The political economy of pricing petroleum products: A case study of distribution and economics on the licensed independent marketers in Ondo local government area, Nigeria.

摘要

Since 1984, Nigeria has been forced to cope with the problems of overexpanded public sector expenditures fueled by higher petroleum prices in the oil-boom years. Faced with an acute economic crisis as a result of collapsed oil revenues and increasing foreign debt service obligations, the federal governments (1984–98) embarked, though grudgingly, in the mid-80s on a far-reaching two-pronged policy reform: structural adjustment or changes in relative prices and institutions to make the economy more efficient, capable of fostering sound resource management; and stabilization measures which involved the removal of subsidies on the prices of petroleum products.; The dissertation hypothesizes that desubsidization has tremendous impacts on the economy of the local community in Ondo to the extent that it influences the socio-cultural, political and religious life of the targeted population.; The over-all plan of the study is to investigate the activities of the independent marketers of petroleum products, their roles in supporting the government policy goals of making products available and at affordable prices to the local end-users. The study begins with an analysis of the factor of crude oil in the Nigerian economy, a historical overview of pricing mechanism, the influencing political factor and sequencing model of decision-making in the policy stream of desubsidization. The study employs a qualitative and anecdotal analytical technique for addressing the factor of the independent distributorship of petroleum products and its direct and indirect consequences on the welfare of the local community. Data collection involved interviewing key informants, administration of questionnaires and participant observation.; The major finding is that the independent marketers who are to implement the policy of Nigerianisation in the sale of petroleum products turned out in collusion with other economic agents to undermine the policy through various means: pollution, hoarding, smuggling thereby aggravating welfare hardships of the people, especially the rural dwellers. Much of the age-old intra-ethnic co-existence was tainted by the influx of non-indigenes characterized by their different cultural backgrounds and religious belief systems. Reduction in school enrollment, exodus of youths, crumbling church edifices, social vices, degraded road net-works affected the general welfare of the local community. The study concludes that the rural poor and the ‘lumpen proletariat’ are patent losers of the stabilization measures. The bitter experience has transformed their dominant sense of civic duties into political activism, culminating in the reinforcement of ethnic loyalty to the detriment of national unity.; The study then proposes trilateral pro-poor measures which, in the final analysis, will assuage the ruffled feelings of the discontented rural population and reinforce their sense of belonging in the national community of Nigeria.