The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, Thursday, slammed the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) over its proposed 114 per cent raise in the salaries of elected politicians, including the President, vice president, governors, and lawmakers.

RMAFC has come under heavy criticism over its recommendation for an increase in the basic salaries of public office holders in the country.

Chairman of the commission, Muhammadu Shehu, who was represented by RMAFC commissioner from Kebbi State, Mrs Rakiya Tanko-Ayuba, announced the proposal on Tuesday in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, while presenting the reviewed remuneration package of political and judicial office holders to the State Governor, Dr Nasir Idris.

Reacting, Obi in a Twitter post, described the recommendation as “insensitive,” warning that it should not be the priority of a nation still struggling with minimum wage with over 133 million Nigerians currently living in abject poverty.

He tweeted, “I learnt with great reservation, the approval of a 114% increase in the salaries of elected politicians, including the President, vice president, governors, lawmakers as well as judicial and public office holders by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

“This is not the appropriate time for such a salary increment if it is at all necessary. We are living in a time when an average Nigerian is struggling with many harsh economic realities, and with over 130 million Nigerians now living in poverty. This is a moment when recent reform measures by the government have increased living costs astronomically.

“One would expect the leaders and public officeholders to focus on cutting the cost of governance, alleviating the sufferings of Nigerians. This moment calls for creative ways of pulling the majority out of poverty. In the immortal words of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, ‘What touches us ourself shall be last served.’

“The leaders, therefore, should prioritise what affects the masses and those on the lower strata of society over themselves. The sacrifice, at this time in our nation, should be borne by the leaders. The increment should be reversed immediately, and the savings should be devoted to fixing education, healthcare and poverty alleviation especially in the remote rural areas.”

Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, yesterday, disclosed that the Federal Government has approved the re-opening of the Seme border for the importation of vehicles.

Speaking at the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, meeting, organised between officials of Nigeria and Benin, Musa said the development followed complaints by freight forwarders operating at the Seme border.

The director, who spoke at the ECOWAS Monitoring Team’s visit to the Seme-Krake Joint Border Post, said: “I was here with the former Minister of State for Transportation when the Freight Forwarders pleaded that the border should be reactivated for the free movement of goods and services.

“The former minister made us prepare a memo to that effect. It was considered and sent to the government.”

Also speaking, the Customs Area Controller of Seme Border Command, Dera Nnadi said the service has noticed a reduction in its revenue since the importation of vehicles was banned from the land borders.

Nnadi said: “The former Minister of Transportation, responding to some of our requests and from the stakeholders, promised to take them to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, one of them is how to fully open this border.

“The Ministry has informed us that the memo has been written to FEC and it was adopted and that it would be given to the new government, he assured us that all the requests were adopted.”

Vice President Kashim Shettima, the co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and the Chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote, are currently meeting with state governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The meeting is part of the Gates Foundation’s commitment to working closely with communities and leaders to support innovation that can accelerate progress and improve lives across Africa.

The American billionaire entrepreneur met with President Bola Tinubu on Monday as part of the program to learn from partners who are helping to address polio, anaemia, and other health threats.

They also met with scientists applying research to develop agricultural innovations for food security and climate adaptation, innovators using technology to improve access to financial services, and others working to improve lives in Niger, Nigeria, and throughout the continent.

Gates and his delegation were also scheduled to meet with national and regional leaders to encourage them to make investments and advance policies that promote innovation and provide equitable opportunities, despite challenging economic conditions.

Similarly, he was expected to participate in a conversation with students and young leaders to gather insights and share perspectives on how science and innovation can accelerate positive change and contribute to a brighter outlook for Africa.

Benue House of Assembly has approved the suspension of all the 23 local government (LG) chairmen in the state for financial misappropriation.

The decision to suspend the LG chairmen was taken on Wednesday during plenary following a letter from Gov. Hyacinth Alia, dated June 14, 2023, requesting the house to investigate the incomes and expenditures of the 23 LG chairmen of the state.

In the letter, Gov. Alia informed the house that he had received a report on the incomes and expenditures of the LG chairmen from February to April, 2023, as submitted by themselves and wished the house to investigate it for necessary recommendations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Speaker of the house, Mr Hyacinth Dajoh, therefore, set up an Ad hoc Committee on June 20, 2023, comprising Mr Peter Ipusu (Katsina-Ala West/APC) as the chairman, Mr Manger Manger (Tarka/APC) and Mr Cyril Ikong (Oju II/APC) as members, to investigate the matter.

