President Buhari of Nigeria is having a good year in Aso Rock. Yes, I understand the agonies of the free-fall of Naira and the incessant insecurity paralyses in Nigeria. But if you look at the whole big picture, Buhari has done more in the last one year, economically, than he had done since the late 1970s when he was a petroleum minister in Nigeria (interestingly, he holds that position as I write…youth, continue to dream!).
While Nigeria’s problems cannot be summarized in one line, the fact is this: Buhari is showing energy and leadership in some fundamental economic areas. If he follows through, Nigeria will have a better structure to build upon. Today, we are learning that he has FULLY deregulated the petroleum sector: “the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector had been fully deregulated…PMS price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil.’ That is not a small feat when you know how many oil mafia groups he might have annoyed.
The Federal Government is no more going to be releasing guiding price bands for the sale of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at filling stations.
It disclosed this in Abuja through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, adding that based on this, the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector had been fully deregulated.
Responding to questions from journalists during a briefing at the headquarters of PPPRA, the agency’s Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, stated that going forward, PMS price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil.
Recall a few weeks ago, it was electricity. Yes, he increased rates, making it clear that the government cannot subsidize electricity for the citizens. Personally, I support these calls because they are fundamental for a more efficient economic system.
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Of course, while deregulation may not be perfect, it is high time Nigeria tries something new as what we have now is not working. The really next call is EXECUTION and solid implementation.
Well done Mr. President. Put more efforts like this on insecurity and anti-corruption; this nation can work.
Comment on LinkedIn Feed
Ndubuisi Ekekwe Well what can we say? We all want the best for the country and deregulation generally is not a “wise” plan for any government as it is costly, not efficient economically and allows for corruption within the industry
My Response – “We all want the best for the country and deregulation generally is not a “wise” plan” – Let us try something else as what we have had since 1960 is NOT working. Allow full deregulation to fail first.
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These were really some of the things I expected from Buhari from 2015, because his allies and handlers sold him to Nigerians as ‘no nonsense general’, only for him to assume power and then started dithering. But it’s better late than never, he has my backing in those two big calls, we have been misbehaving for too long here. The harder it bites, the more conscious we become with regard to the sort of people we send to manage public affairs
Next thing is to disband PPPRA, it’s a waste of money to still keep that office open, whatever is left of it can be transferred to CPC; we don’t need to borrow money to fund irrelevant agencies anymore.
There’s no great time to increase prices in Nigeria, so the argument of ‘now is not the best time’ is too weak, we are already in a hole, so it’s foolhardy to keep digging, just to showcase our imprudent disposition.
We need another of this hammer on education sector, the current setup has outlived its usefulness, time price it appropriately and concession most of the schools.
Nigeria will rise, we just need to continue on this path.