By Peter Eze

Barely 24 hours of his support to the recent removal of subsidy for the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the former Governor of Abia State and global industrialist, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu (MON), has been rapaciously applauded for his popular stand while also being misunderstood for upholding what some Nigerians  refer to “insensitivity of the government on the plight of  its citizens.”
Kalu, who is a leading player in the upstream sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and known to have deep knowledge in the workings of the sector, in his response to the liberalisation of the sector said: “It is gratifying to note that President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a bold step of blocking this outlet that pauperises most Nigerians while making a few others richer and richer and leaving the country’s economy in comatose. This is the best thing to happen to the petroleum industry since the advent of the administration.”
However, in the history of all nations, no government policy has ever received a convergent view. The reaction on the new policy and Orji Kalu’s position has demonstrated yet again Nigerians’ shared interests and divergent views on a range of national issues.
When Kalu, in his 2015, told President Buhari to make sense out of the nonsensical subsidy, after the latter approved the payment of N413bn subsidy arrears to oil marketers to avert the then looming fuel crisis, many that do not share his views on his recent promotion of the subsidy removal may not have reasoned broadly with him. It will be recalled that in his explicit statistics, Kalu also noted that in December 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan paid N381 billion subsidy arrears to avert crisis. Before leaving office in May, he paid another N156 billion to avert national fuel crisis. In total, he stated that a country struggling to pay her workers paid N950 billion subsidy on petroleum products in 11 months. He lamented: “Despite a ballooning population and rapid growth in fuel consumption as more people buy cars and generators, successive governments continued to patronise the oil barons and cabals who are out to impoverish the lower and middle class citizens.”
This is to say that deregulation is for the masses despite the challenge it will face in the short run, but in the long run, price will fall ridiculously and market will stabilise. From the period of budget readings in the Senate, it was conspicuously known that provision for subsidy was not made in 2016 Appropriation. But what was difficult with the government in sensitising Nigerians widely on it?
The challenge this liberalisation has posed simply emanated from information asymmetry. Majority did not see it coming and never expected it.  What does it really take the government to sensitise Nigerians on sensitive policies? Why should it take the government this long to tell us that over 90 per cent supply of petroleum products have been imposed on NNPC since October 2015, in contrast to the past where NNPC supplies 48 per cent of the national requirement. What is difficult in informing Nigerians that NNPC does not have the resources for and is not designed to meet the imposed increase in supply, which has resulted in the current fuel situation across the country? These were the proper things the government would have done earlier.
Nevertheless, Kalu’s statement that time has come for the country to be realistic on what it wants without pandering to the whims and caprices of a few oil magnates milking the nation dry because of their selfishness, suggests that the removal will downplay the activities of the cabal and encourage more private individuals to come into the market; to invest in the importation of the refined petroleum and in the construction of refineries for local production. These, in the long run, will increase supply and force the price to fall. And in his “Hope Alive” mantra, Nigerians will smile again. Consequent upon this removal, two things need be done: The government must play active regulatory role to avoid the repetition of the happening in the PHCN; the government must develop a strong political will to re-invest the money saved from subsidy, into a proper scheme, like the SURE- P to cushion the negative impact of high fuel price, otherwise the essence will not be achieved.
If not for the delayed signing of the budget, it will not be inappropriate to state that it is an act of foolishness to continuously subsidise petrol and expect things to get better. With subsidy, it is criminally natural that there will be diversion, scarcity, pains and corruption because the marketers will outsmart us all.
Our neighbors, like Niger Republic  sells petrol at N190 , Cameroun, N200, Ghana N180, Chad N180,  Benin  Republic N190. Although it is N28 in Saudi Arabia,  they have about 20 functional refineries with high storage capacity. But in Nigeria, we never built in the surplus days, neither did we upgrade the obsolete ones.
Insisting on subsidy is legalising corruption, otherwise, have you ever thought of the wastes Nigeria has been incurring in the name of subsidy? Nigeria spent N1 trillion in 2015 on subsidy, and N16 .5 from April till date. Only in 2011, we spent –almost  N2 trillion on fuel subsidy. That is nearly $13 billion in today’s exchange. I trust you heard it clearly, $13 billion!
We have been experiencing fuel shortages from the days of General Sani Abacha  when the refineries became sickly and turn around maintenance”(TAM) became a household phrase in Nigeria. Several presidents after, and with billions of dollars spent on TAM, the refineries are still not working . Even the Kaduna and Warri refineries we celebrated not long ago have kept developing faults. We are still importing. Even if the refineries are working at more than 100 per cent per cent capacity, they cannot meet our needs. But we keep repairing refineries and keep importing.
Now what does it cost to build a functional refinery? Our neighbour, Chad, built a 20, 000 bpd refinery at Dajmarya for $60 million. That is N11.8billion. It took them two years to build. Kindly do the calculation yourself.
The largest refinery in the world is in India. It is called Jamnagar Refinery. It has the capacity to refine 1.24 million barrels per day. It was built within three years.  The cost of building it was $6billion only.  Guess what! Nigeria spent $13 billion to subsidise fuel imports in just one year. And we are still paying fuel importers billions of dollars to avert fuel crisis. And somebody is saying that Orji Kalu should not rise in defence of the masses that are at the receiving end.
Whenever there is a queue for a product, it means price is not right. Shortage in supply has always been instrumental to the high oil prices. So, I expect Nigerians to listen to the voice of reason of Orji Kalu, whose interest is for the betterment of the masses in the long run. Let’s be hopeful that the removal will solve fuel scarcity problem by ensuring availability of products at all locations in the country.
Again, everything that is done in the world is done by hope, so, let’s join Orji kalu and keep hope alive.
• Eze wrote in from Abuja.