At the Investment Forum organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, panel of economist drawn from the private sector have basically endorsed the deregulation of the oil sector. They have thus added voice to the mostly elitist view that fuel subsidy be removed. Hear them and my common man response;
“I think the benefits of subsidy removal/deregulation, theoretically are well known. The over N2 trillion that goes to fuel subsidy is huge money. The debate is on, but at the end, Nigerians will know what to say,” Kingsley Obiora IMF
Theoretically??
“Deregulation is going to be a good thing. It will help to diversify the economy,” Charles Robertson Chief Economist Renaissance Capital
Diversify the economy?? Haven’t we heard that before. More like help release money for more recurrent expenditure. That’s diversifying isn’t it?
“A regulated market creates imperfect market barriers. You either do away with it now, or it will do away with you later,” Bismark Rewane Financial Derivatives
Hmmm! This is the same right wing capitalism that got the world into trouble in the first place. They want the government to leave everything to the markets. That way, the rich gets richer and the poor, poorer.
“Deregulation is long overdue. When we talk of diversifying, it doesn’t mean it is only away from the oil sector. It can be within the same sector. Deregulation will create downstream activity and the sector will grow and create employment. Deregulation will correct the imbalance in the oil sector,” Ousmane Dore Country Rep African Development Bank ADB
Guess someone tried to explain “diversifying’. Still a hollow argument. No one seems to be able to give specific details ads to how it will work. All theoretical as is expected from most institutional economist. “It will create downstream activity”, like there isn’t one there right? “It will grow and create employment” At what cost Sir??
From the snippets of their views above, none of them talked about the building new refineries or even mandating the Government, as a condition for subsidy removal, to increase capacity at our existing quartet of refineries to optimum level. Or even recommend the same structure Abacha put forward, moving the subsidy windfall into a fund like the PTF. All theory!!!
