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

Olawale Olaopa, Ibikunle Ogundari, Mike Awoleye, and Willie Siyanbola
• Eradication of petroleum scarcity that has bedeviled the country
in the past;
• Elimination of the monopoly of state Corporation following
licensing of new entrants that can invest heavily in the sector;
• Providing employment opportunities for teeming school leavers;
• Assisting in freeing the system of the petroleum products
subsidy syndrome which has the capacity of preventing the
government from channeling the country's scarce resources to
provide infrastructure that would in turn boost the nation's
economy;
• Establishment of private refineries that are capable of making
the nation self-sufficient in crude oil refining.
Obasanjo noted that government's efforts to re-engineer the
petroleum industry had produced expected resistance from
stakeholders including organised labour in the country, leading
sometimes to industrial disputes. According to the President in his
speech read by his Special Assistant on Petroleum Matters, Alhaji
Jafar Paki:
Since we have here present at this workshop,
membership of the various unions who are
primary stakeholders in the petroleum industry, I
wish to seize this opportunity to urge that we
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