Given how some privileged Nigerians have swindled us down to our bone marrow in the name of subsidy, only God almighty knows how much trillions of naira have disappeared into private pockets while majority of the people of Nigeria cannot afford just a meal a day. The practical implication of the removal of fuel subsidy is that stark continuous tragic hardship will be visited on the masses of Nigeria. That is to say that everything from transportation, food stuffs and what have you will experience skyrocketing impact.
Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta
One of the greatest books ever compiled in human history that is still mesmerizing millions of people across the world is the holy Bible.
The Bible made us to understand that every human being must carry his or her cross, just as Jesus Christ of Nazareth did stoically.
Then, one can say the word ‘cross’ means a kind of burden, responsibility or stress. Since the discovery of oil in Nigeria one word that has been interwoven with the daily supply of the commodity to the people is ‘subsidy on fuel.’
To many millions of Nigerians the word ‘subsidy on fuel’ means absolutely nothing as far as they can drive in and out of the filling (gas) stations to purchase the commodity.
Perhaps, it was when Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in January 2012, in an attempt to pitilessly push up the pump price of fuel that the word ‘subsidy’ became a household name.
Then, he explained to the nation that the Federal Government was spending billions of naira on the subsidy regime; that subsidy would be abandoned, etc.
The way and manner that the Jonathan administration handled the mass protests and the discussions that emanated from it shocked the whole country.
It did, most especially when it was discovered that the subsidy regime was like a massive drain pipe which the president himself and stalwarts of his then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were using to suck the country dry.
More disturbing and painful was how the Jonathan regime treated the subsidy bandits. Nobody was prosecuted; no one was asked to refund a kobo.
The subsidy looters simply spat on the hunger-stricken faces of millions of Nigerians and walked away richer than the Federal government of Nigeria.
Never before have a people been so treated as slaves! Today the much talked about subsidy for fuel has been removed by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, even after the regime had earlier promised Nigerians that it would not be removed for fear of inflicting more hardship on the people.
Do we heap blames on President Buhari for removing the subsidy for fuel? Given the way fuel has been scarce in the country for some months now and the way some marketers have been shortchanging the people, I think the government itself has been in a tight corner on this excruciating national problem.
Given how some privileged Nigerians have swindled us down to our bone marrow in the name of subsidy, only God almighty knows how much trillions of naira have disappeared into private pockets while majority of the people of Nigeria cannot afford just a meal a day.
The practical implication of the removal of fuel subsidy is that stark continuous tragic hardship will be visited on the masses of Nigeria.
That is to say that everything from transportation, food stuffs and what have you will experience skyrocketing impact.
It is pathetic to state that the terrible sins committed by a few heartless criminals who refused to fix our refineries for optimal production; who preferred to take our crude oil abroad to be refined at unimaginable cost to our economy; who decided to steal our commonwealth empty and stashed such stupendous money in foreign lands, is what the poverty-stricken people of Nigeria are suffering today
Where do we go from here? The ordinary people of Nigeria are being asked to further persevere, to bend backwards to carry a national cross which is never their own making in the first place.
As the masses of Nigeria bear the brunt of this unwarranted, unsolicited and brutal national cross, I make bold to state that the Minister of state for Petroleum, Ibe Kachuckwu and his team at that level should truly deregulate the petroleum sector proactively, transparently and patriotically.
Those that will be given licenses to operate in the deregulated oil sector must have the capacity, competence, history and equipment to function, so that within the shortest possible time the sector will be genuinely competitive to the extent that the pump price of fuel will have no option than to crash to pieces.
Also, they must not be allowed to export refined petroleum products until local market consumption is verifiably satisfied.
The government should intensify its efforts, as promised in introducing aggressive social programs to help cushion the excruciating effects of the nation’s economic crisis.
The Buhari administration will be writing it name in gold letters if the oil sector is sanitized and allowed to live a life of its own like what has happened to the communication sector in Nigeria.
As the deregulation ship sets in to take off within the oil sector, one only wishes that President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Minister of Petroleum in conjunction with his Minister of State for petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu should do the masses of Nigeria a soothing favor by dropping the pump price of fuel down to N100 per liter.
It is clear that the present crisis in the oil sector is not the making of President Buhari and his team.
That is the more reason that the people of Nigeria even as they adjust most begrudgingly and painfully should give this administration conducive environment to tackle this national cross once and for all.
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