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The Role Of The Nigerian Government In The Privatization And Commercialization Of Public Enterprises
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1.1 THE HISTORICAL KACKROUND OF BUREAU OF PUBLIC
ENTERPRISES (B.P.K.)
The
Technical Committee for Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC) was
established as an ad-hoc implementation agency in 1989. The agency later
metamorphosed into BPE in 1993, with a supervisory and technical board,
but it retained the organizational structure and personnel of the TCPC
and was made part of the public service. B.P.E. was recreated in 1999 by
Privatization and commercialization Act 1999, as an independent body
without a board, reporting only to the National Council on Privatization
(NCP) - National Council on Privatization. The Director General of the
BPE is also the member-secretary to the NCP, which is Chaired by the
Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The
capacity of the exercise to generate undesirable socio-economic and
political problems issue has been whether the accruable economic
benefits justify the potential socio-political problems. That contention
is still much alive even though the exercise has now gone beyond the
stage off take it or leaves it" argument.
Two broad groups of
problems are bound to emerge in an economic restructuring exercise of
the nature and magnitude of the privatization and commercialization
programme. The first group comprises problems that arise from the basic
system change inherent in the exercise - a change from public sector
ownership to private. Sector ownership and control, from highly
subsidized public sector parastatals to commercialized public
enterprises from economic management that must reflect socio-political
balance to one that has to be guided by marketing place efficiency
considerations. Systemic problems are therefore, fundamental attributes
of the exercise. They are first order problems, the resolution of which
require political will on the part of government and patriotism and
willingness to make sacrifices on the part of the governed.
The
second group of problems are implementation problems. These are problems
that could arise from short-comings of the implementation procedures,
problems associated with implementation personnel as well as problems
arising from imperfections in the socio-economic infrastructure
available for the implementation exercise. Implementation problems are,
of course, easier to handle. They are second order problems that could
easily be contained by altering the implementation strategies and/or by
fine tuning procedures.
However, these multitudes of problems
constitute a mammoth task to the B.P.E. In this regard, what role do
government play to avert or ameliorates these attendant problems? This
study will seek to unravel government employed strategies in this
direction.
At the level of implementation, the socio-economic and
political question hinges on the issue of equity. The basic question is
whether the divestment process would lead to post-privatization
concentration of economic power either within economic classes or
geo-politically. The issue could be restated as that of ensuring even
accessibility to investment opportunities created by the exercise for
all Nigerians irrespective of economic class or geo-polity. Here lies
the challenges-to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), whose duties
and responsibilities must be open, fair and transparent.
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