An appraisal of the privatisation and commercialisation law and policy in nigeria

Thesis Abstract

A global trend has emerged aimed at reducing government’s involvement and attracting private partnership in the economy. This global trend came about through the process of privatisation or both privatisation and commercialisation of government owned enterprises. The reasons offered for this economic policy vary from country to country. In Nigeria, as part of its programmes of National Economic Reforms, the Federal Government introduced privatisation along with commercialisation. The research which focused on law and policy in the privatisation and commercialisation process sees the spirit and letter of the law as not being given unfettered expression in terms of implementation in accordance with the existing legislations on the policy. The apparent ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the programme leaves one in doubt as to whether adequate provisions were not made in the law and policy to succinctly swathe the operations of the programme; hence the investigation of the law and policy. The regulatory framework on privatisation and commercialisation set up by the Nigerian Government is a matter of law, which has been juxtaposed among the government agencies. The research adopted a doctrinal methodology with considerable attention to both primary and secondary materials through which relevant laws on or connected to the programme from 1987 till date was examined. Certain findings were made which included the fact that Section 1(3) and Section 6(3) of the Act offend the provision of Sections 4(1), (4), (a), (b) of the CFRN, 1999 (as amended) and paragraph 17(b) of the Concurrent Legislative List of the Constitution and by virtue of Section 315(1) (a) of the CFRN 1999 (as amended) as an Act of the National Assembly who can constitutionally exercise the power and not the Council (NCP). Furthermore, Section 19 (1) of the Act establishing opening Privatisation Proceeds Account and subsection (2) providing that such funds be utilized for such purposes as may be determined by the Government of the Federation contradicts Section 162(1) of the CFRN, 1999 (as amended) dealing with the Federation Account. Equally, the Act does not provide for measures to probe and punish erring officers of the Bureau. This work also discovered that the Act does not provide for post-privatisation regulations to regulate the activities of privatised enterprises.