The Committee which was directed to investigate and report back to the house within the shortest possible time, expressed worries over the outright disregard of procedure and the crass mismanagement of local government funds by the chairmen during the period under review.

The Committee informed the house that there was the need for a more detailed investigation of the operations of the local government beyond the period under review to cover from June, 2015 to May, 2023.

The Committee, therefore, recommended the immediate suspension of the Chairmen in all the 23 local government councils and also the legislative councils for conniving with the Executive Councils to mismanage public funds put in their trust.

After contributions from members in favour of the report, the house unanimously agreed that the chairmen be suspended in order to enable it do the investigation without any interference.

Ruling, the Speaker directed the chairmen to hand over the affairs of their local government councils, all government properties in their possession, including official vehicles, to the Directors-General, Services and Administration (DGSAs) with immediate effect and proceed on suspension, pending the completion of investigation into their account books and other related matters.

The Speaker further directed that the Governor should proceed and set up caretaker committees in line with the Benue Local Government law.

He also requested the Commissioner of Police to ensure a seamless takeover at the various local government council headquarters without any friction.

Threatens legal action against online publisher

A Security expert and former Director, Department of State Service (DSS), Mr. Mike Ejiofor, has refuted comments credited to his name against the Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi.

  An online publishing company, Opera News, in a report titled, Obi is Going Nowhere As Far As God Lives; If Igbos Want A Representative, It’s Not Peter Obi – Mike Ejiofor, accused Ejiofor of commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for playing a paternal role in his appointments. The medium further alleged that Ejiofor had said that despite receiving fewer votes from the South East Geo-political zone of Nigeria in the previous lection, Tinubu has acted as a father figure for the nation by addressing the grievances of the South Easterners.

Peter Obi

But Ejiofor in a statement issued Thursday, described the report, describing it as total falsehood, misleading, baseless and the imagination of the writer. 

He stated that he only discusses security issues and try to suggest way forward in addressing security challenges confronting the country.

“I was shocked by the purported report and comments credited to my name. I am not a politician and I don’t discuss political issues. As a security expert, I talk about security challenges confronting the country. On no account did I make such statement.”

Adding: “I have never discussed anything against Peter Obi or any political figure. I have been receiving calls and flaks over a comment I did not make”, Ejiofor stated.

He therefore called on the purveyor of the fake news, Opera News, to immediately retract the story and tender unreserved apology for attempting to drag his name into dirty politics. 

He insisted that he is a security expert and not a politician, and as such, nobody should drag him into politics or attempt to smear his reputation.

Meanwhile, Ejiofor said he has already contacted his lawyer and will not fail to institute legal action against the publisher of Opera news for failing to instantly retracting the “reckless and baseless report.”

Ejiofor also used the occasion to caution publishers against fake news, stressing that such unguarded statement was capable of inciting violence and creating unnecessary animosity among groups and individuals.

The Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration has unpretentiously put on its gloves to do battle with the forces that have constituted clogs in the wheel of development and progress of our nation. He said the fuel subsidy was gone and it has been out of the way, seven days short of a month now. His war front is the economy and socio-economic entanglements. He has set the tone and his style of decisiveness has left no one in doubt that a new Sherriff is in town and he means business. Babatunde Fashola, his erstwhile Chief of Staff when Bola Tinubu was governor of Lagos State gave a hint of what to expect from the then President in the making. He parted the window blind a little for us to peep and said with a ringing tone that people were making a mistake of underrating Bola Tinubu. The salvos the latter has fired would seem Tunde Fashola may be proven right. He should know: he was his Chief of Staff for many years. He has been governor himself, an action governor for that matter with an eye and a longing for the beauty of the environment as well as the right attitude and application for environmental transformation. He is just back home from a ministerial tour of duty for eight years. When he spoke, we were fixated on some other areas of Tinubu’s life such as his health.

What will anchor President Bola Tinubu’s signature policy scores, it would seem, are security, economy, and inter-ethnic balance to engender trust and cultivate harmonious relationships. As I was saying last week…at the root of an economic downturn is the breach of the Law of Balance and connected therewith, of other firm and inviolable Laws governing human existence and the entire Creation. It is not only the economy that the Law of Balance in particular governs. Whenever and wherever imbalance manifests, be it in man, be it in a system, there must be disharmony or even collapse and ruination.

