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Legacies
By 1970, the Nigerian Civil War had ended, but the struggle over oil was only beginning. The war had revealed oil’s centrality to Nigeria’s survival, and it had also exposed the competing hands that sought to shape its destiny. Britain left behind pipelines, contracts, and corporate entrenchment. The Soviet Union left behind ideas, trained minds, and a critique of dependency. Both legacies continue to reverberate.
A Four-Part Series
Oil is never just oil. In Nigeria, it has been the empire’s prize, the war’s engine, and the people’s paradox. From the First World War onward, Britain tightened its colonial grip on Nigeria’s oil future, laying pipelines of power that still shape the nation today. The Soviet Union, although it never drilled a barrel, cast its own shadow, training minds, seeding ideas, and offering an ideological counterpoint during the Cold War.