By steve anyebe.
The glorified resilience of Nigerians has become a factor for further exploitation of the citizenry in unimaginable dimensions. But for how much longer can this hold? Nigerians, in their characteristic bedbug philosophy, endured the eight Buhari years in the hope that it must end and, more importantly, that something better would replace those regrettable years. Well, Buhari is gone, but to the chagrin of the affected majority Nigerians, his replacement is completely, and surprisingly, a far worse story than what the past represented. At least for now, we are faced with such dire existential situations that many people are now regretting their February 25th 2023 electoral actions. What with the daily worsening living conditions! The new era was deliberately ushered in on 29th May 2023 with a needless announcement of the removal of fuel subsidy. Needless because the outgoing regime had announced a budgetary subsidy provision up to the end of June 2023. There was therefore clear thirty days for the new regime to engage critical stakeholders in the sector and come up with a generally acceptable shift to a non-subsidy programme. But Tinubu undertook his first official gaffe on his inauguration, by failing to exploit the general willingness of Nigerians for subsidy removal, by his hasty pronouncement which immediately shot the prices of almost everything through the ceiling. Needless to say that his own widely publicised 2012 document, which spelt out the conditions for a seamless subsidy removal programme, has been exhumed and is now being used as an incontrovertible evidence against his sincerity of purpose. Subsequent upon the Tinubu inauguration pronouncement, transport costs trippled across Nigeria, food prices skyrocketed, medium and small business ventures crashed, all leading to a lowering of living standards of the people. On inauguration day NNPC advised Nigerians not to engage in panic buying of fuel as there was no intention to increase pump prices, but gleefully announced a new price regime the very following day. Since then life has not been the same. And now Independent Marketers are telling us that fuel price will not go up despite palpable speculations that petrol will soon become at least seven hundred naira a litre. Let us hope IPMAN will prove to be different from NNPC. But what if they turn out to be the other side of the same coin? Then that will invariably result in a much worsening scenario with regards to the already terrible conditions under which Nigerians, except the privileged few “government children” who don’t buy anything with their own money, are groaning very painfully. As at now many many Nigerians have parked their private vehicles because they can no more afford fuel. This of course means lower patronage for all vehicle related businesses such as spare parts dealers, mechanics, vulcanisers, fuel dealers, etc. Therefore massive additional unemployment is staring us in the face. Heightened mass economic and social discontent is peeping at us. The millions of Nigerian youths who are increasingly taking to drugs as escape from harsh realities, will yet increase, even as many have recently started committing suicide as a way out. Yet all we are hearing is that we should endure more in expectation of better days ahead. Is it comfortable to the rulers that the already downtrodden should continue making sacrifices while their glaring oppressors move around displaying stupendously arrogant wealth, flaunting repressive state apparatus? They are even increasing the emoluments of political office holders from Mr President, his Vice, Governors, their Deputies, etc. Are they not afraid? The French Revolution of 1789 started as a spontaneous reaction to an overnight increase in the price of bread. It was not planned, and initially had no leadership. The resilience of the peasants finally broke. They could take it no more. It started in one shop, but it engulfed the whole city, and spread to the whole country. Nobody was spared. It took only a member of the peasants mob to point a finger at “one of them” and that was all. Closer here, and more recent, was the Arab Spring. Was it not another case of a mass uprising against increased food prices? Also unplanned. Will Nigerians be alive to enjoy the purported “better days” we are being promised? If most cannot survive what is coming, then who will Government rule? Let us even look at the underlying issues surrounding the issue of subsidy and its removal in Nigeria. Would there have been the necessity for subsidy if our refineries were working and refining our crude effectively? Certainly not! So the more pertinent question should be why our refineries are not working. In addition, why are we not fully exploiting our vast natural gas resources? Instead there are workers in the refineries, that are not functioning, who get paid fat salaries every month. If we even overlook the state of our refineries, and go on to consider the idea of Government subsidising certain areas, it is normal all over the world. United States of America hugely subsidises food and transportation, Britain does same, to boost food security, while Germany and France subsidise energy to boost manufacturing. All these countries have many other subsidy regimes for their citizens, such as social welfare, unemployment allowance, medical care, etc. Therefore subsidy itself, in its intent and purpose, is a progressive policy. However, it has been the management of the fuel subsidy in Nigeria, which has been riddled with high level corruption, leading to a few Nigerians stealing the common wealth, that has been the real problem. Not subsidy itself! So Government ought to tackle the corruption instead of removal of subsidy. Of necessity, the Nigerian Government needs to subsidise life, and the most crucial area to do this is the cost of petrol. Simply put, petrol affects the ordinary Nigerian more than anything else. If subsidy of petrol is removed, how else can the people benefit from Government? The importance of subsidy is clearly obvious from former President Buhari’s statement recently that he allowed subsidy to stay as a strategy to win the 2023 presidential election. This is a pointed confession which cannot be overlooked in the context of subsidy and its importance in political considerations. The happenings around Nigeria in the first month of the Tinubu administration indicate the need for a serious rethink of the subsidy removal. With the impending collapse of the educational sector due to increasing costs, further devaluation of the naira and its spiralling effects, it is doubtful if resilience can hold on much longer. Anything can happen when tomorrow comes! But like Nigerians would say, *HOLY GHOOOOOST FIRE. GOOD FORBID BAD THINGS!
