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

Chapter IX: The Politics and Policies of Oil Deregulation in Nigeria:
Implications and Policy Suggestions
purchasing power of the people. Hence, there will be few people
available as buyers of shares of the privatized companies leading to the
purchase of shares by the few riches and that the privatized companies
could be taken over directly or indirectly by the foreigners especially
where the few rich citizens are not interested in the purchase of shares
and the poor ones constrained by mass poverty.
In addition, the simultaneous pursuit of the objectives of
deregulation and privatization such as improving efficiency and
competition, reduction of public deficits, cash generation, widening of
the ownership of economic assets and elimination of political
interference is not easy to achieve in a pluralize country like Nigeria.
On the one hand, the goal of widening share ownership could lead the
government to under price the share of public enterprises on the
stock market which may hurt its cash generation while on the other
hand the exclusive focus on the sale of public enterprises with the
deficit reduction objective in view could mean the neglect of other
option especially widening the ownership of economic assets
(Elumilade, Op cit). Hence, some of the needed pre-condition for
privatization and deregulation are not easily obtainable in Nigeria,
thereby making the policy a difficult task.
Also, it should be noted that the existence of competition in the
industries in which public enterprises operate is an important
condition. Unfortunately, this does not hold in Nigeria. A critical
examination of Nigerian economy shows that competition is very low
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