According to Professor Charles Nwekeaku, the secretary of the Igbo Elders Forum, Igbo warriors refined crude oil during the Civil War, which eliminated scarcity in the region. He said that Nigeria’s current incapacity to refine oil was caused by the country’s support of an inefficient system. He also bemoaned the contradiction that Nigeria, the world’s sixth-largest petroleum producer, struggles to generate enough petroleum products at home.
Drawing from Karl Marx’s philosophy that production is a mass expression of oneself, he criticized Nigeria for not utilizing its resources to express itself through productivity. He emphasized the detrimental impact of an unproductive system that hinders the country’s ability to harness and control its own petroleum resources.
He said in an interview with Arise TV, ”Today Nigeria depends on Oil and see the tragedy. The oil is drilled for us by foreigners. After drilling it, it is shifted to the International market through foreign shipping lines. And when it get there, it is sold in dollars. So you can see that we don’t have direct access to the production. And according to Karl Marx, production is the mass expression of oneself. We are not expressing ourselves through productivity.
We don’t even have the petroleum. The petroleum is sold at 680, 690, and even 700 in some places. And we are the six largest producers of Petroleum but we don’t have petroleum products. Let me tell you, during the Civil War the Igbo Soldiers refined crude oil and there was no scarcity in the land. How come Nigeria cannot refine oil after many years of independence? It is because we encourage an unproductive system.”
