By Udesinanna Stephen
Following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s announcement that fuel “subsidy is gone,” queues are returning to filling stations, and the hardships that follow have provoked Nigerians to lament.
Simple observation shows that some Nigerians might not really understand the circumstances surrounding this fuel saga.
What is fuel subsidy?
Fuel subsidy simply means the government paying a percentage of the fuel cost; for instance, if fuel is imported for N600 per liter government will pay N360, and citizens will pay N240.
Matters arising, lately, Business Post reported that “the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has put the current daily consumption of petrol in the country at 74 million liters.”
Also, Punch recorded that the amount spent for subsidy last year by the Federal Government on every litre of petroleum is above N600, making an expense of 40.1 billion per day. Do the maths. The figures must have increased by this year.
In 2023, NNPC said, the Federal Government spends over N400 billion monthly on petrol subsidies.
In the same line, the Spokesperson of the All Progressive Congress, APC 2023 Presidential Campaign Council Festus Keyamo, said $10 billion (dollar) was spent in 2022 on subsidies.
These are not just numbers, these are facts.
This is the game, game 1; a few years ago, former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi revealed that some persons would claim they imported petrol (on paper) which is false, and the government would subsidise it because the security and checkmating system have lapses, he called for the removal of subsidy.
Game 2, subsidised fuel is only for Nigerians and those residing in Nigeria, but there are reported cases of smuggled subsidised fuel to neighbouring countries like Cotonou, Niger, and Cameroon; hence, the government has to unknowingly part-pay for fuel consumed by foreigners, and the income goes to the pocket of smugglers.
May I let you know that, our present system can not arrest this situation till today. I can categorically tell you that no government has gotten the true or honest amount of fuel Nigerians consume daily and halt the smuggling.
Ladies and gentlemen, Federal Government is tired, the billing is too much; Federal Government can not cope with this. Therefore, the government thought it right to scrap subsidies and invest the money in other sectors like education, health, etc.
Of a true, if we can not fight corruption or cope with the expenses, it’s okay to end the subsidy.
But there are questions that the average Nigerian will always ask in this kind of situation; they are as thus:
Is there no system to determine the true quantity of fuel consumed by Nigerians daily rather than the exalted figures?
Can the average Nigerians afford non-subsidised fuel?
Can’t the removal of subsidies be done gradually?
Will the salary increase to meet up the cost?
What is the guarantee that the money recovered will come back directly to the suffering people?
The fuel presently on sale at 500 plus is it the subsidised one?
Will the cost of transportation be regulated after ending subsidy to curtail inflation?
These are true and honest questions with no malice. So, chill, you might have answers to some of these questions as an intellectual, but how can you make the average Nigerian understand that there is no way out of this (temporal) hardship or he/she is not cheated.
Therefore, it is advisable that the government should use the media properly to make the average Nigerians see from the government’s eyes, let there be regulation of prices and strict discipline for non-adherence to government orders.
More so, the money saved from the ended subsidy should be properly monitored; otherwise, it will be robbed by corrupt individuals, and the aim defeated, which will be 2:0 for Nigerians.
If worse comes to worst government can take off the subsidy gradually and not instantaneously to neutralise the hardship that follows. Because this is a similar case of the new naira policy that was too fast, and people pleaded for time. I rest my case.
