It has become a national phenomenon in Nigeria that any government that attempts to fight corruption by putting the right measures in place will also face the wrath of corruption fighting back. This summarises the present cost of buying petrol, an alpha product in the nation’s economy, at a whopping sum of N1000 per litre amid fuel scarcity nationwide. The situation changed for the worse about three weeks ago. Petrol, diesel, kerosene and gas have become a tale of woes nationwide since the Federal Government removed the hegemony of paying for subsidies to independent marketers of petroleum products. The corresponding effects have led to a rigorous struggle for survival by both the poor and the rich.
Can anyone justify the current price of petrol, including its scarcity, on the subsidy removal by the Federal Government?
I don’t think so. Rather, we must blame the exorbitant cost and hoarding of petrol in the filling stations on individual natural dispositions to always have the tendency to milk the Country to the marrow.
Nigeria is a great country with the potential to become Africa’s superpower that would always attract respect across the globe if not for the penchants being always willing to sabotage the economy from thriving and agile into comatose. Recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was heard in a video clip on social media sharing his experience on why the four refineries owned by the country cannot work profitably when he narrated what the experts told him. The Federal Government together with petroleum marketers before this era had plunged the country at the expense of paying subsidies to import fuels into a country experiencing a growing population at all times. Why the Federal Government before now failed to apply international best practices for maintaining oil refineries and augment them till date remains debatable.
Now that the straw had broken the camel’s back, the Federal Government must be speedy in its decision-making to stem the tide of untold hardships that some vested interest might visit on the entire population of this country. That the cost of petrol, which initially was sold between N600 and N700 due to the subsidy removal, ought to have had a stable price control between N400 and N500 to enable the poor households to feed with a little ease.
That motorists and other consumers are now buying the product as much as N1,000 is aggravating the endemic poverty already known to the international community. And this trend needs to be reversed urgently to save the image of the country at home and abroad.
Let us come to think of it, if the Federal Government is destroying illegal refineries built in the Niger Delta subregion, then the country, so blessed with different human resources and capacity, should form think tanks to assist the Federal Government in providing alternative decisions for medium and long-term solutions to making petroleum products available, affordable and as a means of earning more foreign exchange. Except the Federal Government can solve this single, most hydra-headed problem, it is not likely that any of its actions meant to yield positive results for the populace would turn out to achieve the desired common good.
To date, the Federal Government has achieved mileage in its efforts to turn around a virile economy for all Nigerians to achieve the “Renewed Hope Agenda”. However, the Federal Government must change the gear to target a reduction in the price of petrol and its availability to save millions of people from going down into the abyss of poverty at this most pressing moment for most Nigerians. The distribution of palliatives has only soothed a few people momentarily as the distribution cannot go round all vulnerable Nigerians, hence it should be considered secondary.
The issue with the Dangote refinery that is making it impossible to boost the domestic supply of petroleum resources after a year target has been witnessed in the recent Dangote-Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited saga as another sad reminder of how people at the helm of affairs have wasted the nation’s huge resources without any iota of sense of remorse. So, Nigerians are eagerly waiting for a speedy resolution of the differences publicly between Dangote and NNPC, using a roundtable approach to resolve the hues and cries. By now, this private refinery should be stable to meet a certain percentage of demands at home daily to save Nigerians from more agonies.
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Apart from this, petroleum resources are the primary products that dictate all other products in the country. Therefore, consideration for domestic supply should not be monopolised for a single entity, given its overridden importance to the survival of the nation’s economy. Therefore, the Federal Government should come up with plans to fully deregulate the petroleum sector to achieve the revolution of per second billing introduced by Glo, an African investment in the telecommunication industry that freed all Nigerians from economic exploitation of foreign merchants till date. The truth is that Nigerians may not likely enjoy a reduced and stable price in the sale of petrol and other similar products if the country’s crude oil is allowed to continue to be subservient at the mercy of petroleum marketers and other external interests.
On these premises, the Federal Government should halt the politics that has led to the ongoing sales of petrol at N1,000 per Litre. The only thing that the common people know is how the value of the Naira impacts their living. This would be the true catalogues of the Federal Government’s achievements when they form their opinions and views. The higher cost presently calls on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the petroleum sector to achieve a stable price, economic growth and prosperity in the land. The removal of subsidy from day one by President Tinubu has been the first step in the right direction to renew our collective hope back into prosperity as a major economy in Africa.
Nevertheless, the Federal Government must rise to the challenges to prevent more casualties at the expense of its unique economic reforms. In a couple of days, it would be good to have the ongoing rampages and long queues at the various filling stations reduced drastically.
. Hopo, a Public Affairs Commentator and Brand Strategist, writes from Badagry, Lagos State.
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