The release of the Chad's government's statement last Friday which accused the Exxon-led consortium of cheating the nation by selling its oil at knockdown prices is another black mark in the history of oil exploitation on the Dark Continent.

For us all, the accusation is nothing new. Since the exploration and production of oil in the African continent began in the 1950s, we have seen how little the ordinary people in the mostly undeveloped nations have benefited from the oil business.

This as opposed to the families of the dictators, the Seven Sisters and the former colonial masters all who have benefited tremendously from the exploitation of black gold.

The world has seen how billions of dollars have been siphoned out from the Treasury of Nigeria to numbered accounts in Switzerland, how little development has taken place in Gabon despite producing oil for almost 30 years now, how poor Equatorial Guinea is despite being endowed with the second largest oil reserves in West Africa and how the people of Angola have lived in desperate poverty in a country plagued by corruption, human rights violations and seemingly endless civil wars despite producing as much oil as Kuwait.

At the same time, we witnessed how the coffers of companies belonging to their former colonial masters grew bigger and bigger year after year, how Shell colluded with the Nigerian military dictatorship and how African oil revenue was used by the Frecnch oil company Elf's top management to pander to the whims of powerful men in Paris' Champs d' Elysse

We have also seen that instead of strengthening the institutions of democracy, oil revenue has instead been a source of instability in Africa. Military dictatorship ruled Nigeria for many years while lifetime presidents were installed in Libya, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and their puppet governments danced to the tune of their Washington masters.

Governments in Africa should take heed that oil is rarely a blessing. It is more of a curse. The statistics speak for themselves.

Despite achieving independence at the same time as their East Asian brothers, the standard of living in Africa now is far worse than the poorest nation in East Asia. The economy of African states grew by only one percent in the last 40 years. Most countries are in net debt positions. Average per capita income is a paltry $500.

It is about time that the African petro-states start learning from history. Their negative traits, despite being resource rich, are not without precedent.

Other windfalls in the past have harmed their beneficiaries. Gold and silver from the New World made Spain rich in the 16th century but distorted its economy and weakened it in the long run.

Peru had a boom in guano in the mid-19th century, and later Brazil had a rubber boom. But they made only a few people rich and left no useful legacy - only some gaudy buildings, including an opera house in the Amazon jungle.

Gold-rush sites in California and Alaska turned into ghost towns when the mining stopped.

Herein lies the tragedy of commodity booms. Often they do not benefit the people who need them the most.