In the early hours of Monday December 12, 2011, I lost my father, Chief Isaac Ayorinde Ogunnubi. The family had fixed dates for the burial rites for the second week of January, 2012. The past administration had just assumed a substantive mandate and as such, going by the massive goodwill enjoyed by it, Nigerians were looking forward to a New Year message from it.

Of course, we all got it and got it on the very first day of the New Year. Alas, the fuel subsidy was abruptly removed completely and Nigerians were left in the hands of fuel marketers. Was I surprised? No. Was I disappointed? Yes, because the then government didn’t sell the idea of the total removal of subsidy on petrol convincingly. I live in Abuja with my immediate family and needed to be at my father’s funeral rites in Lagos. The country was at a standstill as a result of the industrial action called out by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in conjunction with the civil rights groups which enjoyed significant followership.

Airports were shut, motor parks closed down. With no other means of making my late father’s burial, I resorted to driving down to Lagos with my whole family and what we experienced was unimaginable. We left Abuja about 05:30 am on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, with the hope of getting to Lagos pretty early. Alas, it was not to be. From Abuja till we got to Lokoja, it was a smooth ride, but immediately we left Lokoja and approached Okene it was a case of “emergency ad hoc road usage tax personnel” collecting money from us at every 500 metres with the roads barricaded.

Of course, we parted with money before we could be allowed to pass and made ‘settlements’ to hungry and angry youths who had gone out on the road ostensibly to protest. This set of Nigerians looked frustrated and angry with the new government as a result of the fuel subsidy which they believed was the only social security they were benefiting from the state. I settled all through till we got to Ife/ Ibadan road junction where our experience was worse.

We were giving them a thousand naira each but this particular set of guys demanded nothing less than ₦10k from me which necessitated my saying an emphatic no to them. This got them angry and they threatened to burn my car, more so since it was an Abuja registered car. They insinuated we were part of the cabals in Abuja oppressing them. I refused paying because looking forward to about 200 metres to the place was another barricade which needed to benefit from my magnanimity. By this time it was a quarter to 6pm and my children were already saying: “Daddy, let us go back home to Abuja”. They had never witnessed such, but being a Lagos boy, an Omo Eko, I was able to calm them down by telling them we were almost in Lagos.

We got to Ibadan about 7:30 pm and we were informed the road block still extended to Lagos so we decided to call a family friend who helped to make a hotel reservation for us to freshen up and pass the night. We continued our journey the following day at 8:00 hours, because we were re-invigorated and had a police escort fully armed to lead us out of Ibadan on to the expressway. We eventually got to our final destination about 12 noon. I had to say all of these because of what we went through as a result of the unconvincing total removal of the fuel subsidy.

The then administration didn’t carry all stakeholders along.
Going by the current shortage of funds, the payment of over ₦1 trillion on subsidy is no longer sustainable. With the sharp drop of crude oil prices and the growing fears that the global oil glut would worsen in the months to come, further payments on fuel subsidy is not sustainable. When there are delays in these payments by the government to the oil marketers, we always face fuel scarcity because the prices are still regulated. Why are we facing fuel scarcity at the moment? Apart from Lagos and Abuja, where is the fuel being sold at the government regulated price of ₦87 or the new price of N86?

For the records, the experience is not new, nor is it of very distant memory. The subsidy payments are some of the reprehensible failings of the last administration, but are we really doing it right at the moment? Who exactly is benefitting from the subsidy? Should people who collect subsidy and then proceed to sell the products at purely commercial rates be allowed to be agents of double jeopardy for the poor and hopeless?

I expected the APC government as represented by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, during his appearance before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning on the consideration of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to present clear and incontrovertible evidence of a new trajectory going by the government’s ‘change’ mantra. Everything he said at the appearance was not different from what the previous administration said and yet they met a strong resistance from Nigerians.

Stakeholders need to be carried along, enlightenment and sensitisation about the removal should be properly done. Bluntly speaking, the removal of fuel subsidy will create pains as a result of the rising inflation, caused by high fuel prices. The Ghanaians ended subsidies since 2003 and are surprisingly still alive. Withdrawal of the fuel subsidization scheme in our country has sizeable helpful effects, and the most evident effect of this withdrawal should be that of increasing availability of public funds.

Historically and quite obviously, Nigerians have always been helplessly deceived by their leaders. Numerous unfulfilled promises have made the masses, especially the poor express strong disapproval of previous withdrawals since they believed the government might not set up long lasting palliative measures. There is massive youth unemployment, electricity supply is continuously interrupted and even nonexistent in some areas. Public institutions like schools and hospitals are overwhelmed. Hence the distrust in its climax.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria has spent over $35bn in the last five years to subsidise petroleum products. Going by the released ‘Nigeria Economic Report No. 3, continuous fuel subsidy is incapacitating the country’s ability to save for the rainy day occasioned by falling fuel crude oil prices in the international market.

A 40 -year -old oil export ban has just been lifted by the U.S. Congress which makes them a major exporting entrant into the International oil market. Iran is equally back into the Oil Exporting League. Angola has overtaken Nigeria in Crude Oil production on the African continent according to the latest data from OPEC. I have to highlight all of these, because the prospect of Nigeria earning more from sales of crude oil is dwindling. It is a known fact that the weak enforcement of administrative prices reduces the benefits of fuel subsidies to households in the country. So are we not enriching the few oil marketers and impoverishing the whole nation with the continuous subsidization?

The government needs to remove this fuel subsidy as soon as a proper consultation with major stakeholders is done and extraction of commitment from them via assurances, sensitization and enlightenment of the populace. Nigeria will not crumble if the subsidy is removed and the saved money is judiciously used on social amenities to enhance the general well-being of Nigerians.

Ogunnubi is a social & public consultant, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja. 08034711367. [email protected]