The Political Economy of Deregulation Policy in the Downstream Sector of the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (1999-2015)

Kenneth Nweke () and Vincent Nyewusira ()
Additional contact information
Kenneth Nweke: Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education
Vincent Nyewusira: Ignatius Ajuru University of Education

No 3305661, Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Abstract: Successive governments in Nigeria since 1999 have faced the challenge of whether or not to adopt deregulation policy in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. In fact, the decision of whether or not to adopt deregulation policy as a panacea for remedying the perennial fuel scarcity and arbitrary price increases in petroleum products has been an albatross around successive governments in Nigeria. This paper interrogates the political economy of deregulation policy in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry in Nigeria since the enthronement of democratic rule in 1999, hence contends that the subsidy regime of successive governments has not addressed the perennial scarcity and arbitrary price increases of petroleum products in the country. The paper maintains that the fuel subsidy regime has been an epitome of corruption as it has failed to address the original intentions of its founding fathers. It is the view of this paper, therefore, that a complete deregulation policy in the downstream sector that will ensure government?s outright removal of fuel subsidy, remains the only antidote to addressing the perennial scarcity and arbitrary price increases of petroleum products by ambitious petroleum marketers in Nigeria. It is by so doing that market forces shall become the major determinants of the prices and distribution of petroleum products for the teeming consumers in Nigeria. The paper concludes that savings that would accrue from fuel subsidy removal could be channelled into addressing the ailing infrastructure and human capital in the country.

Keywords: Political economy; deregulation policy; down stream sector & petroleum industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 1 page
Date: 2016-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-ene and nep-pol
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 21st International Academic Conference, Miami, Mar 2016, pages 164-164

Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/proceedings/21st-international-a ... =33&iid=028&rid=5661 First version, 2016

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:iacpro:3305661

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().