NEO-LIBERAL REFORMS IN NIGERIAN OIL SECTOR AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

The Nigeria’s oil sector in the Fourth Republic has been characterized predominantly by neoliberal reforms of deregulation, market liberalisation and privatisation. The neoliberal reforms were purposely embraced towards tackling the incessant crises in the sector, particularly with respect to the wellbeing of the people. The study explicitly explored these reforms vis-a-vis human development. That is, welfare of the citizens in Nigeria's Fourth Republic with a focus on the oil sector. The study was anchored on state interventionist theoretical orientation. It relied on exploratory and descriptive research designs with the adoption of Mixed Methods Research (MMR). That is, questionnaire and Key Informant Interviews were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data analysis was based on descriptive statistics of simple percentage, while thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. The findings indicated that neoliberal reforms in the current oil and gas sector have deepened social inequalities with rising cost of living and poor standard of living, thereby by creating unemployment, and insecurity in different dimensions on daily basis. This raises questions about the holistic effectiveness of the role of state structure in the sector. Given the continued interest of government towards adopting neoliberal reforms in the sector with limited concerns about the well-beings of the people, the study concluded that implementation of ideological initiatives have failed to address human development given the current challenges confronting the standard of living of the people as a result of the neoliberal crisis in the sector. Hence, major recommendations include embarking on nationalist and state-led approach in the economy; an approach prioritizing wellbeing of ordinary people in the state.