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
Typically, the scope of discussions covered during the
"enlightenment campaign" included such issues as the burden of
subsidies on the national treasury, the strain of financing Nigeria’s
state-owned petroleum businesses, intra- and trans-ECOWAS
smuggling of Nigerian petroleum products, the relative market prices
of petroleum products in the ECOWAS sub-region, vis-à-vis their
prices in Nigeria, licensing of private refineries, the need to break the
monopoly of NNPC, and the general benefits of deregulation.
Regardless of the assertion about the ultimate inevitability of the
deregulation of Nigerian petroleum industry that have been the
reactions of the government-sponsored "enlightenment campaign", the
question that bothers people’s mind is whether the reform and its
process is necessary and justified.
The government has maintained that oil sector reform is one of its
core policies and it will not be deterred from going ahead with it. In an
address sent to national workshop on Trade and Unionism and
Industrial Democracy, organised by PENGASSAN, President Obasanjo
posited that ‘the deregulation programme was part of his
government's reform agenda for the downstream oil sector, with the
objective of opening it up to private sector participation (Gurdian,
2001)
When eventually the reforms in the downstream sector are
successfully executed, said the president, a lot of benefits would
accrue among which are:
242