The robustness of Nigeria’s human capital and natural resources is second to none in a plethora of ways. But unfortunately, a gross lack of patriotic leadership remains an absolute monster shaking the country with fright. In the Nigerian world, the president often surrounded by some utterly ruthless, self-serving associates masquerading as advisers and ministers, rules like an emperor. Consequently, there is a disconnect between the leadership and the led. This makes socio-economic progress on a sustainable scale an impossibility.
The country cannot convert its oil and gas among other resources to wealth for the common good. Nigeria appears to be the only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) still importing fuel for domestic consumption. The four refineries in the country are in a coma without any appreciable attempts at resuscitation by the past and present administrations. But despite this, some humongous amount of monies still disappears (under the guise of turnaround maintenance), to the chagrin of critical minds. These gargantuan artefacts (refineries) have now become a national memorial heritage of successive governmental failure. Suffice it to say, that other oil-producing African countries are taking petroleum management very seriously. Thus, for example, Egypt has nine good refineries, Libya is blessed with six, Algeria has five and South Africa can boast of four.
It saddens me deeply that Nigerian leaders/rulers through time, have not shown sufficient evidence of unalloyed patriotism. The refineries in Nigeria (if well managed) are capable of producing about 445,000 barrels of fuel daily. This could take care of domestic consumption with some surpluses for export sales needed to boost our GDP. There was/is a disquieting unwillingness by the past and present administrations to pragmatically address this all-important issue.
While it is globally recognised that fuel subsidy policy reforms are not necessarily a bad idea, the methodologies have to be ecology-and-people-friendly. This is anchored to social and moral paradigms. Unfortunately, the Nigerian political and economic space is defined and ruled by neoliberalism which has no respect for dissenting views or sensitivities. This reactionary ideology encourages deregulatory reforms such as more taxes on epileptic electric power supply, further lowering of the inflation-ravaged salaries, and fuel subsidy removal. Terrible working conditions are leading to a steady haemorrhage of huge numbers of qualified medical doctors among other categories of staff from Nigeria.
Neoliberalism is counterproductive. Indeed, fuel subsidy management has always been thoroughly abused by the Nigerian rulers with their unbridled autocratic mind-set. On the other hand, the Ghanaian political authorities are making progress with respect to their fuel subsidy policy reforms, largely because of effective communication strategies leading to increased popular support. Again, they have put in place, some relatively transparent institutions to manage fuel pricing and other related policies aimed at mitigating mass material poverty in Ghana.
But the Nigerian government sees the citizens as mere objects to be used and trashed later. Our infrastructural facilities have thoroughly decayed. No equitable distribution of the national wealth. Multi-national companies continue with their modernisation agendas largely because Nigeria has a corruption-stained leadership. Thus, for example, the Niger Delta region is bleeding profusely due to unspeakable environmental degradation. In fact, the whole country smells of decay and neglect. Nigerian oil and gas resources have become a curse to the country, due to appallingly insensitive ruler-ship that celebrates a politico-economic orthodoxy christened, neoliberalism. Nigeria is a good example of ugly capitalism, a system that impoverishes the working class. To the Nigerian political rulers, governance is not a social contract.
The Nigerian government currently spends an estimate of $3.9 billion on subsidizing fuel because it has fixed the price of gasoline for consumers below the international price. Government pays the excess which it could have been using for promoting infrastructural development to boost the Nigerian economy. This is a sound thesis. But certainly not applicable to the Nigerian situation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) are encouraging the Nigerian government to remove fuel subsidies. These bodies pretend not to know how monies accrued from previous subsidy reforms disappeared. No doubt, the West and parts of Asia are happy that Nigeria has refused to grow up, more than 60 years after independence. Nigeria’s underdevelopment arising from the short-sightedness and a gross lack of wisdom of the political class paves the way, for the advanced world to continue to exploit and oppress the country.
The old, smelly rhetoric of removing fuel subsidies for the sake of development is an insult to Nigerians. For instance, during the Obasanjo military administration in the late 70s, fuel price jumped from approximately 8 kobo to 15 kobo. Shehu Shagari-a democratic president raised the pump price to 20 kobo in 1982. The same story continued when Ibrahim Babangida was the military leader. Under him, the price of petrol per litre reached 3.25 naira between March 1986 and November 1993. Between 2000 and 2007, Olusegun Obasanjo as democratic president pushed the price to 70 naira per litre. Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua reduced it to 65 naira. By 2012, Goodluck Jonathan changed it from 80 naira to 141 naira but later reduced it to 97 naira due to mass protests across the country. Muhammadu Buhari (the current president) and Tunde Bakare (a prominent pastor in Lagos) played a key role during these protests that shook the country to its foundations.
Today, Buhari as civilian president is planning to raise pump price of petrol from 165 naira to 340 naira. Our rulers are always of the opinion, that the led are a bunch of morons with a memory like a sieve. Where are the infrastructural facilities the previous governments promised Nigerians? Our roads are death traps while the health facilities remain in a coma. Where are the large buses for mass transportation across the country? Imaginary, heavy-duty pythons are always swallowing our collective oil wealth while most Nigerians are starving. The Nigerian citizens are in a deprivation trap. Who will rescue us from this embarrassing situation?
Government needs to do a radical rethink in the interest of peace and progress. Removal of fuel subsidies is an invitation to more hardships for the ordinary Nigerians. Currently, over 133 million Nigerians are desperately poor while the government is targeting at most 40 million people for a monthly allowance of 5000 naira per head. How do they want to select those “lucky” 40 million Nigerians? Fuel subsidy removal in the context of Nigeria would increase the level of insecurity. Cases of ritual killings, armed robbery, and kidnapping would certainly go up as a result of unprecedented material poverty that rubbishes our humanity. Government should sell the old refineries to competent investors while new ones are built. Taking external loans for such a project is good because of the huge socio-economic benefits to the country in the long run. In this regard, public-private entrepreneurship is critical to sustainability. Our political rulers must be good listeners. Their communication strategies have to be deeply rooted in transparency, probity, and compassion as opposed to primordial arrogance and brazenness.
Prof Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
