Nigeria: Deregulating the Absence of Governance

11 November 2009
opinion

PRESIDENTIAL spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi is an intelligent person. That was why I was disappointed when he joined the chorus of government officials who argue quite illogically, that the scarcity of petroleum products which government attributes to hoarding and fraudulent activities by oil marketers, is a justification for the deregulation of the petroleum sector.

If as Adeniyi claims, there are 45 days supply of petrol but that there is artificial scarcity because the private marketers "are hoarding the commodity and in the process selling for scandalous prices" then the logical response of government cannot be to hand over the entire process to these same unscrupulous and fraudulent marketers. Rather, these criminals should be arrested and jailed and their fuel stations shutdown.

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