Chief I salute you. It is incumbent upon all leaders who are worth their salt to create programmes beneficial to their people first and not the otheer way round as it appears from evidence to be the case in Nigeria.

A local company that has been granted an exploration license must be at least entitled to rent that license for a reasonable fee to a corporation with the requisite capital to develop through exploration the oil resources of their land.

Nigeria is victim to an age old scam whereby local groups are funded by foreign oil companies to grant them exclusive rights to the oil, then pitted against other groups within the same communities to create a volatile environment. That voliatility then discourages smaller investors from accessing the oil which then ensures the dominance of all oil resources by the larger oil companies who have the capital to burn from a monopolistic position. The conflict they create and the monopoly they hold creates high oil prices through the risks they create through conflict.

The chief should organise cooperatives from within his people. A million people contributing $100 each creates a pool of $100,000,000 which can be further leveraged to a Billion through borrowings. The final result will be jobs for them in their own land their own resources and imported expertise and technology. Thats empowerment.

Its been done before in other places and can be done in Nigeria as well.

Gopal Ramakrishnan