TITLE:
Why We Feel Unsafe When We Get Rich? Review on the Empirics of Corruption, Oil Rents and Insecurity in Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Ding Chen, Umar Muhammad Gummi, Junping Wang, Asiya Mu’azu
KEYWORDS:
Corruption, Oil Rents, Insecurity, Dutch Disease, Resources Curse
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.5,
May
18,
2020
ABSTRACT: The empirical submissions that oil rents cause internal conflict have been
widely supported by many researchers but criticized on the basis that oil
dependence and conflict are influenced by other factors endogenously. In this
paper, we review the empirics and interaction between corruption, oil rents and
insecurity in Nigeria. Based on the
theoretical submissions of the “Resources Curse Thesis”, the paper argues that
Nigeria’s security challenges are more or less driven and triggered by
corruption and oil rent, and the fact remains that oil rents tend to affect all
economic activities, shaping the political system which certainly presents a reasonable explanation
for both economic and political “Dutch Disease”. However, we upheld the
proposition that due to corruption, oil is problematic because the unearned
income received by the government from oil rents leads to the neglect of other
key aspects of the economy especially peace and social security.