil boom induced- rich nation. SAP 

was later abandoned by the regime of 

General Abacha which cited the woeful 

failure of the programme to revamp the 

nation’s economy as a major reason. 

SAP as Yahaya (1989) observes 

unleashed an unprecedented trauma as 

has never been experienced in recent 

memory, every facet of national life is 

facing this. Consequently, SAP was 

replaced by Abacha’s regime with 

guided deregulation policy under which 

the Nigerian state was to supervise the 

commercialisation and privatisation of 

public companies and as well, attract and 

regulate foreign investment into the 

country but this eventually couldn’t live 

up to the expectation. This diplomacy 



 

 

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Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

conundrum has continued to the present 

day.             

 

The Nigerian example shows that with 

the present down-turn of the economy 

many state governments have not paid 

the salaries of workers for months yet 

some governors, legislators and 

members of the political class purchase 

state-of-the-art vehicles for use. 

Sometimes, a fleet of cars (Jeep mainly) 

worth millions of Naira form the convoy 

of one political office holder while many 

citizens are dying of hunger and 

frustration. The case of Mobutu Sese 

Seko the leader of Zaire (defunct) and 

late Sani Abacha of Nigeria are still alive 

in the memory. These and other leaders 

like them use natural wealth of state for 

selfish and group interests. The above 

examples thus confirm Mbabike (2012) 

position that the discovery of natural 

resources leads to concentration of 

wealth in a few hands of powerful 

officials in governments and those 

directly involved in drilling, mining and 

resources exploration (like International 

Oil Companies). By implication the rich 

natural resources turn out to be a 

blessing to these few while the majority 

is ostracised from the benefits. As in life 

generally, anything that has to do with 

curse has far-reaching negative 

consequences on the cursed. 

 

Lending credence to this point, Mbabazi 

(2009) then concludes that the resource 

curse has crippled many African nations 

since their independence. Cases like 

Angola, Sudan, the DRC, Gabon, 

Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, 

Liberia, and several others, have 

endured the hardships brought on by the 

presence of highly sought after raw 

materials, notably oil and precious 

gemstones. In Africa, even now, there 

are ugly cases of hunger, malnutrition, 

unemployment, insecurity of lives and 

property and a lot more that are products 

of the resource curse arising from 

resource diplomacy impotency leading 

to the paradox of lack in the midst of 

plenty. Thus, as the resource wealth is 

mismanaged or squandered and the mass 

of the people left with exponential 

poverty, worsening food and life 

insecurity the result is the feeling of 

deprivation by the deprived and some of 

the consequences of this are threats to 

nation building or survival.  

 

1.6 Policy implications of resource 

diplomacy conundrum 

Most African states are in resource 

diplomacy conundrum due to 

endogenous and exogenous factors and 

this has far reaching policy implications. 

Ojo (2007) in viewing the Nigerian 

scenario uses political economy 

approach to prove that the country’s 

petroleum resources case has shown 

how natural resource can sow the seeds 

of discord and conflict among domestic 

stakeholders, politicians, developers, 

local tribes and residents in the resource 

endowed locations who often clamour 

for resource control or have larger shares 

of resource revenues. The attempts by 

stakeholders to seek unfair resource 

rents which engender tribal conflicts 

have adverse effects on local and foreign 

investments apart from direct loss of 



 

 

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resource revenue. Ojo also proves that 

resource rents are sources of corruption 

and economic inefficiency which 

culminate to undermine sound economic 

policies and weaken fiscal discipline. 

Revelations then show that the resource-

control related crises leading to attacks 

on oil workers by local residents in the 

oil-rich Delta region have adverse effect 

on foreign investment and loss of 

resource revenue worth about N650 

billion for the year 2005 (Ojo, 2007). 

