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Progressive development happens in a society where the commonwealth of a nation appears to be fairly distributed. Without doubt, crude oil is the backbone of Nigeria’s economy and whatever is done with it reflects on the life of its citizens. In the inaugural speech of the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2023, Bola Tinubu, he re-echoed his intention to abide by his manifesto by declaring that petrol subsidy is ‘gone.
In a normal sense, subsidy is expected to be for a particular timeframe to soften the effect of a policy. But fuel subsidy in Nigeria has changed meaning to something else. To some people, it is believed that as long as the country exists, subsidy must go on. In practical sense, fuel subsidy has done more damage to the Nigeria economy than what it intends to correct, especially in the last 10 years or thereabout.
Having seen the rot in the fuel subsidy arrangement and policy, President Goodluck Jonathan on January1, 2012, announced total withdrawal of fuel subsidy. The price per litre jumped from N65 to N140 almost immediately. The withdrawal was rebuffed by mass protests tagged ‘OccupyNigeria’ across the country. Various stakeholders led by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Federal Government later shifted ground and settled at midpoint – N90.
Now that everybody has seen that fuel subsidy no longer sustainable economically and that few people are the principal beneficiary of the so-called fuel subsidy, is it not better for the government to take its hands off and be a regulator to allow the private sector to do the business? Can we keep applying the same model to solve a knotty problem and expect different outcomes? Definitely not. To have a better result, a tough decision is not unexpected.
However, for all and sundry to support Tinubu’s fuel subsidy withdrawal policy, he must come clean to the citizens for palliatives to ease the hardship. Average household uses cooking gas. The price is currently crashing and I doubt if palliatives were responsible for the drop in prices. It would be fine if palliative are geared towards it to bring the price of a kg to N300 or thereabout. Upward salary review is another way to do it.
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