When a man acts in a strange way, there is a question as to his balance in the head. When a man has a bad leg, there will be an imbalance in his walking, his gait, and carriage as a whole. There must be a balance between work and rest. Where there is exaggeration in work, there is stress and tension in the body system which could lead to high blood pressure and trigger hypertension. A system that is overworked will break down. It is, therefore, not for nothing that we hanker to go on vacation, to wind down, give the body system some rest, and rejuvenate our entire being. Too much sleep leads to weakness of the body. The body, as a result, becomes susceptible to diseases, indeed, to all manner of ailments. The corpuscles in the blood are no longer in the mood to fight any menacing radicals. Too much sleep leads to indolence and want. He who sleeps too much loses enthusiasm for work and his own agility that makes for movement which is in turn tonic for maintenance that keeps the body in good form and awakens even mental faculties. Thus exaggeration in work and life of ease is not just harmful but often brings premature death. Retired men or women who no longer have a goal to drive them, we may have observed, soon lose the will to live. And so within a year or two of their retirement, to their chagrin and surprise of their families, they suddenly depart earthly life.

The Law of Balance stipulates that it is in giving that lies receiving. There must be balance in inhaling and exhaling to prevent cardiac arrest. There is joy and confidence in giving and receiving with the giver knowing joy and the recipient in shining eyes and relaxed countenance as an expression of gratitude. And so, the Lord Jesus said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20, 35). In the enlightenment of these times, we learn that “he who gives selflessly, whether of earthly or spiritual values, ultimately gives most to himself.” This is because the Law of Sowing and Reaping which in spiritual language is called the Law of Reciprocal Action, comes into activity ensuring that what is sown is reaped in multiples at harvest. We can just think of maize that is in season now, one grain of it that was sown three months ago emerges brandishing about 40 grains clinging to a cub and there could be five to six ears hanging on a stem. Mango season was in February/March. From one seed planted, about 500 can be harvested. Several bags of bitter kola can be derived from just one tree at harvest from just one seed even though its maturation period is between 29 to 32 years depending on the species. A yam seedling can bring forth four to five tubers from a heap. There are even species that are harvested twice in a year without having to replant the seedling—first in June and the second harvest in December. The maturation process for yam is nine months, while maize is three months and vegetables 10 days. How long the maturation takes will depend on the nature of the seed. It can be likened to when a man commits an offence and it is detected for trial. A heinous crime of murder for instance attracts instant attention as it hits the community with a bang. Law enforcement agencies move in and in no time the criminal is apprehended and made to face the wrath of the law. A company or bank heist may go on for years undetected if auditors, especially external auditors do not check the books. In other words, fraud maturation period is longer by its very nature to produce fruits for harvest whereas that of a violent crime is shorter.

What I am getting at is that sowing is giving and the product is the seed. The harvest is as the seed sown and is in multiples. Sowing, however, is not only in relation to plants. Every activity of man, whether in thought, speech, or deed is a seed planted in the soil of life which will produce multiple fruits when they shall have gone through unfailing maturation processes. Nature beings are diligently at work, tending, nurturing and where the activities of nixies are required, they are standing by to tap and weave radiations of the Light pouring into our universe into H2O by which is meant water or to provide rain. Butterflies are in waiting for pollination. Necessary nutrients of the soil are provided by gnomes. It is heaving and surging in collaborative working in matchless loving and loyal service to the Lord of all the worlds.

A land that gives little vapour to the elements will have little or no rain in the automatic natural mechanism of the necessary balance between giving and taking. We are told in the higher knowledge spreading on earth today to rescue man in this End-Time: “Naturally, this principle holds equally for what takes place spiritually. The spirit of man also lives from the spiritual power which the Creator gives perpetually into His Creation for its maintenance and expansion. With this power he forms his intuitive perceptions, his thoughts and his deeds. But the counter-value which he owes to his Creator as a return for its use is gratitude, joyful gratitude through the deed, that is through the right application of this power. Thus gratitude in the relationship between men is also an important balancing factor, if it is really heartfelt and not superficial.

“Through the one-sided application of the spiritual power of Creation for what is base over thousands of years, the human spirit has lost the balance in every sphere of life. He has taken and taken from the gifts of Creation, and from what he has taken he has formed almost exclusively what is wrong and evil, and in so doing has forgotten the balancing factor of giving. Is it then surprising to us when now the compensating Justice of God redresses the imbalance? The happenings on the whole earth, which become more and more violent, certainly speak to us in plain language.”

