IMPLEMENTATION OF SUBSIDY REMOVAL – THE BETTER WAY

I watched the news to see a few Nigerians blindly chanting that the removal of subsidy is for the benefit of Nigerians, all because they wanted to reopen their shops. I laughed. This goes a long way to show our gross disunity. If Egypt and Tunisia got tired of their protests and revolution, would they boast now of having a platform that allows them to choose the government they want?

I am not against the policy as you may have judged from my article, but I strongly hold that there are better ways of implementing it, to make it work in Nigeria. There are however, solid facts that I want you to consider and then judge for yourself if this government can deliver its promises.

I supported President Jonathan – even though my location did not allow me vote – for sentimental reasons and so did the majority of Nigerians; but I still do support him. I was also of the opinion that after former President Obasanjo, Nigeria shouldn’t have another president that was a past military president. But during his campaign I was not comfortable with the amount of money President Jonathan expended, paying artistes, organizing rallies and mobile carnivals. This money was obviously sourced from public funds. As painful as this may sound, President Jonathan has weak links that portray him as corrupt. For instance, members of the houses of assembly resisted vehemently when the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi presented facts that showed that the cost of running this government was guzzling about 25% of the country’s budget. Nigerians are well aware of the unwarranted multimillions that the presidency, senators, legislators and ministries accrue to themselves as salaries and allowances and how they unjustly devalue the official vehicles assigned to them only to repurchase them at alarming diminished prices. It’s open news now that the president allocates One billion Naira to himself as feeding allowance annually. My calculation shows that if you spend N30, 000.00 per day, it would take you 80 years to expend ALMOST a billion naira; the figure is N876,000,000.00 or N876,600,000.00, considering the leap years. You can do the calculations yourself to confirm.

Within its practical two years of inception, I did not expect this government to transform agriculture or power; these are monumental achievements that take time. However one task that was very feasible was to fight corruption to the letter. If this singular act was achieved, a vote of trust would have been bestowed on this government.

Consider these realities:
PHCN makes profit annually from bills being paid; where does this money go to?
The Water Board also makes money from its services; where is this money being lodged?
Governor Fashola of Lagos has provided satisfactory evidence that government can generate income from tax. The FIRS generates income yearly from taxes; where is this money?
What about the money the Customs make from import duties?
How about the Immigration, FRSC and other government institutions that generate money in various capacities?
Currently as we speak, some elite Nigerians have licences to mine solid minerals in diverse parts of the country; these minerals, like crude, should be the sole property of the federal government.
Nigeria recovered monies from misappropriated funds, to the tone of $380M from the Obasanjo tenure till now; where is the evidence of that money now? These go to show that the government has abundant alternative sources of income without having to touch the subsidy money.

Can this government conveniently prosecute former President Obasanjo and other government officials who committed gross crimes of corruption in the near and distant past? Governments in Nigeria have a very amusing practice of claiming to forgive leaders with glaring corrupt records as recorded by the EFCC, yet most of these individuals like Senators Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi and Sani Yerima, both former governors of Kaduna and Zamfara States respectively, still served in government offices, and now walk liberally as free men. Several others like Lucky Igbenedion, Ikedi Ohakim, Orji Uzo Kalu, Peter Odili and many others are still walking freely. This is ridiculous! When God directly governed Israel in the past, evildoers were punished for their crimes. Even though we know God to be merciful, He is also a just God. The United States of America is known to investigate crimes as old as thirty years and over, and prosecute as well as punish the offenders accordingly. Several other countries have this same appropriate practice of adequately punishing criminals. Nigeria callously sweeps these crimes under the carpet and what’s the result – more daredevil criminals emerge, crime prevails and the countries’ economy suffers.

