Opinion:
By: Adamu Muhammad Nababa
There may never be an end in discussing the issue of fuel subsidy in Nigeria, perhaps until when Nigerian leaders in the appropriate positions have decided to tell us the truth of who was meant to benefit from it and punish those who have all along been conspiring to deprive us of its benefits.
It is simply stating the obvious that fuel subsidy is inherently meant to allow citizens to enjoy the fruits of their naturally endowed resources at a minimum cost. To allow it to be siphoned by few individuals for their own benefit is a failure of government, especially when no one has ever been held responsible and punished. It is a conspiracy hatched by the ruling class to hoodwink the public while systematically forcing them into harsh living conditions.
How can one explain a situation where former President Buhari had asked who is subsidizing what and to whom? Having said this during former President Jonathan’s tenure, and even protested on the street with the NLC, these questions were never asked again when he became President after Jonathan in 2015. And ironically, even President Tinubu also participated in the protest against removal of fuel subsidy when Jonathan attempted to remove it. But with just a wave of the hand President Tinubu removed it on his inauguration. But both Buhari and Tinubu has not said who the few culprits are, talkless of bringing them to book.
Today, it is obvious that President Tinubu simply acted on the spur of the moment, and to say that he has an economic plan for Nigeria is simply telling it to the birds. In less than one months, he declared he has wrapped over one trillion naira from subsidy removal, and for over one month he has failed to make use of the five hundred billion naira he was approved to spend as palliative on Nigerians. The raging poverty has only been agrevated by increase in tuition fees in Universities and threat of increasing electricity bill.
Subsidy is an economic cushion for citizens on any national element that a government feel is crucial to adding value to people live and Productivity. Removing it is an act of insensivity and putting citizens in a very difficult economic situation. Allow the subsidy, block the leakages and bring the culprits before the law. Nigerians cannot live and hail a government that cannot subsidize fuel, agricultural products or any vital and essential commodity. Worst still, the survival package, or five billion given to states without any clear cut procedure of how it should be disbursed and to whom is an ill-thought process. And how can Kano State for instance, the most populous state of more than twenty million people with forty four LGAs, share it and expect the same impact with Bayelsa, which has less than nine million people with just eight LGAs!
The poverty activated as a result of the fuel subsidy removal is obvious, no one can deny it. And nothing has been done to date to show that the Federal Government cares. The political angle to all these are equally fast being unfolded. For sure, fuel subsidy, all along has been a political tool dangled by the western powers to impoverish citizens while their leaders are cornered to play ball or kicked out of power. Link all these to the appointment of our President as ECOWAS Chairman less than a month of his inauguration, and the misadventure into meddling into the internal affairs of tiny Niger Republic by declaring a war. Why can’t ECOWAS fight Burkina Faso, Mali or Chad? Or even rid us of bandits, oil theft and kidnappers?
By the time that a war broke out, with the excruciating pain in the land, even Nigerians will protest against it’s government especially when refuges begin to take over our cities and IDP camps start to be established. The sooner the Federal government addresses it’s internal wranglings based on its political engagement with the electorates the better. No amount of palliatives can go round and well on Nigeria. For references, take a look at how much former President Buhari pumped on humanitarian and survival packages and cash transfers but went down the drain, in fact into few pockets and their Majesties, our Excellencies the Governors.
Adamu Muhammad Nababa, Kano, Nigeria.
