By Kayode Emola
The week just passed saw the inauguration of the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu. Upon assuming office, the first major policy that he instituted was the removal of fuel subsidies, causing the pump price to skyrocket overnight. As much as this policy is necessary in order to confront fraud in the petroleum industry, its implementation was handled terribly.
Since the 1970s, successive Nigerian governments have attempted to remove the fuel subsidy, with each government failing to provide the framework required to implement the policy. Resultantly, it has historically proved impossible to fully extricate the pricing of this commodity from governmental control across the country.
This subsidy has proven to be a lifeline for the majority of people trapped in poverty throughout Nigeria for years. However, it has been grossly abused, being turned into a means for oil marketers to unduly enrich themselves.
The principle underpinning the subsidy ought to be that government takes stock of the petroleum commodity and sells it on to the retailers, creating benefit for the populace. However, the current system merely requires that the oil marketers complete a form stating the quantity of petroleum they are supplying, and the government reimburses them for the difference between retail and subsidised price.
Research shows that the average consumption of petroleum products in Nigeria is around 60 million litres per day. However, the quantity on which government subsidy is being claimed is about 100 million litres. This discrepancy of approximately 40 million litres of product every day for which subsidy is being paid, yet never reaches the general population, demonstrates that the current application of the subsidy is not only harmful to the government but also injurious to the people themselves.
In her address to graduating students at Columbia University a few years ago, the former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo Iweala narrated her mother’s ordeal at the hands of four young who kidnapped her. They had requested the finance minister resign her position for the release of her mother and failure to comply will result in her death.
The kidnappers told the Finance minister they kidnapped her mother because she failed to pay the oil marketers for fuel subsidies. This is clear evidence that the oil marketers involved in the whole subsidy regime are part of a bigger problem the country is experiencing.
Obviously, the finance minister did not resign and her mother regained her freedom by sheer luck. The situation would have been worse for her family had her mum been killed in that instance or she gave in to the blackmailers and resigned from her job. It will mean that evil is given the opportunity to thrive once again in our land.
Nonetheless, her family’s victory over the kidnappers did not mean the fraud was eradicated or the fraudster was apprehended, it only meant that the oil marketers lived to fight another day and they continue to win both the people and the government.
President Tinubu’s removal of the subsidy feels like this is the time to tackle the corruption within the industry once and for all. However, whether the President is successful in his endeavour will depend on his intended approach.
Whilst I believe the removal of the subsidy was necessary, the manner in which it has been implemented is poor. A better approach would have been to announce the removal of subsidies in advance, with a timeline for its implementation. In this way, people would have had time to brace themselves for the increased price that would follow the subsidy’s removal.
Secondly, the President should have also made provisions to enable increases in workers’ salaries, helping cushion the effect of the increased pump price. Workers’ salaries in Nigeria are already too low at present for people to meet their daily expenses. Expecting people to somehow absorb the extra expense incurred by removing fuel subsidy – with its consequent rise in the pump price – without increasing salaries, is like asking a man tied and thrown in the ocean not to drown.
In light of this, it becomes necessary that the government now makes arrangements to alleviate the plights of workers, on whose efforts the growth of the country depends. The government of Tinubu must not think that this matter is concluded, as there is still much more to be done.
Furthermore, the fuel subsidy issue is not the most pressing concern that the populace seeks to see addressed by the government. The country is facing a crisis of nationalities, with numerous segments of the country feeling aggrieved over continuing forced allegiance to a country for which they feel neither identity nor affinity.
The Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw and Gbagyi nations, to mention just a few, feel it is now time for the government to address the issue of the “One Nigeria” policy. The government of Tinubu cannot just ignore the cries for a sovereign national conference, resolutely forging ahead as if, by disregarding these concerns, they would simply go away.
The Yoruba people, as well as the Biafran nation, are resolute in their determination to leave Nigeria. It is down to the President to ensure the development of a peaceful path by which this can be achieved, allowing each nation making up Nigeria to go and develop according to their own ability. President Tinubu should not stand in the way of these legitimate requests, as history will ultimately judge him by his actions or inactions on this matter.
The president must recognise that fuel subsidy is not the only problem, nor even the greatest problem, afflicting Nigeria. The country is beyond repair; everyone knows the current environment of lawlessness and backwardness is unsustainable. This is why we implore the President to do the right thing, while he still has the opportunity so to do.
