Can Nigeria End Oil Corruption?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2015
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Oil accounts for around 75% of Nigeria’s economy, but no-one knows how much the country produces or refines. It means corruption is rife. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are stolen every day, at each level of the supply chain. It is a problem that has cost the Nigerian economy billions of dollars, and weakened its public services and infrastructure. Schools and hospitals are paid for, but never built; citizens are forced to pay bribes for basic services. Many believe Nigeria’s new president, Muhammadu Buhari, is the man to end this decades-old problem. He says he will do it, and has taken personal control of the oil ministry. But it is a huge task he has set himself. So, can Nigeria end oil corruption?
(Photo: Buhari inauguration. Credit: AP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC World Service, this is Ruth Alexander with the inquiry. |
| 0:08.0 | This week, can Nigeria end oil corruption? |
| 0:19.0 | Fingers turn a valve somewhere in the depths of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. A metal drum fills with thick black liquid, oil, the lifeblood of Nigeria's economy pouring |
| 0:27.0 | out of a rusting pipe. |
| 0:29.9 | Meanwhile a ship waits out at sea, ready to receive a wodge of fake documents and hundreds of barrels |
| 0:35.7 | of this stolen oil. |
| 0:38.4 | Within days the oil will be bound for sale on the world market. |
| 0:49.0 | Three quarters of the Nigerian government's income comes from oil. But even while all prices were high, this revenue was falling and fuel shortages were threatening to |
| 0:55.0 | bring the country's economy to a standstill. |
| 0:58.3 | Oil theft is happening on an astonishing scale. |
| 1:01.9 | It's a symptom of deep corruption and mismanagement in Nigeria's biggest |
| 1:06.2 | industry, one of the main problems holding the country back. |
| 1:10.4 | Nigeria's new president, Mohammedu Bahari, says it has to stop. |
| 1:17.0 | He's already got the job of running the country, |
| 1:20.0 | but he's announced he's going to be Minister of Petroleum too. |
| 1:24.0 | Can he do it? |
| 1:31.0 | Can he do it? |
| 1:32.0 | Can Nigeria end oil corruption? |
| 1:37.0 | Part one. Part 1, the size of the problem. |
| 1:45.0 | It is a multi-billion shadow economy with international actors all involved and highly placed individuals are aware |
| 1:57.0 | they know about it and the benefit from it but we've never had anyone who can hold |
| 2:01.5 | responsible we know it's happening We've never had anyone who can hold responsible. |
... |
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