GENERAL INTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the Study.

Since independence in 1960 in Nigeria, differentgovernments have embraced on one programme or another.The research work is to examine the activities of the publicopinion on public policy from 2010-2012, hence, narrowing itdown to an economic reform policy of the deregulation of thedownstream oil sector in Nigeria, also known as the fuelsubsidy removal in Nigeria.Nigeria is a democratic nation. One of the principles ofdemocracy is the operation of fundamental human rights,which allows for the freedom of speech, which is on the view ofthe majority, influencing governmental decisions. Public policyas applied to politics is seen as a statement of a principle withtheir supporting rules of action, that conditions and governs theachievement of their goals. Government usually engages indifferent programmes, as the government is the authoritativebody because they are backed up by the law. Government alsohas both power and authority to execute their duties and alsoensure compliance. These programes are directed towardssolving a particular programmes or preempting them.Therefore, programmes are not just mode for fun of makingthem, they are made to solve the societal needs. They entailthe expenditure of public funds.Before colonialization, the economies of the different kingdomsthat now constitute the Nigeria political entity were based onagriculture. Since independence in 1960, the role of agriculturein the economy of Nigeria has been on the downward trendwith regards to its contribution to GDP. Its share to GDP fellfrom 61.5% in 1963/1964 to 14.6% in 1983. This has beenpartly due to the emergence of oil-Reynolds (1975) argued thatagricultural development can promote economic developmentof the underdeveloped countries in four different ways:1. By increasing the supply of food available for domesticconsumption and realizing the needed labour for industrialemployment.2. By enlarging the size of the domestic market for themanufacturing sectors.3. By increasing the supply of domestic savings4. By providing the foreign exchange earned by agriculturalexports.Since the discovery of oil, which earns us our foreignexchange, agriculture has been abandoned. Exploration forcrude petroleum oil in Nigeria first began in 1980. But seriousand sustained efforts did not happen until shell Darcypetroleum Company commenced operations in 1935. It tookthis company more twenty years to discover petroleum crudeoil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in 1956. Nevertheless, oilprice has never been satiable in the country as successivegovernments keep adjusting the price upwards beyond theaffordability of the common citizens of the oil producingcountry. Like in the price of petroleum products is a globalphenomena problem in the international market.Specifically, oil prices in Nigeria have been on acontinuous increase since the beginning of 2004 and this hashappened despite the organization of petroleum Exportingcountries (OPEC) increase in its oil out put. Earlier in 2004, therun up in oil price was attributed to surging demand forpetroleum products due to global economy. Then, it was theunrest in Nigeria. Concerning the security of oil, supplies haveheightened more recently. Nigeria is the sixth oil producingnation in the world. The subsidy removal on fuel has increasethe price of oil. In the past, the increase in price occurredmostly in the extent of disruption to oil supply.Now, the deregulation policy has heightened the price ofoil disruption of oil supply. There is concern the current steprise in the price of oil as a result of the removal of subsidy onfuel could have an adverse impact on the Nigeria economy;that is currently on road to recovery and expansion. When oil isexpensive, people try to use less of it. They may reduce theamount they derive on reduce the temperature to which theyheat their houses, which their minor economies will have littleor nothing on consumption Higher have less money to spendon other things. This reduces because most goods and servicesthe consumer would have bought have required the use of oilfor their production and delivery. If higher oil prices reduceconsumer demand very much manufacturers and retails willfind that their profits suffer and that they have surpluscapacity. They will therefore, deter their plans for expansion.This will result in very large energy savings because work isenergy intensive.The concept of public policy can be seen as simplygovernmental actions or course to proposed actions that aredirected to achieving goals (Ikelugbo 1999). Care Fredrick(1980) defined it as government or one of its divisions bygovernment. The main idea of public policy is that it has to dowith the government. It is an action or sets of actions taken bypublic authorities, it is the out put or production ofgovernmental process and activtieyt. Public involves andaffects the wide verity of areas and issues with whichgovernment have to do such as the economy, education,health, defence, social welfare, foreign affairs as well as otherareas like culture. Sometimes, the government adopts thestate coercive agencies like the police to enforce and ensurecompliance of policies. Also these coercive agencies end uploosing their lives in the course of ensuring compliance. A casestudy is in Ilorin, Kwara state a police officer and a youth werefeared dead. Their death occurred during a violentdemonstration by the youths that engaged the youths andpolice into a tow hours fight, throwing missiles which led to theuse of live bullets by the police.The subsidy removal on fuel is an economic policy. Nigeriaadopted several economic policies for development. Theintroduction of economic reform programmes started after herindependence in 1960. During this period, Niger derived toembark on a programme for development, which they saw itsimportance for gaining economic independence especially. Stillat that, the past colonial masters of Nigeria still control theaffairs of the nation. While the past-independent leaders sortassistance from them for development. This was done throughthe iprotation of industrial technology amongst others, whilethe assisting countries will give out their conditions. And anydeveloping country like Nigeria that will not submit to thescheme of economic demands or conditions of those aidingthem or will not accept their advice and control, usually, willhave little choice of developing.The economic policy have been seen or have given theimpression that it is a policy which has been influenced by thewestern countries or foreign investors based on their interest inthe country‘s oil; another way the westerns want to dominateNigeria again. This has elicited stiff resistance by the Nigeriapublic through labour unrest and mass protest.This study therefore, attempts to assess the impact of publicopinion on public policy in Nigeria, using the deregulation of thedownstream oil sector or oil subsidy removal as our analyticalfocus.