Oil sector: Deregulation or regularization?

Being the major source of revenue, the oil sector needs to be regularized; if not made a complete business of the state, the state should at least maintain over 70% control of the sector. In a developing country like Nigeria with an increasing human population and a high demand for social services, a free market […]

Being the major source of revenue, the oil sector needs to be regularized; if not made a complete business of the state, the state should at least maintain over 70% control of the sector. In a developing country like Nigeria with an increasing human population and a high demand for social services, a free market in the oil sector can only unleash hardship to the majority low income earners among the country’s population.

     Also, in a country with profit-conscious entrepreneurs in the oil market and with government withdrawal of subsidy in the sector, that would mean staking the life of an average Nigerian to the mercy of a regulated market run by greedy investors in the oil sector. The tendency for manipulation in a deregulated oil market by entrepreneurs in the sector is very high, which will subdue competition in the sector and the essence for which the deregulation was prophesied would not be achieved, especially with the hoarding of products.

The oil business being a capital intensive venture will equally constrain small-scale entrepreneurs into taking chances in the venture, and this will affect easy access to the products and will foster monopoly by marketers. And with the ongoing process of deregulation of the oil sector by the federal government, our economy has been further moved towards a full fledged capitalism.   This would mean subjugating the masses to the exploitation of the owners of capital.

 Suleiman Nagarba Dutsinma, Katsina.   [email protected]