 

No matter the language used to describe 

or analyse the continent’s situation, one 

thing is certain, that is the reality that 

Africa is in a resource diplomacy 

conundrum because even the countries 

where oil and gas for instance were 

recently discovered which attempted to 

avoid the resource curse are currently 

nose diving into it. Uganda is an 

example (Africa for Results Initiative, 

2016). Kumah-Abiwu, Brenya, Grenya 

and Agbodzakey (2015) for example are 

worried about how the recent discovery 

of oil in Ghana can make Ghana have 

economic growth and development by 

learning a lesson from other naturally 

rich oil nations such as Nigeria who are 

in a resource curse dilemma. In Nigeria, 

oil has recently been reported to have 

been discovered in the north east area, a 

point which reactivates the question of 

the type of diplomacy to be adopted in 

order to escape the resource curse in the 

second decade of the 21st Century. 

 

 According to African bank (2009), 

many African countries’ natural 

resource booms have only to a limited 

extent set off a dynamic growth process. 

This is due largely to the failure to 

implement the right growth promotion 

policies and ensure that strong 

institutions are in place, suggesting that 

it is very difficult to make the big push 

towards diversification and 

development of manufacturing in the 

resource – rich parts of the continent. 

Ojo (2007) admits this fact by adding 

that despite expectations that resource- 

rich countries can promote growth by 

using the large revenues they derive 

from their resources to invest more in 

economic infrastructure and human 

capital, the policy implication is that 

economic growth in these countries has 

often stagnated. The underfollowing 

points to a large extent contribute to the 

foregoing. 

 

The Dutch Disease:- The syndrome of 

rising real exchange rates and wages 

driving out pre-existing export and 

import – competing industries (Ojo 

2007). A clear example is Nigeria’s 

palm produce and other agricultural 

export commodities that sustained the 

country en route sustainable economic 

growth in the pre-colonial and colonial 

periods which were suddenly 

undermined because of the discovery of 

oil in the late 1950s and the eventual oil 

boom that followed shortly after 1970. 

The Malaysian and Indonesian arable 

lands have encouraged palm oil 

economies worthy of reference and so 

indicative of the fact that a palm oil 

economy can give a majority of the 

people better life (Delabre & Okereke, 

2019) not to talk about when other 



 

 

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Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

natural resources revenues are added. In 

these countries, as observed in Delabre 

and Okereke, negotiations are done even 

outside of government for the natural 

resources to attract foreign currency, 

jobs and other benefits to the people as 

well as the government and the 

companies involved in the sector. With 

oil windfall, Nigeria's export 

commodities (predominantly 

agricultural) were undermined and 

substituted with imported goods. The 

adverse effect of this anomie is the over 

flooding of wanted and unwanted goods 

into the Nigerian markets at rates that 

compete and eventually subdue local 

industries and production generally 

(Nwosumba, 2012). It is shocking to 

hear that Nigeria according to the former 

Minister of Agriculture Adeshina 

Adewumi on an NTA programme 

(2011) spent N98 trillion on rice 

importation between 2007 and 2010 

where as its farmers walked and still 

wallow in poverty and hunger in spite of 

the untilled huge arable land and 

population the country has. So, because 

oil price was very high during this 

period, there appeared as was during the 

1970s an oil boom era, a belief that 

Nigeria was enjoying a moment of 

excess cash liquidity. Even toothpicks 

were imported also without minding that 

there were and are numerous forests in 

the country that need to be harnessed. 

This underscores the relevance of the 

Dutch Disease thesis which argues that 

an oil boom would lead to a contraction 

in manufacturing. 

 

Another factor that explains the reason 

for Africa’s resource diplomacy 

conundrum is that of revenue and 

macroeconomic volatility (African 

Bank, 2007). This factor is based on the 

assumption and reality of the fact that 

commodity booms are typically not 

permanent and prices tend to show at 

least some degree of mean reversion 

over time. Thus, as a result, countries 

that have experienced one or more 

commodity export price booms will 

typically also have faced high volatility 

of export prices. In many cases resource 

booms have encouraged less prudent 

fiscal policies with limited control and 

inflation thereby hampering growth, 

equity and the alleviation of poverty 

(African Bank, 2007). In the case of 

Nigeria, the hosting of FESTAC in 

1977, the involvement in African 

liberation struggles and elephant white 

projects within the oil boom days and the 

economic doomsday that followed 

shortly explain the point more. Nigeria 

shares this less – prudence factor with 

many other oil rich nations like Libya 

(accused of being a sponsor of 

transnational terrorism), Angola and 

Gabon. 

