Deregulation

Whoever wrote this JavaScript snippet for the Federal Government of Nigeria is hereby nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. He will do well to take over from President Barack Obama come 2010. This script is so efficient that for more than a decade the word “deregulation” has automatically popped up in Nigeria’s economic and social lexicon every last quarter of the year – the closer to Christmas the better! Just to make sure nobody gets a hassle-free yuletide. It is not funny.

Nigeria is reportedly the sixth largest Oil Producing OPEC-member country. Whatever that means does not translate to anything tangible in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. That is not the point. Out of the 14 OPEC member nations, no single country parades the dismal developmental credentials like my dear Nigeria. None of them has a life expectancy of 49 years. Reel out any of the indices and Nigeria fails with distinction! The result is that we are stuck in an economy that produces so much wealth but prefers to be listed as one of the poorest nations in the universe! I have seen paradoxes but this one takes the icing.

Those who advise the Federal Government to “remove” the fuel subsidy and let market forces dictate the prices of petroleum products in Nigeria have a warped sense of humour. This country has 4 Refineries capable of satisfying the product requirements of Nigeria. All 4 refineries are currently operating at less than 20% of installed capacity. Nobody thinks it will do this country a lot of good if these refineries are properly maintained and made to operate at optimum installed capacity. That way nobody will make money from product imports so we continue to import petroleum products at prices determined by the strength of the American Dollar. The so-called “subsidy” is computed based on what this price happens to be at any given time. It does not occur to these patriotic Nigerians that if our refineries were functioning, the pump price of our locally refined products would have been a tiny fraction of the international product price! Economics standing on its head.
Before the Petroleum Products Pricing Czar recommends another round of price increases to the Federal Government, could he please let Nigerians know the pump prices of Petroleum products in the other 13 or so Oil Producing countries who are members of OPEC? That way it will be easy to convince Nigerians that the Federal Government is subsidizing Petroleum Products and it will be necessary to remove that subsidy so that we can all sleep well.

Tata, everybody,

Napoleon