There is hunger and anger in the land. This is because of high cost of food items and transportation, the fall-out of removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the nation’s currency, measures government says will free us from economic slavery we were thrown into by short-sighted leaders who embarked on massive foreign borrowing, crude oil swapping and local borrowing through ‘ways and means.

No one can blame President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for having the courage to try to change the narrative before the nation’s descent to Venezuela’s status. But equally, no one can blame angry and hungry Nigerians who, as victims of elite conspiracy embarked on protest which was sadly hijacked by sore losers who will not mind truncating the democratization process that brave Nigerians fought and died for while they hobnobbed with the military dictators.

I think what hungry and angry Nigerians are saying is that since government policies are made for the people and not the other way round, they must have human face if they are to meet the aspirations of the people they are designed to serve. I don’t think this is too much to ask for.

If you therefore ask me, I will say the enemies of President Tinubu and by extension of Nigerians, are not those who believe government policies should have human face, many of who by the way, voted for President Tinubu in 2023, but are today united with Tinubu’s erstwhile political foes since hunger, high transport fair and spending hours queuing for fuel know no discrimination.

I think those the president should fear are those in government whose needs are met by the state and therefore totally cut off from reality.  They are all victims of cultural imperialism who believe market forces is the only way forward  forgetting comparison can be odious. In the home of capitalism, few individuals owned their society while the rest serve as serfs living just to sustain the system in which they cannot afford to send their children to universities or build houses on their own without further enslavement by the state. Here we have no capitalists. As Professor Bolaji Akinyemi once pointed out, most Nigerian billionaires made their monies through the state.

Those who are therefore hawking the comparative costs of a litre of fuel in Britain, US, China, South Africa are missing the point. President Tinubu signed a social contract with millions of self-employed Nigerians. This distinction is important for those who could not understand the policy thrust of colonial masters who as birds of passage lived in reservation areas, provided with furnished residential houses and like a conquering army lived on spoils of war. This is why our politicians whose needs are met by the state are today cut off from reality of majority of Nigerians.

Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is perhaps the next most dangerous enemy of President Tinubu and by extension, Nigeria. It was set up for the purpose of is harnessing Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves for sustainable national development. It was also to profitably and efficiently market refined petroleum products in the domestic market and ensuring products supply efficiency either from domestic refining or from importation.

Unfortunately NNPC not only failed, it has remained a cesspool of corruption outwitting successive Nigerian leaders over the years.

Incidentally  Olusegun Obasanjo while serving as military head of state in 1977, had set up a tribunal to investigate the operations of the Nigerian National Oil Company (NNOC), which metamorphosed into NNPC). Perhaps, based on his experience, he, as elected president (1999-2007), decided to run NNPC as a sole administrator.

Under his watch, millions of dollars budgeted for the refurbishment of our four refineries was frittered away. With no work done, NNPC created artificial fuel scarcity, a ploy that led to the creation of an all-purpose body through which party stalwarts and their siblings with the active connivance of some NNPC officials defrauded the nation of trillions of naira through fuel subsidy scam without importing a pint of fuel. He sold the refineries before his exit from power in 2007, a decision his successor Umaru Yar’Adua reversed.

President Goodluck Jonathan told Nigerians he was in possession of the names of those sabotaging Nigerian economy through NNPC. While the list never saw the light of the day, NNPC became a source of massive fraud by Diezani Alison-Madueke, Jonathan’s petroleum minister (2010-2015). She has been charged with bribery offences in the UK, with the US Department of Justice recovering from her assets totalling $53.1m.

President Muhammadu Buhari was not unfamiliar with monumental corruption in NNPC. During his tenure as Federal Commissioner of Petroleum and Natural Resources, he was falsely linked by Ibrahim Babangida who toppled his government with, US$2.8 billion which allegedly went missing from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Midlands Bank in the United Kingdom. He was however found innocent by the Crude Oil Sales Tribunal of Inquiry headed by Justice Ayo Irikefe.  

This experience might have influenced his decision to appoint himself Minister of Petroleum while serving as elected president between 2015 and 2023. This however brought little relief as NNPC remained a cesspool of corruption.

Toeing the line of his predecessors, President Tinubu also took over the petroleum ministry. Tinubu unarguably was not into the game of popularity contest in view of the biting effect of his economic policies, what he however did not bargain for was to be portrayed as an unfeeling and uncaring leader that deliberately visited hardship on his people.

He had directed that crude oil be sold in naira to Dangote Refinery. Dangote had thanked him for his support and faith in local manufacturers and predicted era of relief for Nigerians who spend hours on queues at filling stations. Dangote’s message of hope was coming amidst artificial fuel scarcity created by NNPC that claimed to owe $6b to international fuel suppliers a few weeks after declaring a whopping profit of about N3 trillion.

On September 3, 48 hours after Dangote’s promise of a new dawn in oil supply to Nigerians, NNPC that had for months denied payment of subsidy by government, jacked up price petrol pump prices from N585 to N897 per litre.  And then by strange coincidence, fuel supply to the filling stations suddenly eased without telling Nigerians the source of their new supply.  

I am sure President Tinubu, a seasoned politician by all accounts, understands that he is the target. Imagine; the NNPC, the regulator – the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NIMDPRA) that had a week earlier tried to question the quality of products from Dangote refinery which they claimed had excess sulphur, even when they did not have standard testing laboratories.

Of course, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), took time off from its civil war to do its job as an opposition party for once by describing fuel price increase by the NNPC “as a brutal assault on the sensibility and wellbeing of Nigerians by the insensitive and arrogant All Progressives Congress (APC) administration. It accused the APC government of being indifferent and unresponsive to the struggles of millions of Nigerians who can no longer afford their daily necessities”. Unfortunately this is a message that resonates with most Nigerians going through this difficult period

The picture of the president painted was very damaging because until it was confirmed last Sunday morning  that  the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has deployed over 100 trucks to the Dangote Refinery in preparation for the commencement of fuel loading on Sunday, with the seven major oil marketers, dealers under the aegis of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria  claiming their readiness to start lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products, it was widely believed by Nigerians that government that refused to denounce NNPC as it embarked on its game along with marketers was party to their conspiracy against Dangote and Nigerians.