Chevron Corp. (CVX) has halted its export of approximately 100,000 barrels of Nigerian crude oil per day, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The reduced flow follows an attack on a key oil pipeline in the Niger Delta region, an area that has long been plagued by government corruption and violent militant attacks. The group claiming responsibility for the act, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND), has been a vehement opponent of the oil trade in Nigeria and the resulting pollution and alleged government misuse of natural resources. The group has vowed to continue its attacks until Nigeria halts oil exportation.

The Chevron reduction represents only a small fraction of Nigeria's oil exporting industry. (Energy Information Administration reports show that 1.9 million barrels were exported per day in 2008.) Still, the United States as a whole gobbles up a supersize portion of Nigerian oil—44 percent, to be precise—and Chevron's withdrawal raises significant questions for the future of the Nigerian economy. Approximately 95 percent of export revenue is based in the Nigerian oil industry; however, local communities often remain fiscally isolated from this trade scenario.

"The oil money has not been making it back into the local economy; the governors are doing quite well," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa Program with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. What Cooke describes as "layers of corruption in the delta region" bars many Nigerian locals from reaping the benefits of Nigeria's booming oil industry. (The country maintains the second largest oil reserves on the continent.)

Ma Beloved Country is, cann't & would never be a wasted Country.

The fact is that, someday!  All 'em culprits must stand to answer how, when, why Our economy 's being drained.  For those that 'ld be in existence when the time shall come.