Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Olawale Olaopa, Ibikunle Ogundari, Mike Awoleye, and Willie Siyanbola
the government; they just have to inform the relevant agency. They
can also choose any local or foreign supplier to provide these
requirements. Should they choose a foreign supplier, they can import
their requirements directly from this foreign supplier.
In a deregulated environment, corporations such as the
National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), now known as Power
Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), would bid out its fuel
requirements for its power plants. This would provide basis for
competitive offers thus enabling PHCN to purchase its fuel
requirements at lower cost and subsequently price electricity
from its fuel-fired power plants at lower cost to the consumer.
The government is dead-set on implementing a package of
International Monetary Fund (IMF)-endorsed price reforms, which
would raise gas prices by eliminating domestic fuel subsidies (Owen,
2004). Yet the vast majority of cash strapped Nigerians for whom low
gas prices are currently the only economic benefit they enjoy,
adamantly oppose the move, claiming it would impoverish them. They
see price increases as another kickback to local elites and foreign oil
companies. Indeed, a steadily climbing global price and the
implementation of the deregulation policy in Nigeria have necessitated
repeated domestic oil price hikes.
With Obasanjo’s government persistence with the reforms, the
result has been domestic turbulence; the Nigerian Labour Congress
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