Death to subsidy scam

When the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently described Nigeria as one of the “fantastically corrupt” countries in the world, I believe that the British statesman was right. He knew more than we know of the unconscionable sleaze in the oil-rich country from 1970 till now and perhaps where the proceeds of such sleaze is kept in Europe and America, the major recipients of the illegal loots.
Official corruption is why Nigeria has not developed beyond the level of the ritual sharing of the national cake every month in Abuja by the central government, its 36 state affiliates and the surrogate 774 councils. In fact, political corruption is not new in Nigeria. It is as old as the nation itself. Corruption is one of the themes of Chinua Achebe’s postcolonial novel, No Longer at Ease, where the protagonist, Obi Okonkwo, a new breed Nigerian was caught in the web of corruption, despite his resolve to cleanse the Augean stable.
The theme of corruption also featured prominently in Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu’s coup speech of January 15, 1966, where he accused the political class of corruption and nepotism. Though the political class then was notorious for taking only 10% of all contracts awarded, their successors took practically all the money hence, we cannot escape the global odium of being one of the world’s leading corrupt nations.
This fact is not unknown to us and people outside our shores. Cameron has only brought it to global radar at a time the world was holding an anti-corruption summit in his country. Besides, the country has not fared better in Transparency International ratings. It has also not fared better in any indices of development by the United Nations’ agencies, whether in health, education or business as well as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance Index.
We always lead the pack of those countries that are poorly rated. It is not that we lack the resources. We lack leaders that are patriotic. We have leaders that the love of the country has died in them. We have leaders that are happy to promote education and medical tourism.
There is a linkage between discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria and corruption. In fact, the woes the nation has passed through since independence, including the fierce competition of central power and the Nigerian civil war are traceable to oil curse.
If the civilian regime laid the foundation for corruption, it can be safely argued that the military regimes made it to fester while the monster was highly upgraded from 1999 to present. One of the seeming reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari was elected into power last year was his resolve to fight the corruption monster.
And most of the sleaze in the oil sector is traceable to the regime of questionable subsidy payments. The subsidy regime has, over time, become a huge drain pipe that privileged few Nigerians deployed to defraud the Nigerian nation of huge revenue running into billions of naira under the guise that government is subsidizing the cost of fuel Nigerians buy.
But the truth is that the subsidy is pocked by few unscrupulous Nigerians and their collaborators in government. And most of the ill-gotten monies are stashed away in safe heavens in Britain and America. Therefore, when Cameron speaks on the matter, he should be listened to with rapt attention. Vilifying him as some Nigerians are doing right now amounts to empty patriotism. It does not help the matter.
Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, tried to deregulate the petroleum sector and do away with unbridled subsidy payments, but organized labour and those that formed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) administration worked vehemently against it. They led siege on the nation and virtually occupied it till their wish prevailed. They said it was anti-people and gave it all sorts of bad name in order to rubbish it.
Later, Jonathan yielded to the pressure and kept the pump price of petrol at N97 per litre. Jonathan’s deregulation of petrol was not full as was the case with gas and kerosene. The evil day was postponed as we keep postponing other evil days in our life as a nation. Paradoxically, the same people in the change government that shouted against Jonathan’s move to remove the subsidy are the same people now preaching to all of us the virtues in abolishing the subsidy payment. They have worn the shoe and know where it pinches.
I think that they should be forgiven for their shortsightedness and outright blackmail to the past administration which they wanted to uproot by all means possible. Because of blind politics, they refused to see beyond their nose the need to do away with the bastard subsidy regime then. The blinkers have fallen off their eyes and they can now see clearly.
Now, they want to remove subsidy when all Nigerians are economically down and things are not working. To make matters worse, they did not provide palliatives as Jonathan did to cushion the harsh effects of petrol deregulation. They did not discuss the issue with Nigerians at great length.
They did not offer some explanations or enlightenment on why they want to deregulate petrol now that life is very difficult for Nigerians. They are now exploiting the division in labour and the workers cannot speak with one voice. Is this the change Nigerians envisioned? This is not exactly the change they promised Nigerians. Nigerians have suffered so much in the hand of this change regime more than any other in recent memory.
There is indeed nothing wrong with deregulation of the petroleum sector but it must be done with a human face. Nigerians should not suffer for the corruption of our leaders or their ineptitude. Government should provide enough succour to cushion the ugly effects of subsidy removal.
It should always explain its programmes to the people. The government should also listen to the people. After all, government exists for the welfare of the people and not for only the welfare of the leaders.
The welfare of the people should be factored into all government programmes including, oil sector deregulation. We can borrow a leaf from other oil-producing countries that have deregulated their oil sectors and factor their experiences into ours.