There is an argument, and it is a plausible one, at least, that oil and other resources can represent a curse for African nations and other countries in the developing world. But certainly having resources is preferable to having none — if oil is a curse, that curse has dual edges, cutting good and cutting bad. Thus the news that Nigeria's oil production could drop by a third if the country doesn't find a way to work more efficiently rates as bad news, no matter how oil has in so many ways warped the vast country's economy and created serious fissures in Nigerian society.
