Those who have been following the arguments for and against the deregulation of the oil industry in Nigeria may have not got the impression that deregulation connotes lack of control or indifferences on the part of the government. But there is nothing so far from official quarters to suggest that deregulation will cause the government to relinquish its control of the oil industry because the absence of direct control does not mean that it will surrender all its right to the entrepreneurs who may want to participate in the industry. Yet the opposition expressed so far against deregulation stems from the fear that the government would leave Nigerians at the mercy of a heartless cartel who would command the heights of the oil industry and cause the pump price of fuel to rise above the means of most Nigerians. As a result of such fears many Nigerians have become resentful of deregulation and in fact the Nigeria Labour congress (NLC) has threatened to deregulate the government if it should go ahead with the deregulation plan. But Nigerians have not fared any better with the economy totally in government in control. Until recently, the most important sectors of the economy were in the hands of the government. Today deregulation of some of these sectors has broken its monopoly and introduced healthy competition to make things a little easier for Nigerians. A god example is the breaking of stifling monopoly of Nigeria airways today the travelers is king at domestic airports as opposed to the struggle that air travels used to be under Nigeria airways monopoly before it was almost easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the a needle than travelers to board a plane. Following from this, the apostles of deregulation rightly heap all the blame for the problems associated with petroleum products distribution in this country squarely on the government which owns all the refineries and which sells fuel to local consumers through agency, the national petroleum corporation (NNPC). In the same way, the government argues that if the current NNPC monopoly were broken with the introduction of entrepreneurs to the refining and sale of petroleum products in the country the Nigerian people would be all better for it. It stands to reason that once the government continues to fix maximum prices for petroleum products in this country the deregulation of the oil sector should bring some relief to the people by ensuring that wastage, corruption and inefficiency are reduced to the minimum consumers will also have the last laugh because competition will result in the availability of the products at a reasonable prices. This appears to be the sense in deregulation.