Nigerians are not opposed to the removal of subsidy, but in the manner of its implementation. This government and previous ones before it have always shown grave disregard for the Nigerian people. It was clear that the subsidy removal was still being deliberated on and then a day after the president declares a state of emergency in fifteen Local Government Areas in four states of the federation, an indication that the nation was in a delicate situation, we get the shocking news of the subsidy removal. Many Nigerians still remain stranded in their villages due the consequent transportation price hike; given the economic severity of the month of January in Nigeria, the government only succeeded in replacing one crises – the Boko Haram menace, with another. And while previous governments have failed in their promises, this government has acted very similarly; so how does it expect any trust from Nigerians? If an individual was served a meal of a particular kind of vegetable from two distinct sources at two separate times, and on both occasions this individual ends up severely sick, do you think such a person will ever eat any other kind of green vegetable? Answer is NO. A person like that will in fact, naturally become repulsive to anything green. We have a proverb that a snake will naturally beget something long. The plans for the subsidy money are very juicy and welcome, and in fact portray the expectancy of Nigerians from any government. But the fact that this government possesses traits of failed previous dispensations as well as corrupt members opposed to development who served in previous dispensations, it stands on a knife-edge that makes its plans prone to failure. The NLC and its associates and the Nigerian people are therefore within their rights to demand that the government reverts to N65.00 per litre – the point of deliberations – before they engage in dialogue.

This government did not just discover the corrupt cabals and their activities overnight; it has been aware of them for a considerable period of time. It should therefore have confronted them all along.

Arguments are made that neighbouring Ghana also implemented removal of subsidy without complaints and so questions why Nigerians should. Study the mode of implementation in Ghana. Ghana DID NOT remove subsidy in one blow. The Ghanaian government has been removing its subsidy in installments of 20% over a period of time, using these monies to develop aspects of the economy at a gradual pace. What was removed on 29th December, 2011 was the last installment. So you see that an excellent and very humane approach was employed. The Igbos have a proverb: You first of all chase away the leopard before you begin to remonstrate with the wayward hen for venturing so far into the forest. Another proverb says: You do not get rid of the baby along with the bathe water. In both cases the proverbs indicate that you have an asset in a threatening situation, but you don’t punish your asset in a bid to deal with the threat. In the light of the present crisis, it means that the government cannot punish its asset – the masses, to deal with the crisis – corruption (or the oil cabals).

The Nigerian government should have employed this very same method, while in the process, tackling the activities of the cabals radically; like revoking their importation licence, and rightfully charging them to court on charges of short-changing and exploiting the government as well as other relative crimes. The government can then proceed to engage new interested importers on very strict contract agreements, for instance, a condition that guarantees their balance payments only when the accurate volume of fuel has been ascertained to enter government storage. The government could even create its own importation outfit. Whichever method is employed should be made transparent by involvement of non-governmental institutions like the NLC, TUC, Civil Society, etc, who will help monitor the distribution of these products down to the public. While this is going on, a severe war on corruption should be engaged on corrupt practices in all sectors. If five to ten prominent individuals are investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated within a short period, intending and existing individuals with corrupt intentions would take caution and be kept at bay.

While taking away the subsidy may seem a plausible way of confronting the cabals, I see a gaping loophole. As long as they remain free, these cabals will embark on methods to hijack oil products from within. The subsidy project would therefore have been defeated. The best way to proceed is as described above, similar to what the NLC, TUC and Civil Society are suggesting.

On a final note, I appeal to the government to stop wasting valuable money on television jingles and billboard adverts encouraging Nigerians to be peaceful and law-abiding. While this practice is the norm in Nigeria, I say that it is non-effective. Peace is not something you can cajole a person or people into. Peace is a product; it is the product of Justice. When there is justice, peace follows naturally. The human psyche if unrefined is prone to crime. But when people know that regardless of their status social or otherwise, their crimes under a just society are adequately punished by an unbiased law, the mind starts to work in the opposite – more productive – dimension; which happens to be Peace. We make a lot of reference to America. America did not coax its citizens into accepting peace. She simply enforced a law that works and people began to trust the law and to engage in peaceful living.