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

Olawale Olaopa, Ibikunle Ogundari, Mike Awoleye, and Willie Siyanbola
The president stressed that the guarantee of security and
functional social services, was necessary to enable the government to
attract even more foreign investors to do business in the country.
According to him:
As many of us are aware, in the last couple of years one
of the major tasks that this Administration has set is
attracting massive inflows of foreign investment. However,
apart from providing infrastructure, we should realize
that we also need to ensure that incessant industrial
disputes that have become an issue in recent past are
reduced. One fact we should note is that our country is in
competition with other nations in terms of wooing
genuine investors and no reasonable entrepreneur would
wish to establish in a country plagued by industrial
unrest.
Labour unions and civil society groups, however, smell a rat
regarding the stated objective. The deregulation policy, in the opinion
of Labor, will benefit marketers and government coffers while
devastating most other sectors in an already-inflationary economy. If
consortiums are already preparing to build new refineries, why was it
necessary to announce a further 25-percent price increase When
ordinary citizens see the limousines driven by state officials cruise to
the front of lengthy filling-station queues, they conclude that high
245