On FG’s unfulfilled promise of making fuel available for Nigerians
Since the removal of fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023 life has not been the same in the country. The situation worsened when the Federal Government’s promise of making fuel available for the citizenry in December 2023, by locally refining crude also failed.
It is no longer news that the cost of living in the country has skyrocketed. Only God knows when this self-inflicted injury will ease off.
As at the last count, over N1500 exchanges $1 in the parallel market. Cost of goods and services in the country has also aligned with the economic realities of our time.
For example,a bag of rice now sells at above N70,000, garri the same and these are staple foods.
Unsurprising then, when protests over high cost of living broke out recently in several states across the country.
States such as Kano, Sokoto, Niger, Kogi and Osun, among several others spontaneously demonstrated their displeasure on the current high cost of living in Nigeria. Even professional groups like the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) lamented the hyper-inflation in the nation.
Organised labour and its Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart went beyond mere expression of anger and anguish to issue a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency address the plight of workers, or risk a total shut down of the economy and that was after they had proposed N1 million minimum wage to the Federal Government.
Government has been making frantic efforts to avert the strike, but NLC and TUC had sworn to dare the government this time around. The NLC and TUC have respectively held press briefings, sensitising and assuring their members that it is a fight to the finish this time around.
What that means is that there is no going back to the proposed nationwide strike, unless the Federal Government squarely tackles the demand of labour, which is to address the current cost of living across the country.
Whether this is possible remains to be seen.
This Federal Government, led by Sen Ahmed Bola Tinubu had promised December, 2023 to make fuel available and affordable to Nigerians, with strong conviction that Port Harcourt Refineries would have commenced operations then. But that was not to be. Even the much talked about Dangote Refinery that is said to have received enough crude from Nigeria’ National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) is yet to produce a pint of fuel. And nobody is talking!
Even during the dark ages of the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emiefele, when Nigerians were forced to buy their own money with higher money, things never got to this stage. And yet we have a new financial manager at CBN, in person of Olayemi Cardoso, plus a myriad of think-tanks at the Federal Ministry of Finance and yet the situation looks hopeless.
We do not want to ventilate the insecurity challenges confronting the nation. Innocent citizens are on a daily basis subjected to armed robbery, cultism and kidnapping activities and victims or their families were made to cough out huge amounts of money to secure their release in this cash crunch economy.
The question is whose responsibility it is to secure the people? All these and more boil down to poor leadership or governance. It is important at this juncture to look at the way forward. It is an open secret that removal of fuel subsidy is the chief cause of the sufferings of Nigerians today. Therefore, if the trigger that was pulled in that direction on May29, 2023 is returned, the ripple effect of such anti-people policy would ordinarily relax.
If the current governor of CBN does not have an answer to the hyper-inflation ravaging the country, he should be shown the way out. But contrary to the reality on ground, his appointment has been confirmed for reasons best known to the Federal Government.
How else would you judge a new cook, when the taste of the soup remains the same or even worse? Such confirmation is a disservice to the nation. The boots would have been the case! We should not reward mediocrity or outright incompetence. The earlier we call a spade, a spade, the better for all of us.