  

There is also the fact that majority of 

African resource rich nations tend to 

have limited transparency and 

accountability in the management of 

their natural resource revenues leading 

to the creation of parallel budgets, and as 

a result price stability and budgetary 

discipline suffers. This makes it that 

even as natural resource money is 

pouring in, these countries often have 



 

 

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fiscal deficits, and sometimes, double 

digit inflation (African Bank, 2007). 

This kind of situation hampers equitable 

income distribution, exchange rate 

unification and trade liberalisation and 

further makes investments more risky. 

The correlative anomaly is that public 

spending decisions “become 

compromised with extravagant 

commitments made during booms that 

subsequently lead to drastic cuts in vital 

expenditures during troughs” (African 

Bank, 2007:112). 

 

Another factor of importance is 

economic policy failures. The effects 

that natural resource revenues have in 

exposing existing policy failures 

including, on economic investment, 

regulatory reform and trade, as African 

Bank exposes, are also linked to the 

Dutch Disease and further, in policy 

decisions on economic diversification, 

choices governments make in 

supporting regulatory reform, skills 

development, business support, and 

public investment in infrastructure such 

as ports and roads have an impact on the 

way in which the Dutch Disease affects 

the economy. 

 

There is another reason which borders 

on corruption and rent-seeking 

syndrome. Rent seeking among most 

naturally resourced nations is also a 

reason for the resource diplomacy 

conundrum because as Hausmann and 

Rigobon (2002) argue, resource wealth 

such as oil somehow makes societies 

less entrepreneurial, this follows the 

reasoning that there is so much wealth 

floating around the government that 

entrepreneurial people find it much more 

profitable to engage in unproductive rent 

seeking activities to appropriate that 

wealth rather than in creating more 

wealth. This is the case of Africa where 

almost every adult wants to be in 

government by any means in order to 

join the appropriators of the resource 

wealth. The implication of this is that 

entrepreneurial skills are not converted 

to production or manufacturing or even 

servicing but policies of “do-or-die” as 

former President Obasanjo branded 

Nigeria's politics, where political power 

must be gotten at all costs and by any 

means possible without minding the 

consequences. This kind of situation has 

made it that instead of reinvesting 

entrepreneurially generated income into 

diversified economic activities most 

people prefer to plough the money in 

politics with the hope of making more 

money without the stress of doing 

business if they are elected or appointed 

into juicy government positions. In 

Nigeria, partisan politics has become 

misconceived to mean a profession 

which some people abandon their work 

to pursue. Suffice it to say therefore that 

joining the appropriators/elite group 

becomes more intense and paramount 

leading to scramble for political 

positions and the attendant conflicts, 

crises and violence which in turn affect 

the activities of state and citizens. 

 

Ojo (2007) confirms this point by adding 

that resource curse works by destroying 

domestic economic and political 

institutions. In the case of Nigeria as Ojo 



 

 

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Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

further argues, the presence of oil gives 

rise to rent seeking and corruption which 

adversely affect the climate for 

investment and growth after distorting 

earlier useful social, economic and 

political institutions in the country and 

this is possible because of the way 

natural resource activities minimise the 

two-way interaction between the state 

and its citizens. Evidence abounds that 

governments that have easy recourse to 

oil rents do not need to promote wealth 

creation that they can subsequently tax, 

as such citizens have less incentive to 

hold governments accountable. Thus the 

rent-seeking-syndrome as can be argued 

is usually attached to any state that 

suffers resource curse dilemma and so it 

is not peculiar to Nigeria or even Africa. 

