News

January 18, 2010

Book Review: A Swamp Full of Dollars: Pipeline and Paramilitaries at Nigeria’s Oil Frontier: By Michael Peel: Published by Taurus

By Barney Smith

This entertaining book is about Nigeria and the corruption caused by oil, the so-called “resource curse”. It is written by the former West Africa correspondent of the Financial Times. Michael Peel lived for some years in Lagos, whose “cityscape reflects the Nigerian oil narrative of ostentatious plenty amid mammoth poverty”.

Thus his focus is more on Nigeria and how it has reacted to the impact of oil than it is about Nigeria’s changing place in the world-wide energy picture. In terms of content, the book displays the author’s journalistic background: much of the book is taken up with colourful descriptions of encounters with emblematic individuals designed to illustrate general statements.

For Peel does not merely state that there is massive corruption at all levels, he illustrates his point with examples. An...