Nigeria seems to be a perfect example of the Biblical metaphor that ‘from the one who has little even what he has will be taken away and given to the one who has more’. In virtually all spheres of the ordinary Nigerian person’s daily survival there is always this ever present and indeed overbearing encounter with the factual reality that the poor people are constantly being deprived and that those who have more keep appropriating enhanced assets to themselves and their family members. From the traditional institution to the political institution in Nigeria, what is at play is this sinister conspiracy of the elites to keep dominating and depriving the poor of even certain entitlements that the constitution clearly makes provision for such as social welfare and other necessities of life that makes the constitutional freedoms and fundamental human rights meaningful and constructive. There is a general atmosphere of rent seeking in Nigeria at all levels of government.
Rent seeking, according to the March 15-21, 2014 edition of the Economist, is what economists call a special type of money-making: the sort made possible by political connections. But officials of government rather than doing what is right have not only embarked on a frenzy of encouraging rent seekers and dubious business executives from buying up public assets at ridiculous rates these anti-poor officials have also started working out underground moves to deprive the poor majority of Nigerians further especially in the area of administration of fuel and kerosene subsidies.
The federal government over the last two years has presided over the criminal diversion of about N1 trillion meant for fuel and kerosene subsidies by rogue elements who parade as fuel importers and these criminals some of whom were apprehended by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but they are yet to cough out these huge public funds stolen coupled with the fact that the EFCC is too weak to competently prosecute and recover these public fund.
The current state sponsored media campaign for withdrawal of petroleum and kerosene subsidies has again resurfaced exactly the period that the suspended governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) MallamSanusiLamidoSanusi made spectacular allegations that over $20 billion was diverted by the hierarchy of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and therefore was not paid into the Federation Account. Rather than hire forensic auditors and follow through the process of tracing these humongous missing public fund, government has embraced the less than creative approach of reaching to the inner recesses of government propaganda war machine to bring up the distraction of making subterranean moves to withdraw subsidy.
The propaganda by the discredited ministry of petroleum for the withdrawal of subsidy from kerosene and petrol has also resonated exactly at this time that there is groundswell of allegations that the minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke allegedly blew away the princely sum of N10 billion in two years from public fund to service a private Jet which she allegedly uses for her private activities and for needless personal and family globe-trotting. So by and large, the call by the minister of petroleum for subsidy withdrawal is at best diversionary, deceptive, unpatriotic, insensitive and uncalled for.
Government must work out transparent, open, and accountable processes to administer the subsidy just like how the United States government decently runs the agricultural subsidies to American farmers.
The argument therefore for the removal of subsidy in Nigeria does not hold water since even the hard core capitalist nations like USA and Britain operate one functional form of subsidy or the other for the overall benefit of their citizenry. Nigerian government should go back to the drawing board to work out effective methods of administering petrol subsidies especially for both the urban and rural poor in such a way that the majority of Nigerians who earn less than what you can consider as living wages can afford to have their human dignity protected just as the constitution clearly stipulates. Payment can be made directly by government to family members using the availability electronic payments and even recharge cards.
The federal government should vigorously prosecute and recover to the last kobo, the over N1 trn stolen and diverted by fake petrol products importers who made fake claims and made away with these huge public fund. If the Federal government can successfully kill corruption from the petroleum sector, there would be no need for the officials of government to clamor for the withdrawal of the only welfare package that the poor Nigerians can enjoy which is the subsidies on fuel and kerosene. The call therefore for the removal of these subsidies is to put it mildly, puerile and anti-poor.
The elite must be cured of this malady and obsession with petrol subsidy withdrawal and other schemes designed to perpetuate classical extermination of the poorest of the poor.
Onwubiko wrote from Abuja
