Managing deregulation policy

Nigeria must move forward. We should not allow individualistic interests to jeopardise the progress of the nation. The previous deregulation exercises which we always make reference to were designed from formulation to execution stage to fail and they actually failed due to vested and coveted individual interests. The singular reason for the previous exercises failure […]

Nigeria must move forward. We should not allow individualistic interests to jeopardise the progress of the nation. The previous deregulation exercises which we always make reference to were designed from formulation to execution stage to fail and they actually failed due to vested and coveted individual interests. The singular reason for the previous exercises failure was because those saddled with the responsibility of implementing the programme were after their personal pockets at the expense of national growth and smooth running of the Petroleum sector. All of us cannot sleep and face the same direction; we must call a spade a spade, advance the country and move away from primordial thinking and break the jinx of propaganda against deregulation policy. Deregulation is not degeneration; neither will it worsening our economic life as some elements postulated.

Nigeria takes cue from some developed nations that have carved niche for themselves through advancement of their respective societies. United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada come handy in this case. Citizens of these countries don’t look at issues from parochial perspectives or short term effects of the policies. National Interest always takes precedence. When President Barack Obama of America introduced or resuscitated the Health Insurance Scheme, both the Senate and Federal House of Representatives of America debated the Scheme and despite Republicans being in Minority, they saw the sense and the need to move the country forward instead of grounding it. The party members in the both Houses reasoned broadly with their counterparts in Democratic Party and the national interest take precedence. President Barack Obama won, the Lawmakers celebrate and the entire American citizenry rejoice for the success of it. Today, Health Insurance in America was deregulated and so other government policies and programmes were deregulated and replicated in other advanced countries of the world. In all our undertakings irrespective of whose will gore, national interest should come first and always take precedence. This is why we need and must support Petroleum downstream sector deregulation. Western worlds advanced and developed to the stage they are today because all hands are on deck to support their various governments’ programmes without sentiment considerations. Nigeria cannot afford to be stagnated courtesy of deregulation debacles and prolong controversies on Petroleum Sector.

The merits of deregulation outweigh what the enemies of the policy are preaching. The fact remains that, Nigeria economy must be stabilized and the stability of the economy begins from Petroleum Sector deregulation since our economy is monolithic in nature. The colossal amount Federal government spends on oil subsidy need to be channelled to other critical sectors of the economy. We need to fix infrastructure on power, health, education, agriculture, security and other critical areas. This will lead to cohesion as government will not turn around again and attempt to deregulate. Nigerians should begin to see government programmes from positive perspective of the programme rather than outright condemnation and criticism for the sake of it.

Of course, this is not the first sectoral deregulation in Nigeria. All other deregulation exercises succeeded. Why is it that Petroleum sector deregulation will pose problem for the country? Nigerian print media industry was one of the earliest deregulated programme Nigerian had during colonial era. The deregulation of that period gave birth to Nigerian Tribune and others but Tribune is the only surviving print media today. Today, Nigeria experiences unprecedented deregulation in the print media, the efforts that laid credence to the deregulation in the broadcasting media with the likes of African Independent Television, AIT, Channel, Galaxy, Ray Power, Freedom Radio, DITV and host of other broadcasting organizations operating freely.   

Media Deregulation was promptly followed by transport sector deregulation where the likes of private transport ownership sprang up across the nation, and Nigerians were freed from total dependency from government transportation system. Salisu Adamu Transport Ltd, Ekene Dilichukwu, Chisco, Young Shall Grow and so many others operate courtesy of deregulation programme. It was this singular act that also brought about deregulation in the Aviation unit of the transport sector of the economy where Chanchangi, Bellveiw, Aero contractor, Arki, Virgin Nigeria, IRS, Overland airlines and so many other are now operators in the industry due to deregulation success in that sector.

Eight years ago also, Nigeria broke another jinx on Telecom Industry. Everybody is now enjoying the benefits as there are several network providers playing vital role in the sector and Nigerians are at liberty to subscribe to whichever network they want. We have MTN, Zain, Glo, Starcom, Zoom, reitel, oduatel etc. This was a sector that was a preserved monopoly of NITEL some years ago despite its epileptic operations. When telecom deregulation was adopted and Nigerians buy into it, we are all enjoying the services of the sector as individual is at liberty to choose which network to subscribe to.

This piece is contributed by Mohammed Ibrahim, No 17 Sabo Tashan Rd, Angwan Television, Kaduna.