Jonathan’s New Year Burden Gift To Nigerians —Lajuwon Lasisi

Consider this, “my people perish because of lack of knowledge”, which simply means people never learn from history, however recent it is. Otherwise, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan would not have gone on air to announce to the nation, the removal of oil subsidy, particularly when negotiation with other stakeholders had not ended. About two or so days before the declaration of intent by the president, his minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and others, engaged in a serious discussion on the problem of removal of oil subsidy, to the extent that Okonjo-Iweala had to commit the government to start removal of subsidy by April.

But to the consternation of everybody, on the first day of January, the president gave a new year burden gift to the nation by removing the so-called oil subsidy. After the subsidy removal, the government constituted a committee to negotiate with labour unions. This is what we call “Fulani diplomacy”. It is like applying medicine after death, which is not acceptable to labour unions. Apart from the drastic measure he took on the first of January, 2012, there were other palliative measures to take before removing the so-called oil subsidy:

(1) He should have made sure that the turn-around-maintenance (TAM) was carried out on the existing 4 refineries to start producing at full capacity. This step alone would have stopped for once, the importation of petroleum products.

(2) The president is advised to look for P.M.NEWS of Wednesday, 9 November 2011, centre page, which contains our write-up on “Removal of fuel subsidy”. Permanent solution to removal of oil subsidy is well articulated there for implementation and better result than the present measure of the president which has worsened the economic condition of the ordinary Nigerian.

(3) The best solution to removal of oil subsidy after the TAM on the existing 4 refineries, should be the construction of mini-refineries which would be designed, fabricated and manufactured here in Nigeria, with little fund to serve the nation better because of the simple indigenous technology behind their manufacture. It would be easier to build in all the strategic zones of the country, particularly, around cement industries where the by-products of the refined petroleum would be readily made available for use in the first instance. The same mini-refineries would be built in the remaining parts of the country to make petroleum products available at cheaper price. In most south Asian countries like India, Philippine Island, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. they prefer to establish mini-refineries to run their industries. Malaysia alone has 28 mini-refineries as at year 2000. Nigeria should therefore join these Asian tigers to boost her own industrialisation.

(4) Nevertheless, the president should revert the price of petrol to N65 in order to bring relief to the masses. We should also thank God that the apparent support of the suspected UN for the subsidy removal has been punctured by the organisation herself which debunked the UN Assistant General Secretary’s statement of accord to the removal of the subsidy when he was in Abuja recently. UN had to disown him because the president failed to provide palliatives measures before removal. To the UN, the president should have put the four refineries into functional condition before removal of the subsidy. That is the truth. For the first time, UN could not be held responsible for the present economic woe of Nigeria.

However, the president should listen to the voice of reason and reverse the price back to N65 in order to douse the present tension that has engulfed the entire nation. If the protest had persisted it may have ended like the Arab Spring protests in North Africa, Yemen and currently Syria, where more than 5,000 protesters have been killed by President Al-Asaad security’s men. The timing of the removal was wrong. It took place when the Boko Haram threat to national security was at its peak. It was at a time the fundamentalist sect ordered the southerners to return to the south. That ultimatum and treated was not an empty one due to the fact that they have already started killing the southerners who failed to heed their warning.

The killing would continue as long as the southerners remain in the north. So government could not wish away the threat of Boko Haram because they normally carry out their threat with impunity and military precision. Therefore, this threat is more than enough for government to face, rather than adding the subsidy removal palaver to its problems. The menace of Boko Haram can lead to the disintegration of the country if government fails to take appropriate action against the threat.

•Lasisi could be reached at [email protected] War Is Imminent In Nigeria but God Forbid