Abstract: Local and global realities compel a rethink of the economic priorities and strategies in Nigeria. The economy is struggling to leverage the country’s vast wealth in fossil fuels in order to displace the crushing poverty that affects about 54 percent of its population. Economist experts refer to the coexistence of vast wealth in natural resources and extreme personal poverty in developing countries like Nigeria as the “resource curse”. Nigeria’s exports of oil and natural gas at a time of peak prices have enabled the country to post merchandise trade and current account surpluses in recent years but still harbors a good percentage of people living below the poverty line.