By Kesandu Egburonu
As Nigerians witnessed the inauguration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29th, 2023, news broke out the same day that the President had enforced the removal of fuel subsidy. The news was a shocker and one many least expected at that point. While one eye rested on Eagles Square, the venue of Tinubu’s swearing-in of office, another was cast on what this fuel subsidy news would mean for Nigerians going forward.
Before going further, it is important to understand what fuel subsidy means (for those who may not know). In layman’s terms: Let’s assume a pack of biscuits is N100. Now, rather than let your child pay the huge fee of N100 all alone, you subsidise it for the child by footing half the price just so the child can afford to pay only N50 for it instead. I assume that explanation is clear enough, so, let’s move on.
The long term benefit of removing subsidies on petroleum products, as explained by the government, is that the money which would otherwise have been spent on subsidising these products will then be used to improve other sectors of the economy. The intention is all well and good, but, as Nigerians will attest to, we have been down this road before and the intention and eventual execution have always been miles apart.
Maybe you have forgotten, but, let me take you down memory lane a bit: During the administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, fuel subsidy was removed just as we have now. A subsidy account was opened and all the monies meant for subsidies were thrown into this giant money account to be accumulated and used to develop other areas of our economy.
Do you remember what happened to that account? The account was declared empty and the EFCC subsequently began an investigation into Mrs. Deziani, the then Minister of Petroleum, for allegedly embezzling the said funds.
What that meant is that the intention of the fuel subsidy removal was soundly defeated; citizens suffered the consequences of fuel prices all the while for nothing and; tax papers were made a fool of after the subsidy account had nothing in it at the end of the day. See why Nigerians are pessimistic about it this time around?
The main problems I have with this fuel subsidy removal decision by President Bola Tinubu are quite few and I will outline them: For starters, the timing of this couldn’t be any worse. I mean, how would you remove the subsidy on the same day of your swearing-in? Who does that? Need I remind you that the country is still split between different fan bases, with some still rooting for Peter Obi and others for Atiku Abubakar. One would have thought that the wise thing to do would have been to give your government a bit more time to breathe, come to terms with the transition, before carefully analysing and reaching such a sensitive decision.
We remember how Goodluck made this same error with the timing of his fuel subsidy removal by slating it for the 1st of January. The hardship that brought at the climax of a holiday period was enormous. People who travelled for holidays were left stranded because of the doubling, if not tripling of transport fares. Others found themselves shamefully begging around for money just to get back to their bases. We slammed the GEJ administration for this, but it now appears to be a case of deja vu as this administration is doing the exact same thing.
Besides the timing, a removal of this nature should only have been enforced after adequate measures must have been put in place to lessen the burden on Nigerians and make things a bit more bearable. From the current state of things, there appears to be no measure put in place whatsoever for this removal and no sooner had it been announced than citizens began to bear the full weight of this decision.
In the East, there are reports of citizens buying fuel for N750 per litre. In Lagos, fuel prices are ranging from N500-600 per litre already. This is just a day after inauguration for crying out loud. How is the ordinary man supposed to cope with this sudden new reality? How is the good intention of this supposed to be appreciated by the ordinary man when no measures are put in place to make the situation bearable for him?
I do not doubt the expressed sincerity of this administration and the reported zeal to hit the ground running, but there is a saying about “doing the right thing at the right time.” Nigeria is at a most fragile point in its existence and any policy such as this should have been taken only after all the Is dotted and Ts properly crossed, but, it surely doesn’t look that way from where I stand.