In any land where people take more than they have contributed, there can be no harmony in the system. As it is in socio-political affairs or in biological workings, so must it be in the economy. All are subject to Law, the higher correlation of life, be it stone, be it plant, be it man. The Nigerian economy is in shambles because most Nigerians would rather take from a system than contribute to it; they would rather make money than render service. For a nation that does not produce, that loves luxury, idling about carrying the beggar’s bowl and consumption above hard work and production rather than exerting itself and mobilizing its citizens for meaningful productive activities; a nation that loves the easy way out; that rewards indolence rather than hard work and merit; and even prays daily to the Most High to reward the lazy in violation of His own Laws; a nation that tramples on the Natural Laws while reveling in excesses, invites economic collapse unless it retraces its steps in time.

Our system is deliberately geared towards dependence on the central authority whereas ideally, it is the component states which ought to contribute to the centre to maintain common services only. Each part should be made to fend for itself. It is in this that the development of strengths lies. It is through struggle that the unfolding of talents and abilities lies. For, through having reservations about life, seeking ensues. And he who seeks finds. It is a Law enunciated by the Lord Jesus: “Seek and ye shall find.” In seeking we gain connection with help from On High. The strengths of the parts will constitute the strength of the whole.

It is to be hoped that Bola Tinubu would take urgent steps to get the states to fend for themselves through the balancing of stick and carrot. There will still be sharing in giving and taking, people standing side by side, helping and furthering in the recognition that each people, every viable nation possesses something essential for the completion of the whole, not however taking as entitlement and not taking advantage of the other parties. Giving and taking must always counterbalance each other. Bola Tinubu’s posture and breathless drive so far rekindle hope. The world is waiting. The responsibilities are self-evidently onerous.

Those familiar with road travel before fancy luxury buses and jeeps displaced wooden-back Bedford light trucks, famously called mammy wagons, might remember this ubiquitous message in cursive, bright colours scrawled on the rear and sometimes on the sides of trucks plying highways in Nigeria’s South-East: “No condition is permanent.”

I’m not quite sure what the motivation was. My guess is that it was a message of comfort to the despairing and a warning to those who take life too seriously: No condition is permanent. 

True in life as in politics, that message rang again this week with wide-sweeping changes announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that could affect top appointees in up to 567 parastatals, government departments and agencies. 

You would be forgiven to think it was not a transition from one All Progressives Congress (APC) government to another. The scope, speed and extent of the changes from Tinubu’s inauguration on May 29, make it look like a hostile takeover, the sort of thing one might have expected if the opposition had won the presidential election.

No one is exactly sure of the number of persons that may have been affected by the changes announced this week. But even if allowance is made for a few parastatals whose CEOs may remain in place and will now report directly to the President, instead of the boards which have now been dissolved, we may be looking at over 3,000. That is, assuming that each of the roughly 570 affected establishments has a board of at least six members. Often, the figure is higher.

Regardless, every job loss is different in its own way, both in how it affects those directly involved and those who depend on them. Each political appointee has a personal story not conveyed in the usual press headlines of how many have been beheaded, politically, and how many more heads may roll. Like sharks, the press loves the smell of blood, as long as it is not their own.

It doesn’t matter how prepared those fired may be, they never seem prepared enough when the hammer eventually falls. It’s human nature. And those who take their place never fully learn the lesson of the message on the back of those South-East bound trucks until they, too, become victims. 

Imagine, for example, the response of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, when six years ago he was told of a statement by the Presidency announcing that he had been removed as he emerged from a meeting in the Presidential Villa.

“Who is the Presidency?”, Lawal asked State House reporters in a voice full of blessed self-assurance.

Well, that was his last question as SGF. He found, to his shock and surprise, that no condition is permanent. He had indeed been removed “with immediate effect,” with barely enough time to gather his files.

He should have learned from the public encounter of the great Nnamdi Azikiwe with Dr. Ukpabi Asika, who had been seconded by the military from the University of Ibadan to be civilian administrator of the East-Central State. Azikiwe had criticised Asika’s administration and the administrator didn’t like it at all. 

He replied mocking Azikiwe as “ex-this, ex-that, and ex-everything else,” adding that Azikiwe was just a politician craving relevance. 

Azikiwe, who had the gift of asking his adversaries to go to hell and still make them look forward to the trip, replied Asika that one day, he too, would be ex-administrator of the East-Central State, as Asika’s father had also become ex-post master general of the post office in Onitsha, his hometown. The message on the back of the mammy wagon, he told Asika, is the inevitable story of every appointee: No condition is permanent.

