A university roommate called from Germany two days ago to find out if the tensions in Lagos during the February/March general election had ebbed. I assured him that there was not much to worry about anymore. I also explained to him that what played out then was what had somehow become the norm in the state at election time. “We were divided by the polls but now united by the pains”, I told him.
Yes, we are united by the pains; the pains of bad leadership at all levels of governance but most excruciatingly the pains of the fuel subsidy removal and the harmonisation of foreign exchange rates – two critical policy decisions that have boxed Nigerians into a corner. I do not buy into the fallacy of the unsustainability of the fuel subsidy regime as bandied by government apologists. Every system has one thing or another that it subsidizes for its citizens. Our problem is the insincerity of those supervising or implementing the programme, which has turned it into a huge channel for corruption.
Oil should be a blessing for every Nigerian. It is our God-given resource. As a major oil-producing nation, Nigeria has no reason experience any crisis in that sector. One of the objectives of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which Nigeria belongs to, is ensuring national sovereignty over natural resources for the benefit of the people. Failure of successive Nigerian government to utilise the obvious gains of the oil resources the country is blessed with is a reflection of the leadership deficit in the land. The very idea of fuel subsidy should not have even come up, if the resources had been well managed. It is the gap that exists in the non-utilisation of the benefits of the products that accounts for subsidy. Subsidy is nothing other than an intervention by government to absorb the shock that may arise from the price fluctuations in product importation and distribution.
Nigeria has no reasons to import finished petroleum products, if the refineries were programmed to function. But they were not, thus creating the avenue for hawks in the subsidy business. The consequences of abusing the measure should, therefore, not be passed on to the people. Doing so can only be equated to a father starving his children because those he charged to feed them played pranks with the supplies. Nothing could be more absurd.
When President Bola Tinubu announced the subsidy removal in his inaugural speech on May 29, without any alternative measures in place, it was certain that he did not get it. It was not enough to stop the policy on the whim of sentiment as Tinubu apparently did, going by his admission before Nigerians in Paris, France, that when he got to the podium, he was possessed with courage and said subsidy was gone. There is a limit to populist pronouncements. The campaigns are over, the elections have been held. Though the issues and disagreements surrounding the polls are still in the courts, what we have at hand are the demands of governance. To that extent, realism matters.
In 2012, the President Goodluck Jonathan administration had rolled out an elaborate plan to phase out oil subsidy. Among the fallouts was an adjustment in pump price of petrol from N97 to N141. Tinubu rallied the civil society organisations and leading opposition voices against the plan. He was loud and clear that the policy lacked a human face and should be resisted.
In an article on January 11, 2012, in his newspaper, The Nation, titled “Removal of oil subsidy: President Jonathan breaks social contract with the people”, he vigorously criticised the policy, dismissing it as manifestation of insensitivity by the government on the plight of the citizens.
“By bureaucratic fiat, government made the most fateful economic decision any administration has made since the inception of the Fourth Republic and it has done so with an arrogant wave of the hand as if issuing a minor regulation,” Tinubu wrote.
He added: “Because of the terrible substance of the decision and the haughty style of its enactment, the people feel betrayed and angry. At this moment, we know not to where this anger will lead. In good conscience, we pray against violence. Also in good conscience, it is the duty of every citizen to peacefully demonstrate and record their opposition to this draconian measure that is swiftly crippling the economy more than it will ever cure it.
“By taking this step, government has tossed the people into the depths of the midnight sea. Government demands the people swim to safety under their own power, claiming the attendant hardship will build character and add efficiency to the national economy. It is easy to make these claims when one is dry and on shore. Government would have us believe that every hardship it manufactures for the people to endure is a good thing. This is a lie. The hardships they thrust upon the poor often bear no other purpose than to keep them poor. This is such a time”.
This is where Nigerians currently find themselves under the same Tinubu. Since the announcement of the sudden withdrawal of subsidy, prices of goods and services have hit the rooftops. A litre of petrol sells for between N600 and N800 in many parts of the country, depending on location and product availability. A cousin that left for Nnewi, Anambra State, from Lagos by Sienna minivan the other day paid N25,000 as against the previous fare of N12,000. There have been pictures of Nigerians resorting to trekking in major cities, while the President and state governors push out phantom palliative measures. The question remains, how long will this last? There is a clear and present danger in the land.
So, when Bayo Onanuga, one of Tinubu’s media aides, was admonishing Nigerians to bear with the President over the challenges they were passing through and show respect to his person and office, he knew that he was not being honest. He was merely being hypocritical and humouring his boss. He cannot in all honesty ask the people to bear with the President who rides in a nauseating long motorcade or a National Assembly that appropriated whopping sums for its members in the recent supplementary budget, while the masses suffer.
Truth be told, Nigerians are hungry. And angry! The alarm bells are ringing at every corner of the country. Tinubu and his men should act fast to save the situation. And time is of essence.