The curse of Nigerian oil

Attacks on oil industry facilities and kidnappings for ransom are frequent in the creeks of the Niger Delta, which is home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry.

The BBC's Sue Lloyd-Roberts argues that Nigeria's "black gold" has brought wealth to a few but fuels greed and corruption on a grand scale.

After spending just two weeks in Nigeria, I had come to a sweeping - and therefore probably wrong - conclusion about the country.

I was therefore gratified to find my view confirmed by the Nigerian woman whom I sat next to on the flight back from Abuja to London. I told her that I had spent most of my time in the Delta region filming the consequences of oil exploration.

"Oh, I come from there", she said. "I wish you had come to my country before oil was discovered. Oil has ruined Nigeria."

Academics call it "the curse of the resource-rich country".

Government income

Oil has provided hundreds of billions of pounds in revenue for the government since it was discovered in the Nigerian Delta 50 years ago and yet the country boasts some of the poorest communities in West Africa.

Elections are rigged by money and guns and corruption pervades society from the top down...

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