Royal Dutch Shell has temporarily halted production at its biggest offshore oilfield, the Bonga installation, in Nigeria. The stoppage comes in response to an attack from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
Nigeria might represent the quintessential example of the so-called oil or resource curse. By all rights Nigeria ought to be prospering as a result of the global market for oil. Instead Nigeria embodies the blend of neocolonialism, misguided Big Man politics, and generally incoherent policies that seems to befall so many African countries that discover the wealth brought by their black gold.
