My dear country men and women, permit me to state categorically that our dear country is no longer in safe hands. That the country is in a serious dilemma is no longer in doubt. My fears are not unfounded. My fears are rooted in the unpopular proposed or rather planned fuel price hike, expected to skyrocket from the present yet affordable N165 to about N340 by the federal government. Of course, it is the duty of any government to churn out good policies that will favour the country in its entirety not only those in the corridors of power, and also not add salt to people’s festering injury. But the contrary is the case in today’s Nigeria. And that explains the deficit of trust and the dividing line between the leaders and the led.
Although I was quite young back in 1999 I could vividly remember the hopes expressed that the socio-economic problems of the nation would be tackled by the incoming civilian administration. The hope has since faded as the problems persist. A grim picture pervades the economic skyline and the average Nigerian has a uniformed description: poor, under-nourished, poorly sheltered, unemployed and where employed, poorly remunerated. It is the same story every day. Bad policies that are directly in opposition to popular wishes have always been initiated and prioritized, and the ultimate looming fuel price increase is just one out of a lot. This will occupy the centre of my discussion today.
It does not require a degree from Harvard or Oxford, or a career at the World Bank or in the banking and petroleum industries to be able to draw the conclusion that in an economy where the provision of basic services and products depends on the operation of petro-based generators to produce the electricity needed; that in such an economy any increases in the prices of petroleum products, much less doubling of current prices, will have a serious, sustained, and deleterious effect on the livelihoods of tens of millions of residents, and a calamitous if the not clear catastrophic impact on the economy and social wellbeing of the country and her citizens. Public policy is infested with special interest groups and private interests, and a policy that is sold as a public interest policy may not, in fact, be in the public interest; moreover, a policy that is, in fact, in the public interest may be subverted against the public interest.
You can imagine if a whooping N180 which is about 120% is added per litre of petrol at once without adding a Kobo to workers’ salaries, or finding alternatives to joblessness? You can imagine the pain? You can imagine the impact? More painful is the ridiculous claim by the finance minister that they will pay N5,000 to Nigerians for 6 months to a maximum of one year as compensation. The problem of the fuel hike will affect all Nigerians. Not only those that owns a car, tricycle or a generator, but everyone must buy food, pay for hospital bills and transportation. This policy will only open doors to more corruption and impunity that has engulfed this government, and greatly worsened the socio-economic conditions of already long-suffering Nigerians. There is no doubt that the performance of an administration can be assessed not by relying on the propagandistic effusions of its spokespersons, but by critically examining the results or outcomes of the policies and programmes implemented by the administration, and how these have impinged on the welfare of the citizenry. The truth is, President Buhari’s policies so far have to a large extent brings hardships and endless suffering to his people!
The present socio-economic condition of an average Nigerian is far worse than the situation caused by the previous fuel hike alone. Of course insecurity, poverty and ignorance are other highly interconnected factors that are directly affected by any action that will promote poverty and hardship, the fuel hike is certainly of them. In addition to the challenges listed above, excruciating hardship, hunger (starvation in some cases), misery and unprecedented high cost of living, among others, have become the key pillars of Nigeria’s socio-economic architecture. Indeed, to say that Nigerians are economically hurting at this moment is no exaggeration. To state that most Nigerians have never had it this economically difficult in their lifetime is not an overstatement; the fact that most Nigerians are out of work and go to bed hungry now is no longer news. The pains are palpable in the voices and faces of everyday Nigerians on the streets and in the work and market places across the land.
Many years before the emergence of the current Buhari-led administration, things were not alright but not as today. After he became president, the economy had not improved, and that poverty was becoming so entrenched that many could not feed their families well. Food has assumed such a big space in our national psyche that anyone who is able to manage three square meals is considered to have performed a feat. That was over 6 years ago; today, due to the astronomical costs of goods and services, one decent meal in a day has become a very rare phenomenon in most homes in Nigeria. The self-dignity of most Nigerians has been grossly attenuated by the policies and programmes of those who run the Nigerian state; for a person who cannot properly feed himself/herself is not worthy of the epithet “man/woman”.
My write up today also draws attention to the fact that by further increasing the price of petrol – through the total withdrawal of government subsidy, President Muhammadu Buhari, his government and his party (All Progressive Congress) have failed to fulfil one of the major promises they made to Nigerians during the campaign for the 2015 General Elections. During the campaign, Buhari had pledged to reduce the cost of petrol by 50%; in January 2015 just before the elections, Buhari, while reacting to the pump price of petrol in the country, said: “it is disturbing that in spite of the fall in the global price of crude oil, Nigerians still buy petroleum products at pump prices as if the global price of crude oil had remained at $100(USD) per barrel”. In 2015, President Buhari reportedly said: “I have received many kinds of literature on the need to remove subsidies, but much of it has no depth”; he continued: “when you touch the price of petroleum products, that has the effect of triggering price rises on transportation, food and rents. That is for those who earn salaries, but there are many who are jobless and will be affected by it”. GOD bless the soul of late Umaru Musa Yar’adua who against all odds had never been merciless to masses.
In a national address to mark his government’s one-year anniversary, President Buhari declared: “for too long, ours has been a society that neglects the poor and victimizes the weak. A society that promotes profits and growth over development and freedom…” (www.punchng.com/text-president…). But the huge increase in the pump price of petrol by the government not only neglects and emasculates the poor, it also compounds their misery. Moreover, the policy promotes and enhances the profits of oil dealers and other actors in Nigeria’s oil industry and dwarfs the economic potentials and fortunes of the masses. President Buhari and Nigeria’s political elites need to realize that in the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, “a society that cannot care for the many who are poor cannot save the few who are rich.”
By the manner and magnitude of the increase in the pump price of petrol, President Muhammadu Buhari appeared to be telling Nigerians that since his predecessors (especially Obasanjo, Babangida and Abacha) made life difficult for them, he’s determined to make living in Nigeria a terribly nightmarish experience. Every day in Nigeria is worse than the previous day, and there is no hope in sight. The current situation in the country has been caused mainly by the policies of the Buhari-led administration, one of which is the fuel subsidy removal. In January 2012, the regime of Goodluck Jonathan elevated official wickedness and sadism to higher levels by raising the price per litre of petrol from sixty-five naira (N65) to one hundred and forty-one naira (N141); but in May 2016, Muhammadu Buhari callously increased the pump price of petrol from eighty-seven naira (N87) to one hundred and forty-five naira (N145) per litre. The fact that this act has had devastating effects on the lives of the majority of the Nigerian masses cannot be overemphasized. So if successful, Buhari would have added the pump price about four times in 7 years.
Unfortunately, there was no notable nationally-organised resistance to this insensitive and draconian policy of the Buhari-led government. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) with a largely compromised and ideologically bankrupt leadership failed to respond in any significant way to the government’s insincere actions at the time. And I don’t think their action will lead to anything fruitful this time unless a miracle happens. Even if there is an attempt to resist through peaceful demonstrations, the Northern-Southern dichotomy phenomenon will immediately take effect. The religious clerics in the North will climb the pulpit, as usual, to preach against people seeking their rights, simply because the president is a Muslim from the North.
My honest opinion is that if the government would suddenly decide to double the pump price, then it should immediately consider declaring free access to health care, free education and tax reduction, but not the proposed payment of N5,000 to ghost Nigerians that will further open doors to corruption in the system. I believe they should learn from the failed payment of palliatives by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs during the pandemic.
Nigeria, in all honesty, is no longer in safe hands!
