Here is a great piece on this subject from the Economist last week. As Dayuhan pointed out, most of these states lack the capacity to exploit these resources on their own. They must, therefore, find a balance wherein they can extract the maximum possible returns from the foreign companies without squeezing them to the point where they do not invest in the their facilities or pull out altogether. This is not an easy balance to find and the volatility of the commodities markets only complicates the issue.

The bottom line is that it is not up to these foreign companies to fix the internal problems of these states. They are businesses which exist for the sole purpose of creating wealth for the stockholders. It is also in no way the prerogative the home states of these companies to interfere with them in their dealings with these African states so long as the deals they are making are legal.