Iju — From what we presently have on ground, it is evident that this nation's problems do not come in trickles but in torrents; and the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Umaru Yar Adua, has unfortunately been saddled with these burdens which have accumulated over many decades.

On the Nigerian landscape are incidences of widespread insecurity, ailments of the oil industry, completely dilapidated Federal roads, which have become death traps to travellers, comatose railway lines, malfunctioning infrastructural facilities and inadequacy of energy supply. Definitely these are not the best of times for this country. This nation has no excuse to justify its failure as the sixth crude oil-producing nation of the world, to refine adequate fuel to meet its domestic needs.

These inadequacies confronting this nation were not the creation of the present Federal Government, but due to faults of all previous administrations. Therefore, all the participants in the running of all past administrations are vicariously liable. This is not to exonerate the present administration completely as it continues to wrestle with its own 7-point agenda without much to show for it.

Therefore, this is not the appropriate time to trade blames or to politicise these issues, but a time all Nigerians, opposition groups, civil society groups and Labour Unions, should rally round in finding lasting solutions to the myriad of problems confronting the nation as they are capable of truncating its peace and unity.

Nigeria stands out as one of the most endowed nations of the world in terms of abundant natural and human resources, yet it has very little or nothing to show for this. If nations with similar endowments, such as tourist potentials, can hold theirs among the developed nations of the world, what excuse can Nigeria give for its failure to utilise its numerous resources such as extensive fertile agricultural lands suitable for trees, fruits and root crops, various grains; numerous solid minerals and abundant petroleum and natural gas resources for the welfare of its people.

There is no doubt that Nigeria continues to suffer for poor leaderships and large scale corruption. The failure of past governments and their leadership to be pro-active has landed us in this messy quagmire; hence it will take years to get the nation out of the present mess.

Since the nation became an oil-producing one, the Federal Government that manages the oil resources has been able to build four malfunctioning refineries, which working at full capacities can only provide about 22-25 per cent petroleum products needed by this country, thereby subjecting the nation to 75 per cent importation of its domestic consumptions.

With increasing population, petroleum products are in greater demand and these are met through importation. Nigeria, therefore, continues to support the economies of foreign nations with large scale importation of manufactured goods among which are petroleum products. This explains why there is widespread unemployment in this country.

The large scale importation of refined oil products, according to government, this is done with huge subsidies totalling about N600 billion annually, out of which an estimated N200 billion naira goes for inefficiencies or corruption. In fact, subsidies for 2010 have been projected to N675 billion.

As this nation continues to face low capacity utilisation of the existing four refineries, added to this are the neglect and sabotage of oil pipelines by militants, institutionalized corruption and large-scale cross border smuggling of refined petroleum products which have contributed to the problems of petroleum products' crisis in this nation. It is, therefore, the height of absurdity that as the 6th or 7th rated producer and exporter of crude oil in the world, Nigeria still depends seriously on importation of crude oil.

The failure of Nigerian leaders to encourage major oil marketers to set up refineries to sustain the domestic market, remains the root cause of the national problems today. How has the government been sourcing the N600 billion subsidy without budgetary provisions? What are inherently wrong with Nigeria that repels oil companies from building refineries in Nigeria, a major oil producing country, while they find other countries such as Ghana and Chad, which are non-oil producing countries attractive?

Therefore, the failure to attract investment in the downstream sector for decades in an effort to expand our refinery capacity has resulted in import dependency. The existing refineries come into public reckoning only when billions of dollars are budgetted for regular turn-round maintenance without corresponding performance.

There is no doubt that leadership short-sightedness and outright incompetence have resulted in the mess in which we have found ourselves. Since the Nigerian petroleum resources market is highly regulated, no wonder, developers are not interested as the products continue to be sold at prices regulated by government. The problems confronting the petrol market are overwhelming, most pipelines through which products continue to be moved are in a state of disrepair following serious damages by militants, the alternative means of movement through trucks have dire consequences for our roads which are congested and broken down.

The failure of past governments and the leaderships to be pro-active have landed us in this quagmire, since it will take years to build new refineries and to replace damaged pipelines to transport crude and refined oil, hence the Federal Government has embraced de-regulation a short cut, having been driven to the wall.

Since the amount of money used as subsidy annually is many times greater than what we spend on education, health, roads and other social infrastructure combined, in fact, funds for subsidy is four times the provisions for capital budget annually. Deregulation is a belated attempt by the Federal Government to manage the downstream oil sector of the Nigerian economy. Why has it taken decades of oil exploitation before taking this option where prices would be determined by market forces?

Why did past governments shut their minds to large scale oil refining in Nigeria which would have promoted greater employment opportunities thereby helping the economy? It is evident that if Nigeria had taken advantage of the easy access to crude oil production in Nigeria, Nigeria would not only have bought refined oil at cheaper rates, surplus oil production would have been exported to many African countries, making Nigeria to harness more profits from the export of crude and refined oil. Deregulation without efficient and functional refineries in this country would definitely cause prices of refined oil to fluctuate and soar thereby heightening general inflation in the economy.

Has the government ever assessed the consequences of its deregulation programme on the economy and the masses? From past experiences, every increase in the pump prices of oil has caused spiral rise in the prices of transportation, food stuffs and every product that people sell and buy.

With the serious economic problems confronting this nation, can the government add the issue of deregulation which is capable of doing maximum damage to the economy? If Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq and other oil-producing countries have earned tremendous wealth from petroleum and gas to transform the living standards of their people, why has Nigeria fallen behind?

Petroleum and gas provide about 90 per cent of our foreign exchange earnings, why have we failed to utilise this tremendous opportunity to diversify our economy? With the economic meltdown having disastrous effects on our economy and our people, would deregulation not worsen and complicate the situation?

There is no doubt that deregulation would foist on the Nigerian people higher prices, in fact, it would necessitate 10-50 per cent price increase in petroleum products. Although it would free business activities from un-necessary government rules and regulations, as price fixing has always been carried out by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). If deregulation is to be foisted on the nation, that body should be scrapped.

From the totality of the happenings in this nation, these are not the best of times. If government claims to be spending billions on subsidies and yet the people are made to purchase the products at exorbitant costs, the effects of deregulation would result in greater crushing of the economy. Deregulation will definitely increase or worsen the poverty level of the citizens of this nation.

The Federal Government needs the co-operation of all and sundry, dialogue with all stakeholders, independent and major marketers, labour unions- PENGASSAN, NUPENG, TUC and others to find the solutions to these very complex problems.