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YAR’ADUA: Tomorrow Begins Today By Atâyi Babs Opaluwah
The sad turn of events and the sorry pass which our precarious existence as Nigerians came to in the past one-week has once again galvanized thoughts and nationalistic outpourings on the import of last month’s flawed transition on our collective destiny and future as a nation. This untidy turn of events, which can be contextualised within the framework of Yar’Adua’s Government’s inability to quickly nip in the bud, its first industrial crisis, has further brought home in very lucid terms, the similitude of our experience and that of the nation-state of Israel in post-King Solomon era.
Accurate biblical history has it that immediately King Solomon slept with his fathers, all Israel, including their Elders, Women and Youth groups gathered in Shechem at the coronation of Rehoboam as king to demand the new king to lighten the burdensome yoke which his late father Solomon had put on them. Rather than listening to the demands of the people and be favourably disposed to their plight, Rehoboam answered the people roughly ad rejected the advice which the Elders had given him, and spoke to them according to the advice of his age mates saying “my father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with scourges. And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king saying, “what share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents o Israel!” and the kingdom right from then, was divided into two.
Coming back home, one cannot but recall with utter consternation and concern the events that unfolded in our country in the past week, which may in the long run, lead us along the paths of post-Solomon Israel, if drastic remedial steps are not taken. Our country just experienced a needless 4-day industrial action exactly 14 days after the inauguration of the Yar’Adua presidency. The strike, which from all indications was avoidable, came to pass following the Government’s apparent refusal or slack in upturning ex-President Obasanjo’s last minute class act of upping the domestic price of fuel from an unbearable N65 to an all-time high N75 and that of VAT from 5% to 10%. As usual, the nascent Government of Yar’Adua decided to subsist in non-essentials and propaganda. As expected, the strike came and went in all its apparels of luminous consequences, baring fangs of untold hardship, scorpions, whips and scourges on hapless Nigerians, crippling everything economic and social. To add colour to this experience was the usual intellectual arm-twisting, combative dialogues, unnecessary interventions by person seeking relevance and acceptability, claims and counterclaims between the Government and the NLC and TUC.
At the end of the strike, what came out strongly beyond the veneer of pretence, defence and insistence on all the parties involved was Government’s knack for anything arbitrary, insensitivity to the people’s feelings, and gross irresponsibility. In saner democracies where the people come first, not just in political rhetoric or mere sloganeering, decisions that border heavily on a nation’s destiny as well as carry weighty consequences on the economic verve and social well being of the people are never made or pronounced without first holding nationwide, all-inclusive consultations on the propriety or otherwise of such a decision as well as measures that can be taken to cushion its effects on the people both in the short and long terms. This underlines the definition of a responsive and responsible Government in a responsive society where all the feedback mechanisms of policy formulation and implementation are institutionalised. Engaging in propaganda and acts that run contrary to this time-tested ideal would yield nothing but telling consequences on our tomorrow as a nation, which begins today. Similarly, the recruitment and facilitation of moral cripples, whose electoral mandates are still subjects of litigation, to play evasive mind games on issues that directly affect the lives of the citizenry will ultimately be counter-productive.
Since 1999, Government has had ‘cogent’ reasons to hike the price of fuel from N20 in June 1999 to N25 by June 2000. From N26 in 2002 to N34 in 2003 and then N39 and later N41.50 all in 2003! Government later resumed the hiking hobby immediately after the elections of 2003 and hiked it to N48.50 in 2004 and later N52.50 in 2005 and then N67 by late 2005 and N65 by 2006 and finally N70 by 2007. Government’s central premise for all the perennial consistency in hiking is that such a commodity as vital as fuel, is best left to the dictates of “market forces”. One doesn’t need to be an Oil & Gas Expert to expose this as cheap trickery. For one, the very idea that Nigeria enjoys a subsidy on fuel is based on an elaborate jiggery pockery. At any rate, in a situation where the so-called independent marketers are a privileged few, anointed by the Government, wherein lies the vaunted sovereignty of the markets? Besides, with the deliberate sabotage of the nation’s refineries in the last eight years, the yoking of fuel prices to importation is economic fraud, pure and simple! If as a result of incompetence, corruption or ruling party policy, Nigeria, a net exporter of crude oil, finds herself importing refined petroleum products, the burden of that negligence or failure should be borne by the Government and not the citizenry.
Equally insincere is Government’s argument that the savings from the so-called subsidies would be devoted to the provision of social services and structures. In line with the thinking that Government is a continuum, can anyone show Nigerians the gains of the past eight years of sporadic fuel price hike? Can we see the roads that have been built with the savings (or is it Benin-Lagos expressway)? Or the health and educational institutions that have enjoyed massive funding? Or the mechanized revolution in the agric sector? Or the power stations and turbines that have been built? Or the Police that have been equipped for the increasingly dangerous battles with armed robbers (or is it the N21.1 million loot)?
In the absence of verifiable claims, Nigerians would be justified in concluding that President Yar’Adua has no passion or commitment to their tomorrow by his acts of today. They wont be termed too hasty or judgmental if all they get from him today is a golden silence that carries the prospects of sealing their tomorrow to a lifetime of pain, anguish and servitude. President Yar’Adua should know that tomorrow’s greater Nigeria of his dreams begins today by taking a peep into Ghana’s recent history. When in 2004 world oil prices rose astronomically and Nigeria increased the domestic price of fuel, President Kuffor came out publicly and announced that Ghana wont raise fuel prices! In arriving a this decision by the Government of Ghana, Kuffor explained, “the role of Government was balancing of responsibility in the management of the economy. If the Government abdicates such responsibility, the economy would cave in or be destroyed and chaos may take over.” He further added that Ghana would be able to maintain the current price and thereby mitigate hardship on its citizenry through export earnings, foreign exchange inflows and more importantly, Ghana’s payment position were enough to cushion the economy against world oil prices. The paradox and irony of the happenings in these two countries relative to fuel pricing is sad and pathetic. The refinery in Ghana is older than the oldest of the Nigerian refineries and it is still performing at optimal level. Ghana imports her crude oil from Nigeria (just discovered oil) and would not increase the domestic price of petroleum products. Nigeria exports crude oil and the excess revenue accrued are shared between the three tiers of Government.
Furthermore, Yar’Adua can save Nigerians and himself from unmitigated stress and difficulties by taking a cue from the Chinese example. In the absence of petroleum in China, with a population of over 1.5 billion, the people make do with effective production of an efficient system of energy production notably Biogas. This, in form of methane, is used for powering vehicles and providing electricity for homes. It also serves as domestic cooking gas and for industrial/commercial use. Its production is achieved through a controlled method of waste disposal, re-cycling resources, supplying energy and most importantly, fertilizer while improving rural health/environment. These and many more measures can be taken to arrest this seeming descent to the “to your tents” scenario.
President Yar’Adua must be reminded that the greater tomorrow for our country that we all aspire for can be achieved or jettisoned by his acts of today. Tomorrow begins today!
Atâyi Babs OPALUWAH Broadcasting House Ikoyi - Lagos
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