CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Several experts and informed opinions have presented privatization and commercialization as one of the bitter pills to be taken by Nigeria’s in order to recover from economic slump, it to a great extent helps to solve some vital problems that has led to the untimely devastating problems is the syndromes of “not- my fathers- work” which has greatly and negatively affected both smooth running and performance of the these enterprises. The privatization policy was recommended by the onside report of 1982 by the Athakem study group of statutory corruptions and state owned corporations set up in September 1984, the competence of chief Executives of Nigeria public enterprises held in Jos, plateau state in May 29-30, 1985 and by international minatory fund, as a condition for is loan to Nigeria.
Public enterprises in Nigeria has been considered as inefficient and wasteful, this is because they have viewed it wish the profit criterion. According to a school of thought asserting the activities for public enterprises with the profit criterion is not always a fair judgment economic activities, it is usually not appropriate to us the performance standard of the private sector “they are horses of different colours”. Unfortunately, the Nigerian public sector enterprises have failed in this efficient and effective provision of the services for which they were established. Infact it was this feeling of failure and crimelessness arising from the increased difficulty in the government that prompted the proposition of privatization policy in Nigeria.
For a large part of the frontlets century, there were countries in the world (Eastern bloc) that promised state ownership of means of production, whiles other (Western bloc) promised private ownership of the means of production. A good number of countries practiced what was termed mixed economy i.e. the combination of public and private ownership of he means of production. However, at the end of the twentieth century with the end of the war between the eastern and western blocs, private ownership of means of production took ascendancy.
Today, the received wisdom is that the state should recede and that private ownership of means of production is the only viable approach to efficient production f goods and services, economies growth and development. Nigeria has more than 1,800 public enterprises at Federal and state level which can be categorized as follows:
i. Public utility providing infers fractural services
ii. Strategic industries such as petroleum and petrochemical, fertilizer plans iron steel.
iii. Economic/Commercial enterprises such as manufacturing of consumer goods insurance, banks and hotel.
iv. Departmental/stationary boards designed to serve specific socials of development roles as university and research institutes, Ake (1981)
It is important to note that the introduction of SAP in 1986 serves as a bench mark in economic policy-making in Nigeria with the resultant, liberalization, deregulation, Privatization and commercialization measures. The critical question here remains how many of these policies have been able to resituate the political economy of Nigerian and in true alleviating the yearning and aspiration of the working class.