In the 1970s, the sharp rise in international crude oil prices brought Nigeria nearly a decade of “oil boom,” during which many government-led industrial projects emerged. Nigeria’s industrialization process during this oil boom period is often regarded as a typical case of government corruption or waste of resources. By focusing on the critical period of 1973–1979, when there was a massive influx of oil rents, this paper attempts to re-examine the relationship between oil resources and Nigeria’s industrialization. This paper argues that the sudden influx of oil rents pushed the military group in northern Nigeria to launch a coup to seize power. Moreover, under the influence of northern nationalism, both the military group and young technocrats in the north set the strengthening of government control and intervention in the economy and the rapid realization of industrialization as their economic goals, investing large amounts of oil rents into the public sector. During the rapid expansion of the public sector, these capital-intensive industrial projects with large investment scale could not easily turn into productive capital because they were not in line with Nigeria’s level of economic development. Instead, they became tools for distributing oil rents among various interest groups.