Deregulation of fuel price in Nigeria

Deregulation of fuel price is for mature nations that have robust energy infrastructure, not Nigeria. Since Nigeria is a paediatric nation with signs of emergence from childhood to adolescence, any deregulation is like deregulating sexual intercourse for children. A responsible government looking for evidence-based policy for human and social development of this nation should move with caution in deregulation. It is well known now that the economic downturn visited the world because of deregulatory policies. If mature nations were caught napping, an immature nation like Nigeria will be in a coma. A government is a mandate to regulate the economic landscape of a nation among other things. Obasanjo’s administration mounted campaigns and had an experiment with deregulation which was a colossal failure. The present administration redressed the policy and maintained policy stability in the sector, although with few challenges. Moving in a tangent now is sentencing the people to a policy that has nothing to improve their life style because there are no avenues to evade the brunt. Besides, there is no guarantee that the policy will enliven the downstream sector which is infested with lethal corruption. For example, the fuel price has never been 65Naira/liter in the South-East over these years despite the so-called regulatory policies of government; because the cabals connived with the authorities to hijack the benefits accruable to the people. If this was and is still happening, nobody knows what kind of havoc that a deregulated price regime will cause to the people
Price deregulation is a knife in the hand of an immature nation which does not know its domestic use; and in the throes of carelessness can inflict deep cuts into her social sanity. Oil barons want to make money at the expense of Nigerians, by cutting our veins and exanguinating the life-giving energy of the nation. Fuel price is a factor that affects transportation, private electric power supply for homes and industries and the prices of all commodities. The workers in Nigeria must resist this unpatriotic move in the face of devalued naira and increased national petro-dollar income. They must rise and resist those politicians and politicised civil servants who want to make us pay more than what is necessary for services which we give them the mandate to deliver.
If the government thinks that deregulation is the panacea, let us operate it successfully with the water and electric power supply and road sectors. The government has failed to do this because the barons, who understand self-serving economics more than developmental economics, will reap less from these sectors than the oil sector. Can we deregulate price for a strategic commodity in a country where businessmen commit crimes against the people by importing sub-standard goods and fake drugs, politicians freely and openly short-change the people, banks are run down under the “watchful eyes” of the Central Bank after deceitful unregulated recapitalization, and rule of law is not institutionalized?
No social or economic research document could be reached by me to see the critical evaluation of the impact of Obasanjo’s deregulations in the downstream sector. What is the basis of broaching the issue again? Notice that the government “deregulated” the water supply sector long ago and we are not complaining. We have got used to government’s increasing non-involvement in public water supply. With deregulation, the private people have taken over the “upstream and downstream” water sector, digging their wells, sinking their boreholes, setting up their water treatment factories and selling ‘pure’ water in water tankers, sachets and bottles. Visible robust water supply system is yet to emerge from that deregulation.
In the proposed fuel supply deregulation, the government holds the upstream sector, sells crude oil at competitive price and wants to deregulate the downstream sector to have another competitive price for a commodity with an inelastic demand. Reasons? The government wants profit in both sectors so that the money can be used for social infrastructure that is not available. The country has no cheap and efficient mass transit system, no unemployment benefits, no real free education, no free health care services, and no full scholarships. The government has no moral strength to argue that only price deregulation can revitalize and expand the oil downstream sector, because it has not done so in the water downstream sector. Obasanjo’s government argued that bottled water was more expensive than fuel. Despite the open playing field for water producers and the increasing number of water companies, the price of bottled water has not dropped, but has increased by over 40% and government commitment in the water sector has continuously declined. Again, the sophistic comparison of water and fuel price is laughable because the structure of water demand is so different from fuel demand. Ordinary Nigerians do not drink bottled water, otherwise we should not be talking about cholera for months now in several parts of Nigeria, which seem to defy control measures, because portable water is not available and the ordinary people still depend on wells, ponds and streams.
In mature nations, policies are people-oriented and driven by the desire to serve people’s interests. The workers in Nigeria who pay for fuel have not heard politicians debate the issue so that facts can come to the open. The information bill that can facilitate investigation into the facts of this issue so that they are subjected to public evaluation and analysis is swept under the carpet. A government that hides facts for the advantage of those who trade in power cannot fulfil the yearning of the people. Nobody has answered the South African who asked the question in Yola about why Nigerians continue to be impoverished by politicians in a country that is rich in petro-dollars. Nigerians want to know the truth about the deceit concerning deregulation of fuel price.
Stop leading us with tethers on nose notches. Good people, great nation!