" Conventional wisdom, especially in studies of Nigeria's political economy, sees Shell as a neutral - even uninterested - observer in the country's political stage. This is pure fiction. Shell is a key and active player in the Nigerian political stage, albeit an invisible one. The oil multinational, a past master in that strange but nevertheless pivotal art of scenario-planning had, right from the onset, determined what its interests in the geopolitical space called Nigeria are, who is best positioned to protect them, and exactly how to go about manipulating events discretely to ensure that it always backs the winning horse.
Nigeria staggers from crisis to crisis.



For Shell, scenario planning in Nigeria is not an objective and disinterested analysis of economic and political trends projected into the future with a view to ascertaining how these could affect the company's fortunes for good or ill. Working hand and glove with the mandarins at Whitehall, it is all about pulling strings, courting powerful politicians and military officers with lucrative contracts and boardroom positions, and putting in place a vast network of official and unofficial cronies and loyalists who toil night and day to advance the multinational's interests. "