Leader of the APC and former governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, among the lucky few who lived to tell his own story recalled in My Participations, how in 1984 after General Muhammadu Buhari’s military coup, “fallen big men of yesterday wept like babies” when soldiers descended on them as was often the case during military rule. 

In the last 24 years of civilian rule, the experience of political appointees has been somewhat different. Perhaps former President Olusegun Obasanjo holds the record of the highest number of federal firings, especially after he retired scores of military officers who had been “politically exposed”, and followed up with public sector reforms that left even scores more out of jobs.

Perhaps because Obasanjo’s successors between 2007 and 2015 were also from his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and also because of his longevity in office, no other PDP president after him retired or sacked as many political appointees as he did. 

Sixteen years after Obasanjo left office, Tinubu, a president from a rival party, appears ready to upend a record that once again reminds the public of the message on the back of the mammy wagon. 

Even Buhari, who took over the reins of power as president from the opposition and matched Obasanjo’s two-term four-year tenure, did not seem to have the amount of appetite for table-shaking that Tinubu has shown in less than one month in office. 

Apart from retaining the service chiefs he inherited from former President Goodluck Jonathan for nearly three months, for example, Buhari also retained the suspended Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and a number of heads of MDAs, first appointed by Jonathan.

Of course, Buhari made some changes. But with a few exceptions, he seemed to make changes only at gunpoint. Which was neither necessarily strategic nor carefully thought out. There were cases where as a result of poor record-keeping, for example, appointees whose tenures were due escaped removal or where the president yielded to political pressure to extend the tenures of persons who had no business staying on. 

Buhari’s 30-year absence from power, his nearly zero rigorous public activity after office, his narrow, clerically-biased social circle, and his introverted style were major handicaps after his election as president. His poor health in his first term did not help matters also. Yet, not a few close to him said once he made appointments, he had a tendency to abdicate rather than delegate responsibilities, often letting some of his appointees run amok.

That is partly why Tinubu’s actions in the last few weeks, especially the sackings this week, are looking like a hostile takeover. 

But they are not. A number of the decisions taken by Tinubu since he assumed office, particularly the removal of petrol subsidy and unification of the exchange rate, were long overdue. Buhari ignored calls to act, even from a few inside his inner circle, choosing instead to bury his head in chaos under a rubble of debt. 

As for the dissolution of the boards and the removal of service chiefs, it’s a ritual of every new government. The problem, in Buhari’s case, was a frighteningly bizarre absentmindedness or perhaps indifference, that left vital positions, especially in the Judiciary, unfilled; and overdue retirements unattended or indulged by unwarranted extensions.

On the whole, under Buhari, it seemed, once appointments were made, “all conditions were permanent!”

To be fair, accusations of nepotism against him during his first term were not entirely justified, at least up to December 2018. The data which I obtained from the Presidency at the time showed a distribution of 278 to 289 in the appointments of heads of parastatals and Federal agencies between the South and the North, as a whole. 

Contrary to the trope of nepotism at the time, the North Central and South West had 102 and 101 respectively. The story changed in Buhari’s second term. And now, the public is watching to see how Tinubu, who has started the difficult task of correcting the outrageous lopsidedness in Buhari’s second term, manages the process.

Announcement of new policies and personnel changes, however crucial they may be, are only a form of signalling. The more difficult part would be what follows next, especially the institutional changes required to make public offices more responsive, less amenable to the whims of appointees and accountable and service-driven.

For now, I recommend the message on the back of the mammy wagon to both the incoming and outgoing appointees: No condition is permanent.

Yesterday, the 21st of June 2023 was world music day. 21st of June every year has been a date that is reserved exclusively to celebrate music and by extension celebrate the creators of music; the musicians. The primary purpose of celebrating world music day is to encourage aspiring musicians to share their crafts, gain more visibility and create a forum for artists to demonstrate their abilities.

The major problem encountered by aspiring musicians is visibility. Getting to “blow” and becoming famous so that a large number of people will listen to their music and appreciate their talents and from that generate revenues for themselves. Out of that desperation “to blow”, budding artistes have yoked themselves with some throat-cutting record label deals only to regret why they signed the deal later on. 

I recently got a brief from an artiste who was complaining hard that he signed out of desperation an eight-year record deal with a record label and he is expected to release 400 songs for the label for the period of the eight years. One of the clauses stated that if the artistes wish to leave the label without dropping 400 songs for the period of the 8 years term, the artiste is to pay the label a certain huge amount of money as compensation. 

