When US Indulges in Blackmail (Nigeria fights back)

[donsu]

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=19576


A few days ago, the Joint Development Authority (JDA) released the winners of latest licensing round of oil blocs in the Joint Development (Economic) Zone (JDZ) owned by Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe, on behalf of the two countries. The JDA administers the economic zone in the Gulf of Guinea, said to be very rich in oil deposits. At the end of the exercise, many Nigerian companies were successful in the various consortia that won the blocs. The boldness of Nigeria companies to venture into the more challenging deep-sea exploration and drilling appears to suggest that Nigeria may have learnt a great lesson from its mistakes with its on-shore oil.
The development seems to visibly excite players in the oil industry in Nigeria, which had been battling the mainly United States- owned oil majors to respect its drive for local content and give significant roles to local professionals in the organisations. Expectedly, the move did not go down well with oil and political interests in the United States. Fazed by their failure to undermine bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe, the media establishment has resorted to a campaign of calumny.
Barely 24 hours after the endorsement of the winners in Abuja by the Presidents of the two countries, the Washington Post published an editorial damning the whole exercise. Relying on an alleged story by an unnamed Nigerian media, the report insinuated that the "allocations of exploration rights there (JDZ) smells bad". It held further that a "firm run by a politically-connected Nigeria seems favoured to win an auction over a U.S company that bid substantially more". To substantially underscore the motive of the editorial, it alleged that the first payment for the auctions were paid into a Nigerian bank instead of an international bank. In the estimation of the paper, payment into a Nigerian bank "violated the anti-corruption best practice". Just for these reasons, the newspaper predictably cast serious doubts about the outcome of on-going efforts to reduce corruption in Nigeria.
I doubt if any body expected anything different from the US. Its imperialist reflexes remain very sharp, especially in the wake of the serious transitions in the world, which are challenging the US's sense of entitlement to the best resources in the world, especially cheap oil. Indeed, it is not surprising that the seemingly influential Washington Post responded with the full weight of its arrogance. It would seem that the newspaper had prepared scripts, waiting for the outcome of the auction. The idea, as is clear to all, is to discredit the process as soon as it emerged that the US oil majors did not win 100 percent as in the past.
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the article ends by saying:

But Nigerians are wiser now. The era when the oil majors, with headquarters in the United States, threw their weight around government offices in Nigeria and got cheap oil concessions are over. Nigerian entrepreneurs are rising to their feet, and they will give everybody a tough competition in future. No blackmail can roll back that momentum. If the United States still wants to be a player here, it has to adjust to the changing order. If its media does not see what is coming and advise a new attitude in its government and corporations, then it will be tragic.