Venezuela is an example. 

 

The next reason for Africa’s resource 

diplomacy conundrum is routed to its 

historical past. Colonialism which was 

the main reason for the establishment of 

most African states laid a certain faulty 

foundation which ab initio disarticulated 

the traditional economic development of 

Africa making it largely dependent on 

the developed economies for its 

development. This has continued even 

after the political independence of these 

states and in the face of the current 

globalisation process which has 

promised to open the global system for 

equal participation and benefits for all 

peoples and nations. Many argues that 

the disastrous impact of the world 

system which colonialism co-opted 

Africa into is the colossal appropriation 

of Africa’s natural heritage by capitalists 

(foreign in collusion with the 

indigenous) (Adeoti and Attah, 2012); 

Nwosumba, 2013). This follows the 

argument that the relationship between 

the Third World (Africa inclusive) and 

the rich industrialised centre nations is 

not a relation that is aiming at even 

encouragement (Galtung, 1973; 

Offiong, 1980). The policy implication 

of this type of relationship is that the 

control of these natural resources are 

more in the hands of foreigners who 

exploit and refine them because of the 

advantaged position of their expatriates, 

technology and reseach. This is also like 

this due largely to African leaders’ 

conspiracy with foreign capitalists to 

maintain the status quo that favours the 

elite, especially those appropriating the 

natural resources in the name of the state 

and the people.  

 

The way out of resource curse dilemmas 

in the 21st Century for Nigeria. 

  

The instance of Malaysia and it likes 

where resource diplomacy has been well 

intended and deployed stand to be 

emulated by Nigeria. The case of most 

African states just points to the direction 

of the gap between policy making and 

implementation as well as the lack of 

seriousness and commitment of the 

leaders in changing the status quo. That 

there is resource curse dilemma in 

Africa is to a large extent because of 

policy-default and lack of commitment 

on the part of the leaders (appropriators) 

to adopt people-oriented resource 

diplomacy. A situation where the policy 

is not people based is uncalled for.                   



 

 

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In observation of this, the quotation from 

the remarks made by African 

Theologians in Uganda in 1989 is apt 

here. 

While in the past, development 

was principally understood in 

terms of economic progress, we 

now realized and become 

convinced, that appropriate 

progress should be integral 

development. Such development 

must cater for the whole human 

person, and encompass the people 

of the nation as a whole by 

developing their spiritual, 

religious, social, moral, economic, 

cultural, political, mental, 

educational, physical and 

environmental dimensions of life 

(Ike and Edozien, 2003:4). 

 

The issue at stake now is the way to 

achieve this and then be out of the 

natural resource curse dilemma. 

 

Some has the believe that Africa’s 

resource curse dilemma is inescapable 

considering the fact that African leaders 

mindset is still to maintain the system 

that favours and may continue to favour 

them. Look at former President 

Mugabe’s case for example; he was over 

90 years and still wanted to continue 

appropriating and misappropriating the 

people’s natural resources. Is it for what 

reasons? Zimbabwe with its abundant 

natural resources: Coal, Chromium Ore, 

Asbestos, Gold, Nickel, Copper, Iron 

Ore, Vanadium, Lithium, Tin, Platinum, 

Group Metals, Agricultural Land is one 

of the poorest countries in the world. 

The rank of Zimbabwe’s Human 

Development Index (HDI) for 2011 

based on data available in 2012 and 

methods used in 2012 was – 173 out of 

187 countries (Human Development 

Report, 2013). So between 1980 and 

2016 36 years of Mugabe’s reign, 

Zimbabwe’s resource curse worsened as 

to make the country to be ranked one of 

the two poorest countries in the world 

survey (New Zimbabwe, 2016). This 

survey further reveals that Zimbabwe, a 

former net food exporter, is perennially 

hungry; formal industry has collapsed 

and unemployment is around 90 percent. 

