The Executive Director of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ohabuenyi Ezike spoke to DEBO OLADIMEJI on the planned removal of subsidy on petroleum products by the government and the way forwardIS the government actually subsidising fuel?

What we have seen in Nigeria with respect to oil subsidy is that there are certain cartels which the government had designated cabals. They are hired by the government to buy petroleum products or import them; products that we produce in Nigeria, on behalf of the Nigerian people. Government is paying huge sums of money to them not to the Nigerian people. The money that the government pays to their allies and cronies is what the government now calls subsidy on petroleum products.

We in the civil society and labour said this is not right. Before we can talk about subsidy removal on petroleum, the government has to tell us the cost of production. For example, if the cost of production of a litre of petroleum is N50, and the selling price is N87 and if the government is subsidising with N30 and the citizens are buying fuel at N57per litre, that is what is called subsidy.

What is called subsidy was withdrawn as far as early 1990s when Gen Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) was military ruler. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank instructed the government to withdraw fuel subsidy. So if anybody is saying there is oil subsidy when Babangida administration had already withdrawn the oil subsidy on the advice of IMF and the World Bank, that is not true.
Are there countries still enjoying subsidy in the true sense of it?

All the oil producing countries in the world and even non-oil producing countries that import oil from us have such palliatives for their citizens. In Libya, as we speak not minding the fact Libya just passed through war recently, the pump price of petroleum is equivalent to N15. In Venezuela in other countries, they have free education from nursery to university level. And Nigeria is the largest producer of oil in Africa. All oil producing nation provide these benefits for their citizens because that is what they enjoy as the producers of such products.
Why is the Nigeria labour movement always against removal of subsidy?

I have never accepted that there is anything called subsidy after Babangida administration. What we have is increment in the prices of petroleum products. What we have been fighting against is that if government wants to increase the pump prices of oil products, they now say they want to withdraw subsidy in the interest of the people. Can you just imagining the government saying those who are enjoying subsidy are the importers? Is it not a shame that in the 21st century that Nigeria now goes to other countries of the world to refine crude oil and bring it to Nigeria to sell to Nigerian people? Is it acceptable in any part of the world? It shows that the ruling class in this country is absolutely barren. It has no idea on how to transform this country economically for the benefit of the Nigerian people.

At the level of CLO, in 2005 when we protested against this anomaly, it was termed protest against further increment in the pump prices of petroleum products. It was not a protest to stop the withdrawal of oil subsidy. In 2012 when we did the same thing against Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, it was the same thing when we perceived that the government was going to increase the pump price of petroleum products. Not to withdraw oil subsidy. I even want to educate the working people who don’t understand the dialectic that there is nothing like oil subsidy in this country. We have to begin to mass educate the citizens of this country that the government is telling lies and has been telling lies.

That since 1990s there has been nothing like oil subsidy. What they are trying to do is to increase the pump price of petroleum products, which will increase the cost of living in all ramifications because prices of everything in the market will go up. If they increase the pump price of petroleum, they have increased the prices of garri, provisions, house rents, and cement. There will be a multiplier effect on all other sector of the economy.
When they are thinking of increment of these things, they are not thinking of increasing the wages of workers. They are still paying N18, 000 as minimum wage.