Re: Let us deregulate now! Vanguard Newspaper

"It makes no sense insisting that a government that has demonstrated its inability to repair and operate the refineries must continue to spend our money in that direction.Government has also confessed its powerlessness to deal with the so-called cabal that freeloads on the over N600 billion it spends every year to subsidise fuel imports. Government has admitted its own failure. What is the need of insisting it must keep trying?" By Ochereome Nnannahttp://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/10/26/let-us-deregulate-now/

Deregulation is not merely the answer. The operators have a skewed definition of deregulation as free market for profiteers and enemies of our national economy called cabals and freeloads. The "government has admitted its own failure", but must that government fail to look at itself for correction in the area of failure or be corrected. An inefficient government that cannot be moved or removed is the cause of democratic instability in Nigeria.

It must be understood that the validity of a government is based on its functionality. The government wants to function in default like a man with fire extinguisher watching a match fire burn down his home. That is incredible for a sane society. The cabals have made the establishment intractable and inscrutable to goad us to a free market for the freeloads that will ensure a free flowing profit out of the exuberant tears of the owners of the black crude oil. We cannot wait for the worst thinking it can benefit us in the long run. Obasanjo co-operated with the cabals, but Yar'adua seemed not to have done so. The resolve to go beyond resistance is necessary for us to see important pro-active measures. If a poor country like Mozambique is thinking about its poor people by having concessionary fuel price in Africa, it is evident that good democracy can foster an emerging great nation built by good people in government ( http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-24-mozambique-to-pay-stations-keep-fuel-price-low ). We cannot make excuses for an outright deregulation. If we think well, we can come up with a model of deregulation in the downstream oil sector that would sustain development in Nigeria. What the government proposes now can only put us in strait-jacket and it is not our wishes 0r my wish.