Nigeria’s case is not even better 

considering the fact that the nation is 

currently owing the World Bank 

$9.81billion as revealed by the Debt 

Management Office, DMO (Plustv 

Africa, 2020), whereas, the leaders that 

misappropriated the huge revenues of 

the oil boom days over forty years ago 

are still much in-charge of the resources 

today. 

 

Stemming from this backdrop, it is 

imperative to suggest here that as far as 

the essence of diplomatic relations is 

mainly the achievement of national 

interest, Malaysia’s success story can be 

emulated by Nigeria. Malaysia is natural 

resource-rich but not cursed because of 

the potency of its resource diplomacy. 

The wealth is shared among the people. 

The nation’s success story of natural 

resources management lies on the fact 

that in the country according to the 

World Bank (2013), natural resources 



 

 

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raised incomes of the bottom 40% of 

rural households. 

 

Malaysia is a country situated in the 

southeastern part of Asia. The country 

has a wide array of natural resources 

including fertile land for agriculture, 

minerals, and extensive forest. The 

country’s economy is driven by theses 

natural resources through exports and 

local sales. Although the nation’s major 

resource, like that of Nigeria is 

undoubtedly petroleum, agricultural 

products such as palm oil, timber, cocoa, 

pineapples among others are also 

exported and locally consumed. In the 

global palm oil sector Malaysia is only 

second to Indonesia in production 

capacity (Bada, https://googleweb 

light.com/). Nigeria should learn from 

Malaysia because it is a developing 

country like it. According to the World 

Bank (2013), Malaysia is one of a few 

developing countries that successfully 

converted an abundance of natural 

resources into long-term sustainable 

growth and it was able to do this through 

the following: 

 

 Sound policy choices ensured 

revenues from resource extraction 

were reinvested in the economy in 

the form of machines and 

buildings to generate sustainable 

economic growth.  

 Reinvesting natural resources 

revenues into productive non-oil 

assets, such as infrastructure and 

education, ensuring that future 

generation will benefit from 

resource wealth. Malaysian 

economy has been diversified 

horizontally from commodities to 

non-commodities. Openness to 

foreign investment and labour 

helped promote the development 

of non-resource industries. 

Malaysia has also diversified 

vertically, from raw commodities 

to processed goods.  

 The diversification of the economy 

helped Malaysia avoid volatility 

from commodity price booms and 

bursts. The exchange rate also 

remained competitive.  

 The economic growth harnessed 

from natural resource was shared 

among Malaysians, raising the 

average incomes of the bottom 40 

percent of rural households by 7.2 

percent a year on average over two 

decades while poverty rates 

plummeted. 

 

The virtues of good leadership, stressed 

Manjurul and Nilufar (2019), are the 

keys to Malaysian success, to 

metamorphose from a poor to a rich 

country in short period; Mahathir 

Mohammed from example was a 

patriotic and multitalented leader whose 

dynamic reforms modernised Malaysia, 

touching all sectors and aspects of the 

whole country. From the above, it thus 

becomes clear that Mahathir touched all 

aspects of Malaysian life as a whole and 

not one area. Suffice it to assert therefore 

that good leadership is the key to 

avoiding and by extension, breaking the 

resource curse. Malaysia has proved it.  

 



 

 

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Although Malaysia is second to 

Indonesia in palm oil production, why it 

is attracted to this paper is that while 

palm oil and other agricultural resources 

were the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy 

in the colonial and early postcolonial 

eras, they were eventually abandoned 

due to wrong resource diplomacy 

approach arising from the discovery of 

earth oil in the late 1950s and the boom 

of the early 1970s. So, the fact that 

colonialism also took place in Malaysia 

goes a long way to prove that Nigeria’s 

blame of the colonial web as a major 

reason for resource curse dilemmas is to 

be discountenanced. Rather than 

blaming colonialism Malaysian leaders 

adopted potent resource diplomatic 

strategies that are people-oriented and 

minded, diversified the nation’s 

opportunities to benefit adequately from 

the nation’s resources. For instance, it 

came to Nigeria, collected its palm fruits 

and went back home to plant them and 

today is one of the two leading palm oil 

producers and exporters in the world. 

