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From Jerome-Mario Chijioke
Public Forum
A significant look at the recent national economy-focused broadcast tagged “After Darkness Comes the Glorious Dawn,” by Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, where he articulated all the policy measures his administration has taken to combat the serious economic challenges this nation has long faced, with a call on Nigerians to see and hopefully share in his vision regarding the journey to a better, more productive economy for our beloved country, shows one thing: Mr. President politely reminded Nigerians about what they have already known.
It was universally understood and open to all Nigerians with no barriers that the content of the broadcast fittingly amounted to a palliative that cured the effect of an ailment while leaving the root cause to thrive.
Take as an illustration, before the broadcast, Nigerians have for several years consistently maintained the position that the fuel subsidy had to go as the once beneficial measure had outlived its usefulness. They were equally aware that the subsidy cost us trillions of naira yearly and such a vast sum of money being funnelled into the deep pockets and lavish bank accounts of a selected group of individuals would have been better spent on public transportation, healthcare, schools, housing and even national security.
Similarly, any mature adult living in Nigeria need not wait for Mr. President’s speech to be reminded that “this group (subsidy regime gladiators) had amassed so much wealth and power that they became a serious threat to the fairness of our economy and the integrity of our democratic governance. And if allowed to flourish, Nigeria could never become the society it was intended to be as long as such small, powerful yet unelected groups hold enormous influence over our political economy and the institutions that govern it.”
Without doubt, Nigerians know that the Federal Government cannot solve all their problems and they don’t want it to.
This fact notwithstanding, the fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government elicits the following questions: why must Tinubu punish millions of Nigeria for sins committed by a few Nigerians and exacerbated by protracted Federal Government failures and inability to arrest such ugly occurrence? Why is removal of this once helpful device called subsidy the only available and most attractive option for the Federal Government to explore? What made successive administrations in the country to consciously allow fuel subsidy manipulation to transform into a millstone of burden for Nigerians?
Is the current administration saying that it lacks the power/capacity to curtail and arrest the activities of these fuel subsidy manipulators? Has Tinubu forgotten that protection of lives and properties and guarantee of healthy economic wellbeing of citizens are the two major constitutional responsibilities of every democratically elected government in Nigeria? If so, why is the administration finding it difficult to protect this high-priced national product?
Viewed broadly, the present government, in my view, may have a sincere desire to move the nation forward but there are two sets of militating factors.
First and very key, there is growing concern among Nigerians that policies of those in public offices in the country are not only self-defeating but their promises cannot be trusted. This particular belief, no doubt, casts a dark shadow on Mr. President’s promised review of workers’ salaries and minimum wage. A related feeling of doubt by Nigerians is visited on Mr. President’s N75 billion palliative promised the manufacturing and business sector within a nine-month period, spanning the third quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of next year.
Secondly, Tinubu’s administration has not in any way manifested consideration for connecting the poor with good means of livelihood, food, job and security, even as there exists apprehension that his economic plans have virtually no concrete or clear definition of our problem as a nation, the goals to be achieved, or the road map/means to addressing the problems and to achieve the goals.
It is a visible sign that, as a nation, we have not departed the old order.
There is hunger in the land and it is obvious. The prices of rice and other commodities in the country have astronomically gone up in the market, occasioned by subsidy removal and other anti-people policies formulated by the present administration. In fact, those who were earlier deceived by the “renewed hope” mantra have suddenly come to a painful realization that nothing has changed!
This fact, in my view, partially explains why members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, occupied the complex of the Nigerian National Assembly, Abuja, and other state capitals to protest against the hardship inflicted on Nigerians as a result of the removal of petrol subsidy.
The angry workers/protesters, who were led by the national president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, and Festus Osifo of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), marched from the Federal Secretariat in Abuja to the National Assembly complex. They, according to media reports, prevented the senators from continuing with the screening of the ministerial nominees and, among other concerns, complained that they can no longer feed their families, transport themselves to their various workplaces and that the rate of poverty in the country is getting worse.
This is terrible!
For me, one point the Tinubu-led Federal Government must not fail to remember is that. globally, the relationship between employers/employees is always strained, always headed towards conflict. Unions do not strike on a whim or use the strike to show off their strength. They look on protests/strikes as costly and disturbing, especially for workers and their families. Protests or strikes are called ‘ last resort.’
This is not a political issue but a moral and socioeconomic one that affects the civilization and survival of our nation. It is not a question of political divides. It has nothing to do with membership of All Progress Progress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or Labour Party (LP).
Further supporting the above argument is a recent statement by a civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), who on Tuesday, in a similar vein, faulted Tinubu’s Monday night’s speech to Nigerians suffering the crushing economic effects of the abrupt removal of petrol subsidy.
HURIWA, in the referenced statement by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, described the President’s speech as academic, highfalutin and totally detached from the realities of the 130 million Nigerian masses who have been further mired in the bog of poverty and lack with the President’s assumption of office on May 29, 2023, noting that the President failed to tell Nigerians his plans to resuscitate public refineries after the previous All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Muhammadu Buhari spent billions of naira renovating the four public refineries.
Even as the rights group laments that Nigeria, which is presumed Africa’s biggest oil producer, lost an average of 437,000 barrels of oil a day to criminals, this piece, on its part believes that, to solve this lingering challenge, we must as a nation start looking for ways of developing/implementing plans and policies that will lead to price stability, high employment, effective regulation, trade and availability of finance for business.
The Tinubu-led government must design creative ways to end the atmosphere of deep-rooted poverty among millions of Nigerians as well as ensure that every dollar in revenue from foreign earnings would be properly accounted for and would reach Nigerians at the grassroots as one dollar, without being siphoned off along the way.
As an incentive, if there is anything that Nigerians wish that the government should accomplish quickly, it is getting the refineries to function optimally as well as make the NNPC more accountable to the people. What happened under President Goodluck Jonathan has become child’s play compared to the present happenings in Nigeria’s oil and gas and electricity sectors.
Ending crude oil theft in the country will be an “added advantage” on the part of Mr. President.
•Utomi wrote in via [email protected]
