As the deadline for the removal of the so-called subsidy on petroleum products draws nigh, I can smell a rat. Mind you, the rat has smelt for as long as we can remember, but it is the increasing brazenness of the pungent smell from the seats of power, particularly Abuja that is making me more worried. May be, just maybe, Nigeria and Nigerians will withstand a bit more of the deceitful and lacklustre leaderships.
As the deadline for the removal of the so-called subsidy on petroleum products draws nigh, I can smell a rat. Mind you, the rat has smelt for as long as we can remember, but it is the increasing brazenness of the pungent smell from the seats of power, particularly Abuja that is making me more worried. May be, just maybe, Nigeria and Nigerians will withstand a bit more of the deceitful and lacklustre leaderships.
Obviously, the elections are over and we had failed to asked critical questions while the campaign lasted. The man in Abuja had assured us, “that for all that he promised, he had researched well” to confirm that those sweet campaign songs were not hollow or mere rhetoric, but practical, and we should accept them as sacred. It is mind boggling to see that the well-researched sweet promises have turned sour. This breath of fresh air has suddenly become unpleasant.
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Even as it is difficult to hold those in power to their campaign promises, considering our abnormal democracy, we can at least hold them to the constitution (irrespective of its loopholes), and the oath to which they swore. Nigerians should remember that those in position of authority swore to oaths of allegiance and certainly oath of office for their respective positions. Nearly all the oaths have a declaration of devotion (by the incumbent) to the service and wellbeing of the people of Nigeria, apart from the well-known line of resolve, “that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. The Constitution is clear about its fundamental objectives. What has always struck me is the very objective that says ‘the security and the welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government’. I am wondering if this has been so, or have the previous and current governments been violating the constitution, while Nigerians remain docile?
The Nigerian Constitution and all the powers derived there from guarantee any sincere government, not violating the said constitution; all that it takes to fulfil the primary purpose of government – security and welfare of all Nigerians. This for me is the gauge with which I assess the justification of the new song – subsidy removal that permeated the Nigerian political space in the last few weeks. There is something suspicious about the claim that a few cabals are the only ones benefiting from the so-called subsidy. Do we call this a dereliction of responsibility by government or the Constitution has become powerless? May be they are just bent on continuing with the illegal use of state’s power to brutalize and harass hapless citizens, neglecting a more glorious application of sovereignty. This is tyranny. How long will this continue?
While we are in the frenzy on the need for subsidy or not, and the purposes or objectives that government intends to achieve with it so-called subsidy removal tool, I implore Nigerians to wake up and ask questions. The government and supporters of the so-called subsidy removal are hell-bent on going ahead with their show of shame and deceits. The Nigerian dailies are awash with paid adverts on hallucinated good the so-called subsidy will do to Nigerians. Nigerians should ask – who are the faceless sponsors of those deceitful advertorials? The answer to that may provide us with clues about the clique of thieves the government claimed have been the beneficiaries of the so-called subsidy. Many bribe induced endorsements are also flying around. Don’t forget, these were the same tactics they used to sell an ill-prepared presidential candidate to Nigerians. To make matters worse, he has refused to learn and learn fast on the job.
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Many are adding their voices to the opposition of the removal of the so-called subsidy, but frankly, there is no subsidy anywhere. All that this and previous governments have been trying to tell Nigerians, is that we should pay for petroleum product as the price of crude in the international market dictates. It is complete folly. I have never seen a sane farmer who sells his best and all of his yams into the market, only to go to one dirty bukka (restaurant) by the corner to eat pounded yam made from the worst, cheap and low quality yam. It is foolishness and self-destruction, no matter the reasons adduced!
Government and the group of supposed wise men and women advising the president are violating the Constitution of the Republic or are they just taking Nigerians for a ride? I keep wondering, do these people ever ask themselves how those nations that have no natural resources raise income for their governments. Do they ever consider that the natural resources from which the Nigerian government currently derives rents, taxes and royalties are finite and will someday run dry? The current estimates put our crude oil R/P (reserves/production) ratio to about 45 years. That implies in another fifty years, Nigeria should have another major source of revenue or face the threat facing countries such as Greece, Italy, today.
Do the government soothsayers ever tell them, that some nations may lose their sovereignty before the turn of the century, not due to war, but because government is broke? There is a herculean task for those with a vision to become future leaders of this nation. Oil will run dry and solid minerals will also finish or become commercially not exploitable. I hope young Nigerians who will be alive in fifty years’ time will not live in a country begging for economic rescue. Definitely, ‘fine bara’ is not a good appellation to bequeath to the next few generations if the current leaders succeed in destroying ‘the Giant of Africa’ – a brand they have failed to help us fly. I am sure those nations who have to beg to meet their commitments are not dancing around bowl in hand with pride. On a lighter note, fellow Nigerians, whenever and wherever the citizens and governments of these ‘fine bara’ countries begin to call you names, please sing to them the T.W.O - Fine Bara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUmIvJMMsFk) and hoping our country will not join that inglorious league.
No one is in doubt that we have definitely misused all the revenues accruing from oil and gas and other resources in the last fifty-one years, but to tell Nigerians that government is cash strapped and will need to be selling to them, natural resources that is derived from the bowel of their land to raise revenue for government is callous. It does not matter if government is promising to build us paradise from the revenue it will derive by removing the so-called subsidy. If the government is incapable of discharging it responsibility of wielding state power to achieve all that is enshrined in the constitution or to keep alive the spirit and the letter of the charter that unites us as a nation, they can at least show some better creativity.
Is anyone still wondering why I have stuck with the term ‘so-called subsidy’ all along? Petroleum subsidy as they call it in Nigeria is no subsidy. It is sheer business and by whomever? (government, their cronies or some ghosts). What they call subsidy has only one primary aim -- raising revenue for government and the yet to be named cliques, which eventually the thieves in power and their allies will steal. Anyone in doubt should ask farmers in the western world what government subsidies mean. In fact, here at home there is something which is closer to what we can call subsidy – the fertilizer subsidy, only, that also is clouded in grand deceits and it is directionless compared to the subsidy real governments put in place as a security buffer for their economy and citizens.
Please, continue in part b.
Taofeek Ramat
[email protected]
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