Palm Oil has helped Malaysia in the 

diversification of its economy and 

generation of many jobs, as well as 

foreign currency (Delabre & Okereke, 

2019). This is an example of potent 

resource diplomacy. Now that Nigeria 

has new oil in the northeast zone it 

should learn from Malaysia that virtues 

leaders and diversification of the 

economy are major keys of avoiding 

resource curse and out of resource curse 

dilemmas. 

 

 

 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, evidence in the paper so 

far has really shown that Africa’s natural 

resource curse is a by-product of 

impotent resource diplomatic tools 

arising from selfish leadership and poor 

policy implementation. However, the 

position of this paper is that Africa still 

has the chance of making the abundant 

natural resources a blessing and not a 

curse. It argued that if Malaysia, a 

developing country in Asia was able to 

escape the resource curse, nothing stops 

the other countries in Africa especially 

Nigeria from following suit. The major 

challenge however is the sincerity and 

willingness of the leaders to change the 

policies that are supporting the resource 

curse such as rent seeking, the Dutch 

Disease and their like and put the interest 

of all the owners of the resources, 

Africans at the centre. The question here 

is, how possible is this considering the 

benefits that the leaders enjoy from the 

resource wealth misappropriation? 

History as we know has shown that those 

capitalists that love wealth, fame and 

prestige above human lives do anything 

within their reach to maintain the status 

quo. Mummar Ghadafi of Libya, Hosni 

Mubarak of Egypt, Sani Abacha of 

Nigeria, Mobutu Sese Seko of DRC, Idi 

Amin of Uganda, Robert Mugabe of 

Zimbabwe are some of these leaders 

who died while refusing to make their 

people the main focus of their resource 

diplomacy. Although some of them may 

be argued to have died because of 

international conspiracy, the most 

acceptable argument may be because 

they have not laid the foundation for the 



 

 

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Victor Chijioke Nwosumba 

breaking of resource curse in their 

countries. 

 

Recommendation 

This paper is of the view that if Africa’s 

nascent democracies can be sustained 

for a long time and then become more 

mature to the point of entrenching good 

governments that are accountable to the 

people, the natural resource curse can be 

upturned. This achievement to say the 

obvious is not possible without the 

people themselves taking action. This 

can be called revolution in the sense that 

if the people are determined to entrench 

good governance they can do it through 

the ballot boxes. Look at what happened 

in some North African countries recently 

where the people – led revolutions 

changed most leadership there and in 

Nigeria where for the first time an 

opposition candidate unseated an 

incumbent President, all these happened 

because the people remembered that 

power belongs to them. Regrettably, 

these revolutions are yet to yield the 

expected results which eventually shall 

lay the foundation for deep-rooted 

democracy and then good governance in 

their respective states. This, 

nevertheless, shall not deter the people 

from continuing to retake what belongs 

to them, which is the political power. 

Resource curse is man-made; it is a 

product of selfish politics and should be 

reversed by political means. The paper 

therefore recommends that what the 

people should try to achieve is 

enthroning critical thinking leaders 

through the ballot boxes who shall move 

away from pursuing parochial and 

selfish interests against the social 

contract tenets aspire to emulate other 

leaders like those in Malaysia. This is a 

message of hope to all Africans because 

of the strong belief of this paper that 

something being difficult does not mean 

it is impossible to be changed. The 

people should be resolute, committed 

and consistent in their effort, with time, 

no matter the time; provided it is within 

the second decade of the 21st Century, 

they will achieve this onerous task. 

 

 

References 

 

Aborowa, G. (2014). Africa’s Mineral 

Wealth: A Blessing or a Curse.  

 

https://gbengaaborowa.wordpres

s.com/2014/09/ci/africas-

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