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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, July 20, 2004.
Privatising Nigerian industries
It is news that privatisation
is one of the cornerstones of the Federal Government’s economic
programme. The question is whether this programme is wise enough to solve
the problems associated with the waste and corruption in the system.
Privatization no doubt helps
to overcome the problem of monopolizing some strategic institutions,
which have beneficial effects in the nation, by enhancing competition. A
major example of this is the privatization of the oil industry. Petroleum
products are sold at different rates depending on the location and other
elements of cost. The government, to some extent, still has some say in
the prices of these products but the marketers still sell at different
prices.
The country is one of the
largest oil producing nations and we cannot but feel sad that she still
imports oil. The reason for this shameful act is simply due to the poor
state of our refineries, either by carelessness or other equally
unacceptable reasons.
All our refineries have no
form of life existing in them. Crude oil extracted has therefore to be exported to other
countries before it comes back to us for use in the country in various
petroleum forms. The government has counted the cost of repairing the
refineries and found that it is more economical to import. That, of
course, is at a cost to our national economy. Government needs to sell
those refineries to competent organisations in the industry and encourage
new ones to be built.
The oil sector is not the only one affected. Another
victim of privatization is the entertainment industry. The famous
National Theatre, which serves as a monument in the entertainment
industry, has fallen prey to privatization. The theatre, which has served
as the home of cinema and entertainment since the 1970's deserves to be
better preserved by the government.
Individuals can destroy the
legacy the structure stands for, as their interest would be
selfprioritized contrary to the preservation of our national values.
It is obvious that the high
cost of running these industries has brought us to the stage of
privatization. It is however, noteworthy that many of these industries
were not run properly. A lot of financial mismanagement abound affecting
obviously any progressive state that may have to be taken.
Let us take a look at a very
important industry such as the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
Despite its inconsistency it would still be better run by the government,
because it is the only supplier and distributor of electricity to the
nation apart from one or two private ones.
Despite all the propaganda,
being put up to convince people that privatization is the best solution
to various issues at stake in the economy, a lot of people are yet to experience
its true worth. We are
setting on a risky journey, not knowing if privatization would
bring about a positive or negative result. A lot of industries affected
in the exercise so far, (for example, cement manufacturing) are in worse
conditions presently, with grave implications for the national economy.
Tunbi Ibukunoluwa
Covenant University,
Sango Otta
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