Turkana Oil: A blessing or a curse in disguise

Whenever the word oil is uttered, it conjures up bad images because it has come to be synonymized with every evil thing one can think of. Nigeria has one of the largest oil reserves in Africa which really ought to reflect on the living standards of the people of Nigeria by translating into good infrastructures in the form of good road networks, modern healthcare system and an enviable education system fitted with state-of-the-art facilities but instead the reverse is true.
Nigeria is arguably one of the most corrupt countries not just in Africa but the world at large. The dollars coming from exporting crude oil have failed to trickle down where they are needed most in the grass roots to build schools, equip public hospitals with modern facilities and drugs for the majority of people who cannot afford private health and supply affordable energy to mention but a few. Despite producing oil, many Nigerians still depend on generators to operate their businesses since the state controlled power producer has become so unreliable and a liability to the business.
In a recent Corruption Perception Index by transparency.org (http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/), Nigeria is ranked among countries with the most corrupt public sector at position 143 globally with a score of 2.5 (0 indicating a country is highly corrupt & 10 means a country is perceived to be very clean). The gap between the haves and the have-nots has continued to widen unabated.
The Nigerians super rich are known to be big spenders which recently attracted the attention of the German carmaker Porsche that opened up a car dealership in the heart of Lagos' wealthiest districts, Victoria Island- a place considered to have one of the world's highest concentration of millionaires. This is in addition to other dealership specializing in Aston Martin and Lamboroghini. The country has suffered civil wars and military coups over the years that has left it divided and in ruins. Politics and religion have also been on a collision course pitting the Northerners Vs the southerners. Several armed groups have emerged fighting proxy wars in the name of religion while the real problems continue to be ignored by the powers that be. In the oil producing region of the Niger Delta, a group going by the name MEND(Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) has continued to oppose activities by multinationals companies like Shell BP which come to extract "their oil" making billions of dollars yet Niger delta lies abandoned with dilapidating infrastructures and a polluted environment. The people there feel cheated by the very government that ought to protect them from exploitation as proceeds from resources in their land go to build roads and other facilities in far lands.
The same scenario about war on precious natural resources has been seen playing out in the DRC, Sudan and now there are sentiments to the effect that a rebel group in the eastern city of Benghazi in Libya are calling for autonomy ostensibly to avert neglect and discrimination the area has been subjected to under Colonel Muammer Gadhafi .
Oil in Africa has come to symbolize all the bad things but that ought not to be the case. If a government has credible structures and institutions in place-which i believe Kenya does- then an oil discovery ought not to be a curse but a blessing. The discovery of oil and natural gas reserves in Libya in 1959 led to the transformation of Libya's economy from a poor country-back then-to Africa's richest (although the low population size worked for its advantage which is more than we can say for Nigeria).
Well managed oil revenues can extricate a myriad of people from the shackles of poverty by ensuring that jobs are created, public hospitals are well funded and supplied with adequate drugs and well trained nurses and doctors, children are able to access quality education that will brighten their future. Failure to streamline and ensure transparency in the extraction process will definitely lead to unnecessary wars while the rich under the payroll of multinationals continue to rip the benefits. Oil is a blessing but people ought to decide whether they want to leave it that way or they'd prefer to turn it to a curse that would haunt the country for centuries to come.