Is The Search For Oil In The North Beclouding Its Agricultural Potential?

The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, recently announced that crude oil exploration in the Northern part of Nigeria would continue until the commodity is found in exploitable quantity.

Over the past four decades, NNPC has invested around $3billion searching for crude oil in Northern Nigeria without much success.

Some analysts believe that money would better have been invested in agriculture where the North already shows massive potential.

For instance, if $1 billion was used to reverse desertification that has crept into various parts of the North, it would increase the amount of arable land available for cultivation and animal husbandry and human habitation.

The Lake Chad Basin comes to mind as an area that could be developed agriculturally with massive returns on investment.

Properly harnessed, Northern Nigeria can feed not just Nigeria, but Africa.