Why Nigerians Must Resist The Next “Fuel Subsidy” Withdrawal

By

Tony Ishiekwene

tonykwene@aol.com

 

I have never seen a country run so fraudulently as is Nigeria. The rulers have been criminal liars  and there don't seem to be any end to this, more or less, perpetual fraud and deception of the people by a few politically connected elites ripping off the vast majority of long suffering Nigerians to no end.

 

Since 1986, there has been this lie, notched up a gear since the so-called democracy of Obasanjo and Papa deceive pickin (PDP) of 1999, that Petrol in Nigeria is heavily subsidised, and the "fuel subsidy" must be removed so government can free itself from subsidising motorists and use the money for, wait for it, "infrastructure development." Babangida started this argument in 1986, when he asserted that Petrol was too cheap at 23Kobo per litre- yes twenty three kobo, not Naira, a litre and that petrol should not be cheaper than a bottle of Fanta (Coke) which went up under his watch from 30K to 50K a bottle-for those of you too young to know how Nigeria has been sinking in the hands of vile and utterly evil leaders! And so after his SAP, which sapped dry the blood of the middle class and set-off the never ending brain drain that has continued to decimate the knowledge base of Nigeria, including her Educational and health care personnel, in particular. Even with all the mess created by IBB his regime only increased petrol per litre to 70K in 1991 and left it at that when he was kicked out of power in 1993.

 

Then another leech and pretender to the throne, Chief Ernest Shonekan, cried that Nigerian fuel was too cheap and increased it to a whooping N5.00 per litre  from the 70K it was when IBB hurriedly left power. And then  the real "evil man" shoved the pretender chief out of the way in less than 3 months of illegal "interim government of the "Egba chief." And so Abacha, who wanted to gain some popularity following all the riots preceding his ascension to “illegal throne” tried to align with the  "oppressed masses, so he slashed the price a bit to N3.25, initially and then increased it later to N11.00 per litre in October 1994, using the "freed subsidy,"according to him, to set up the "Petroleum Trust fund"for the same lie "infrastructure development" for the deprived and poor masses. General Abdusalami increased the Nigerian petrol price from N11 to first N25, and following outcry from Labour and the public, he “reduced it to N20 on 6th January 1999.

 

Then the real hike started with the dawn of "democracy" in 1999. Obasanjo "removed the subsidy on fuel," to "deregulate the downstream sector," free government fund and waste in "unnecessary fuel subsidy, and encourage Direct Foreign and local investments in downstream sectors of the very corrupt Nigerian petroleum industry more than 3 times during his 8 years of misrule and electoral fraud.. From  N20 a litre  when he assumed power in 1999, he jacked it up to N30, but reduced it to N22, following public outcry in 2000, then to about N26 in 2002 and then to N40 per litre in 2003 and after the explosive protests he reduced it to N34 but later increased it to N40 in 2006 and finally to N75 just before he left power in 2007 when plotting to impose Yar Adua on Nigerians, despite the man's health challenges to start a fight with Nigerians and Labour unions on "fuel subsidy withdrawals."  Yar Adua managed to reduce the price from N75 to N65 in 2007, which it has remained till date and from which GEJ, want to play the spoiler on long suffering Nigerians. from 2012, if what we hear is true.

 

In all of these the arguments have been the same by the evil leadership Nigeria parades- leeches that don’t care about the welfare of its people because they get everything for free- Free accommodation, which I hear the Bankoles and David Marks can purchase at peanuts and lease back to government collecting annual rents equivalent to the costs they acquired the properties; they get free 4x4 some with bullet proofs and free Jets all fuelled by Nigerian tax payers and commoners; Free food and free water, so why should they care about hike in petrol prices and the attendant inflation on the masses?

 

WHERE IS THE SUBSIDY?

 

The truth of the matter is that there has never been any subsidy. Before the lame duck president Yar Adua (Peace unto his soul) died, he confessed that a cabal has hijacked the Nigerian Petroleum distribution and Marketing process, and suggested he was helpless in getting unto them, probably because these cabal funded his rigging to power in 2007 or because of his health challenges then. And recently Prof Tam David West, a former Petroleum minister (1984-1985 under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime)- and should know better, confessed that there was no subsidy in Nigerian petrol before 1986 and up to this day and I agree with the Prof. What has been happening is that thieving and greedy governments who want 10 Presidential jets for themselves, wives and girlfriends, all out of state funds, when Nigeria can't even manufacture a propeller, never mind an Airplane engine; those whose second homes are in French Reveries, Central London and Hampstead areas and Potomac areas of Washington/or Maryland when all they do is lazily distribute oil proceeds in Abuja every month and go to sleep thereafter until the next round of monthly distributions- have caused Naira to continuously depreciate and become “worthless” more or less like “monopoly money," or waste paper- getting closer to "Mugabe's Dollars!"

 

And so each time the governors and the Federal leeches finish sharing they go straight to buy Dollars anywhere they can find them, including from Malams at MMA and Eko and Nicon Noga hotels to feed their frenzy of Armani suits for self and WAGs; latest 4X4s, some of them bullet proofs to for fear of the "oppressed poor." And as Naira keep dwindling in value and the evil politicians who do not care because they get free petrols and aviation fuel for their chains of cars and Jets, come back on the hard pressed people to tell them they want to withdraw “fuel subsidy.” There is no end,  and there will be no end, to this as long at these band of pirates continue to rule us! They know the truth and where the problem lies but they will never address it. Like I said about Prof Tam David-West, there were no subsidy in fuel when our 4 Refineries, all built when General Buhari was Petroleum Minister, was functioning at full capacity and properly maintained. Since 1999 in particular, tons of cash has been allocated for TAM (Turn around maintenance of the 4 refineries) which never get anywhere near Engineers or equipments for maintaining Refineries, but end up in bank accounts of PDP supporters and election rigging facilitators- who call themselves contractors.

 

And so Nigeria has been dependent largely on imported petrol and Kerosene for a growing population, the exact numbers remain unknown, as we can't even count ourselves because of ineptitude and corruption of our rulers who always manipulate these numbers to their selfish desire. And who does all the importation of Petroleum products? PDP mafias and election rigging funders at all levels of the chain. Can you now see the Nigerian people are in deep shit? The people are screwed, whichever way the pendulum swings and no way out of this mess because the baton is been changed to the same group of oppressors- utterly clueless and corrupt and it doesn't matter where the baton holder comes from- they all dance to the same tune, and never representatives of the people they purport to represent.

 

There will be no end to these cycle of increases and lies of “Subsidy removal” so long as the greedy elites and IMF-inspired technocrats like Okonjo-Iweala are in charge to ensure Nigeria continually depreciates the Naira relative to the Dollar with all the waste, mismanagement and corruption in running all arms of government in such a wasteful country. Yes the Nigerian people must resist very vigorously this umpteenth increase in fuel prices the name of a "bogus fuel subsidy" removal.