At one point it had greater membership strength, but due to pressure put on some nations by influential powers of the world who do not wish the body well and due also to the decision of some nations which perceived that their national interests will be better served by opting out of the cartel, the membership has dwindled to the present strength.
OPEC probably reached the zenith of its power and influence in the early 70s when during the Arab-Israeli war it embarked on a boycott of oil supplies to some powerful industrialized Western powers which depend on the black gold to power their industries to bend their will a little in favour of the position of the Third World nations on the war. It saw its worst moments in the mid-80s when oil prices fell disastrously as a result of glut in the world market due to overproduction and supply, resulting to severe economic crisis for some members like Nigeria that depend largely on oil revenues to finance their budgets. After that disaster, members learnt their lesson and have since been maintaining the unity and cohesion that have made the organization remain the economic and even political force it is in the world today.
We wish to salute the vision of the founding fathers of the organization who recognized so early in the day that oil was a resource of great strategic importance which God had seen fit to bestow in large measure on mostly weak nations. It is gratifying to note that since its formation, OPEC has remained committed to its vision of ensuring steady income for the producing countries; ensuring an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to the consuming nations and bringing about a fair return on capital to investors in the industry.
It is no doubt a credit to the sense of foresight of its founding fathers and the resilience and faith of those who later saw the wisdom in joining the organization that in spite of many efforts by the powerful oil consuming nations to disorganize or weaken the cartel, it has withstood the challenges that often came its way.
It is very unfortunate that the reality in the world today is that many developing nations tend to specialize in producing mainly primary produce and exporting them in raw forms to the advanced industrialised nations, while the later process those produce and obtain several products from them and export those products back to the developing countries at sometimes over 1000 per cent profit. What is more, the processing of these primary produce from the developing nations create employment and wealth for the already industrialised countries. This explains why the former are economically backward while the latter are rich and powerful.
Therefore, the next challenge before OPEC, now that it has become a mature and reflective adult of 50, is that it must work on improving the refining capacity of it members and establishing petrochemical industries that take advantage of the crude oil they now export to the developed world. With the strength they have acquired over the years through oil export, we expect OPEC members to be rich enough to be able to purchase or invent the technology needed to process crude in order to derive the full benefit of this important resource.
We also call on developing nations who are producing other primary commodities to learn from the good experience of OPEC and get together and remain disciplined in controlling and reaping good benefit from what they produce. With the natural endowments of many so-called developing nations, they ought not to be mired in the kind of poverty we see in many of these places today. We can only have peace, safety, security and stability in our world today if there is fair trade and not aid. We have the ability to insist on fair trade among nations if only disadvantaged nations take their destiny courageously into their hands as OPEC did with regard to oil 50 years ago.