24th October, 2011
For the umpteenth time, the Federal Government is toying with the plan to remove the so-called petroleum subsidy. Although the government seems determined to remove the subsidy, the organised labour is also vehemently opposed to the removal because of the fear that it will precipitate inflation and further pauperise the people.
The belief in labour circles is that removal of the subsidy would result in increase in the prices of petroleum products, especially premium motor spirit or petrol, as it is commonly called, by about 300 percent. The multiplier effect of this is that prices of commodities and services will also skyrocket, leaving the common people poorer than they are now. When a litre of petrol skyrockets from N65 to N200, we can imagine the hardship the people will face from January next year.
In spite of this adverse effect the removal of subsidy will have on the vast majority of the people, the President Goodluck Jonathan administration in cahoot with state governors have endorsed it, claiming that the over N1 trillion that would be saved from the removal would be used to provide infrastructure and boost the economy. But this has always been the usual refrain whenever government wants to justify any unpopular or anti-people policy.
The puerile alibi government officials are bandying about to justify the proposed removal of the subsidy by January 2012 is that only a cartel in the petroleum industry is benefiting from the subsidy to the detriment of the larger populace. If that is the case, why is the government with all the security agencies at its disposal, not willing to confront the cartel? Why should the masses be punished for the sins of the cartel? Among the leading oil producers, Nigeria sells petrol to her citizens at the highest cost of N65 per litre comparatively. Iran sells at the naira equivalent of N58.40, Kuwait — N30.66, Qatar-N32.12, Saudi Arabia — N17.52, UAE — N54.02 and Libya — N15.95.
Experts have argued that all the noise about subsidy is fiction since nothing like that exists. The comparative prices per litre in oil producing nations have exposed this barefaced lie. Prof. Tam David-West, a former petroleum minister and one who should know better, has repeatedly said there is nothing called petroleum subsidy. “There is no oil subsidy in Nigeria. It is a lie and fraud. After the regime of General Buhari, I challenged government after government, from General Ibrahim Babangida and Chief Ernest Shonekan to General Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to appear on national television with me to justify their subsidy,†he told TheNEWS magazine in a recent interview.
Let the government pick up the gauntlet thrown down by David-West and confront him in a public debate. This official deceit to cover up the massive corruption in the petroleum industry must stop.
Nigerians are baffled that the government has not been able to provide an efficient local alternative to importing refined petroleum products. Shouldn’t local refineries produce refined petroleum products enough for local consumption instead of relying heavily on imported products which the government deceptively claims are subsidised?
The government is not being sincere. It should stop stoking the anger of the people and stop engaging in subterfuge to ram its plans down the throats of Nigerians. It remains to be seen if docile Nigerians will be forced to drink this hemlock again after drinking from several poisoned chalice for decades.