The legal truth is, no matter how brutal a record label deal like this may seem, it is a contract and every party in a contract is expected to fulfill his or her own obligation in the contract or he will be held for breach of the contract unless the contract was made under fraud, facts were misrepresented or a party signed the contract under coercion or undue influence. 

When an artiste signs a record deal contract, it is presumed that the artiste thoroughly read, reviewed the contract, and understood its contents before he appended his signature and he signed it knowing fully what he is signing and it, therefore, becomes a binding contract which the artiste must fulfill his own obligation, anything other than that amounts to breach of contract.

Although, there are some exceptions to an artiste leaving a label without fulfilling his obligation and it won’t be held to be a breach of the record label contract; this includes when a record label deal or the contract expects you as an artiste to do what is literally impossible. Like if a record label expects you to record and release a new song every minute of the day, this is literally impossible and a court of equity will hold that there has not been a breach if the artiste fails to fulfill this obligation. Also, If the record label that signed the artiste fails to fulfill its own obligation or hold up to its own side of the bargain then an artiste can exit the label and he won’t be held to have breached the contract. For instance, if the clause in the record label contract states that the record label will pay the artiste a certain amount as an advance fee for the contract but the label fails to do that, then they have failed to hold up their own end of the bargain and the artiste is entitled to exit. Also if the label fails to regularly invest in the music and promote the music of the artiste as the contract stated, then the artiste is entitled to exit the label anytime and he won’t be foreclosed for breach of contract. 

It is always advised that despite your desperation to blow, endeavour to consult a lawyer who will interpret the contents of the contract to you in layman’s terms, and renegotiate some clauses of the contract before you sign it. 

• The World Bank advises Nigerian policymakers to move away from national averages when formulating social protection measures after the fuel subsidy removal.
• Customizing reforms and social protection initiatives is crucial to consider the impact on different income groups and regions, as highlighted by the World Bank’s report.
• Shifting the focus to a targeted and inclusive approach is emphasized by the World Bank to address the effects of fuel subsidy removal across various socio-economic strata and geographic areas in Nigeria.

The World Bank, in its June 2023 report titled “Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies,” has advised Nigerian policymakers to move away from relying solely on national averages when formulating social protection measures considering fuel subsidy removal.

According to the World Bank, it is crucial to consider the impact of fossil fuel subsidy reforms on various income groups and regions.

The report emphasizes the need to customize reforms and social protection initiatives to address the specific requirements of different population segments.

The World Bank emphasizes the need for policymakers to move away from national averages and adopt a targeted and inclusive approach to address the impact of fuel subsidy removal. This approach aims to ensure that the effects are adequately addressed across various socio-economic levels and geographical regions.

A part of the report stated:

• “If policymakers focus only on national averages and use income level as the sole indicator of vulnerability, they may underestimate the vulnerability of certain groups and provide inadequate social protection for the poor.
• “For example, blanket compensation that uniformly covers a large share of the population may provide adequate compensation, on average, but is likely to fail to protect particularly vulnerable households. Commonly, the vulnerability of population groups is determined based on their income status.
• “However, other determinants of social marginalization can be even more important for instance, the exclusion of women or ethnic minorities makes livelihoods particularly vulnerable to shocks.”

More Insights

The report stated further that while in most states the poorest households consume very little kerosene, in several southern states kerosene consumption by the poorest is significantly above the average for their income group.

So, these regional differences may reflect issues such as differences in the type of employment, access to energy, and availability and affordability of alternative fuels.

The report also provided some insights based on the Goodluck Jonathan administration’s 2012 attempted removal of fuel subsidies.

According to the report, at that time, inadequate attention was paid to the needs of low-income households, resulting in public protests and fierce opposition.

How subsidy removal palliative should be structured

The World Bank report further highlights that in 2012, public protests were concentrated in urban regions such as Abuja and Lagos, where low-income households were mainly dependent on fuel, with little consideration for other parts of the country and their realities.

The position of the World Bank on how policymakers should structure subsidy removal palliatives is in line with what some industry stakeholders have said in the past.

In April 2023, energy analyst, Dan D. Kunle told Nairametrics that if the fuel subsidy should be removed, the government needs to distribute palliatives through state and local governments because they are closer to the grassroots.

According to Kunle, structuring palliatives from the federal capital, Abuja defeats the purpose as the many realities of energy access and affordability will not be considered from a national standpoint.

He emphasized that state and local governments are in a better position to understand the realities faced by Nigerians in all geopolitical zones of the country.

This solution also makes it easy for the palliatives to reach the intended members of the population instead of being siphoned by corrupt officials.