For the past thirty years when fuel importation began during the Sani Abacha-led administration, Nigeria has been saddled with very bad leaders who are very myopic and suffer from poverty of ideas. How else can one explain three decades of fuel importation without thinking of the long-term effects on the nation's economy and the citizens as a whole. In an opinion piece published by the Cable online newspaper on March 29,2021, this writer warned against the impending economic catastrophe if fuel subsidy was removed without local production of fuel. Nigeria has abundant crude oil reserves, but unfortunately, the country is unable to refine a litre of fuel. It is indeed a tragic paradox in an oil-driven economy. Nigeria depends absolutely on imported fuel due to several years of leadership failure, sabotage and official corruption. The price of fuel depends on the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar. Since the abrogation of fuel subsidy regime on May 29,2023 by the present administration and the unification of the exchange rate of the Naira, the price of fuel has jumped from #190 to #617. This is happening at a time when the citizens are already impoverished. Nigeria is regarded as the poverty capital of the world. Nearly the entire 200 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty.
The monolithic economy has always been very fragile and vulnerable to external shocks. The cost of living has risen astronomically while the income level of the vast majority of the people has remained stagnant. There are no social safety nets to cushion the effects of severe economic hardship. The electricity distribution companies are also planning to increase electricity tariff anytime from now. The citizens can no longer breathe due to economic suffocation. Only the parasitic political class is taking care of itself.
Public office holders enjoy free fuel apart fro jumbo emoluments and other perquisites of office. They do not know where the shoe pinches or feel the excruciating pains the people are passing through. There is widespread lamentation across the country as poverty has been weaponized.
For inexplicable reasons, successive administrations have refused to take a concrete decision on the moribund Nigerian National Petroleum Company's refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. The refineries have been in a state of coma for a very long time, while huge sums of money have gone down the drain under the guise of "Turn Around Maintenance". The best policy option is outright privatization of the refineries to international core investors with track records. The refineries have become wasting assets without any benefit to the country. It is obvious that the NNPC is incapable of running the refineries efficiently and optimally.
Apart from the privatization of the refineries within a well-defined timeframe, other policy options include upward review of transport and housing allowances of workers; empowerment programme for youths in terms of job creation; reduction of custom tariff on imported raw materials for the manufacturing sector; provision of subsidized agricultural inputs especially tractors and fertilizers to boost food production; and provision of mass transit buses for transportation. The Federal and State Governments need to collaborate together to reduce the hardship of the citizens.
In order to curtail rising cost of fuel, the Federal Government has to intervene pending the time local production of fuel will commence. Hiding under the so-called "market forces" to determine the price of fuel is very dangerous and counterproductive. The people cannot be blamed for leadership failure to fix the refineries. Already, the citizens have been pushed to the wall and there is a limit to human endurance. The primary responsibility of government is to ensure the welfare of the people. Nigeria belongs to all citizens not just the privileged few.
Faramade is Programme Director and Editor-in-Chief of Journalists Against Poverty (Twitter.com//@JournalistsAga3)