The
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has
urged Nigerians not to lament the removal of fuel subsidy, which he described
as a heavy yoke that the government could not allow to linger.
The
former Governor of Lagos State said for almost three decades, the country had
entertained distortions in the downstream oil sector by operating an opaque
system susceptible to manipulations and structured in a way that allowed a few
people to gain mightily from the system and feed fat on the misery and
frustration of millions of Nigerians.
Tinubu
said this on Thursday in a statement entitled, ‘Ending price fixing, the making
of economic sense’.
He
said it was understandable that the new pricing decision elicited mixed
reactions from a cross-section of Nigerians as fuel subsidy had been with the
nation for such a long period that it seemed an integral part of the country’s
political and economic life.
“However,
we should not lament the departure of something just because of its longevity,
particularly, when that very policy had ceased to serve us long ago,” he
stated.
The
APC leader said the decision to end the subsidy was hard but inevitable, adding
that it had transformed into a system where wrongdoers benefitted at the
expense of the innocent.
“The
bogus supplier was paid for supplying nothing, while you sweated in long queues
for fuel that was never there. The smuggler secreted fuel across the border,
while our economy crossed the border into fuel scarcity,” he added.
Tinubu
said as the price stayed fixed at a low level, investors were apprehensive
about fixing existing or building new refineries, and the petrochemical
industry remained unfertilised because potential investors could not decipher
how they could make a decent return under such a pricing regime.
According
to him, because of these imbalances, the nation was forced to export hard
currency and many jobs to purchase fuel and other products abroad.
He
said, “While the price of fuel was cheap on paper, these were the hidden costs
that made the subsidy regime an expensive and heavy yoke that the nation could
not continue. With dwindling revenue from oil due to the slump in global oil
prices and a dwindling forex reserve, the country could no longer live in
denial.
“President
(Muhammadu) Buhari, after carefully weighing the options, decided to do what is
right. In an act of courage, he removed the oil subsidy, thereby freeing the
downstream component of this strategic sector of the economy from the
distortions of price fixing.”
The
APC leader, however, stated that the decision should not be a step towards
conservative austerity as practiced by the former government, which he said
simply wanted to end the programme to “prove obedient to neoliberal economic
doctrines.”
“They
offered no programmes of valid compensation to the people. Instead, they
instigated a policy of monumental fraud known as SURE-P. However, the only
thing sure about it was that its architects would siphon the public’s funds to
fatten their own wallets. They wanted to save money (for themselves) yet
exploited the people for no good reason at all,” he added.
Tinubu
said the Buhari government took a vastly different approach, adding, “Given the
inefficiencies inherent in the pricing regime, this administration asked the
fundamental question: could this money be better spent to help the most
vulnerable of our people?
“For
it was also recognised that the pricing regime was a regressive feature. Its
benefit went disproportionately to the rich who needed no such help. Better to
use the sums to more directly and exclusively assist the poor and working class
Nigerians.”
He
said Buhari followed through with a N500bn fund to support a social safety
programme and empower the poor and needy, adding that five million school
children would be fed for 200 days, among other plans of funding social
infrastructure, education, transportation, health and other critical areas
needing attention.
The
APC leader stated, “What the President did is about the future of our country
and that of the next generation. This government is transferring the funds to
better spend them and better save the people.
“Nothing
in this world is perfect but this decision is a just and correct one aimed at
bolstering the economy, while caring better for those the system has unfairly
treated.”
Source:
Punch
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