Barely
one month to the end of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration, a stage appears set for a showdown between the
President-Elect, Muhammadu Buhari and the vast majority of Nigerians.
This followed the passage of the 2015 budget of N4.493tr, with allocation for subsidy on petrol conspicuously missing.
The
development, which has already started generating tension across the
country, is largely seen as a landmine on the way of the incoming
administration.
The national budget, which was earlier passed by
the House of Representatives last week, was N51bn higher than the
N4.425tr submitted to both chambers of the National Assembly by the
federal government.
This is also coming barely few days after
Buhari’s ally and former petroleum minister, Professor Tam David-West
gave Nigerians hope by declaring that the incoming president could
reduce petrol pump price for as low as N40 per litre.
However, the
senate approval of the budget on Tuesday, has confirmed the non
inclusion of fuel subsidy provision in the document but contained N21bn
for the funding of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme.
The
Chairman, Joint Senate Committee on Appropriation and Finance, Mohammed
Maccido confirmed that the executive did not make provision for subsidy
in the 2015 budget and that the National Assembly left it the way it
was presented.
“There was no provision in the budget for subsidy
but I believe there should be provision for it especially since there
was already, a disagreement between the oil marketers and the federal
government over subsidy payment”, he had stated.
DAILY POST
recalls that the last time the federal government tried full removal of
petrol subsidy, massive protest broke out simultaneously across the
country, forcing government to reduce the price from N141 to N97 and
later N87, few weeks to the March 28 presidential election.
The protest later led to the arrest of some activists as well as the killing of some protesters by overzealous security men.
One
of the foremost critics of President Jonathan’s government, Balarabe
Musa, had described the subsidy removal as “imperialist” and warned of
“looming anarchy.”
Musa said, “The imperialist guided unilateral,
vulgar and mindless removal of oil subsidy by the President of Nigeria,
even if the subsidy existed before, has opened the floodgate of anarchy.
“It
is also so unfortunate that the president did not have the executive
and moral capacity to redirect the outcome associated with the decision.
“As
it stands, the National Assembly, the civil society and labour should
immediately take up the mandate of leading the people back from the
anarchy that is looming. Any one of the above that takes up the mantle
first should be supported by others. If not, what is going to happen in
Nigeria will be a child’s place to the Arab Springs”.
Considering
the above experience of January, 2012, the incoming Buhari’s
administration may be heading for a collision course with ordinary
Nigerians, who see petrol subsidy as the only major benefit the common
man derives from the country as an oil producing nation.
Already,
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC)
have warned against any move by the government to remove subsidy from
petroleum products.
Speaking on Wednesday, Deputy President of the
NLC and chairman of the joint May Day celebration of the NLC and TUC,
Peter Adeyemi, told journalists that organised Labour believed that
government had never subsidised petroleum products.
The Labour
leader lamented that the bane of the sector had been corruption,
pointing out that past government tried without success to address the
issue.
He said: “If you are asking whether we will back the
removal of fuel subsidy, the answer is no. It is not as easy as that.
You know that it has been a very contentious issue over the years. We
have always said that there is nothing like subsidy. It is all about
corruption.
“Let me take your mind back and say that this same
issue has been something that numerous government have embarked upon
without an end. During the Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, this
exercise was embarked upon by the government about 11 times and both the
NLC and the TUC engaged the government.
“So, it is like the more
you look, the less you see. For us in Labour, we are not going to
support that because it is outside our mandate as leaders. We hope that
the incoming government, in a desperate bid to look for money, will not
look for money in the wrong place”.
Meanwhile, further enquiries
by DAILY POST showed that Nigerians are worried because they cannot see
any infrastructures established with the funds the Federal Government
derived from the partial removal of petrol subsidy in spite of all the
juicy promises made by President Goodluck Jonathan, the governors and
some of his ministers.
Before the partial removal of petrol
subsidy, President Goodluck Jonathan explained that after consultations
with segments of the society, “many have now been appreciative of the
need to totally deregulate the economy so as to open it for investment
as well as stimulate development from the proceeds”.
At the 2011
Christmas Carol held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa
Abuja, President Jonathan said the removal of fuel subsidy would bring
only temporary pains, which will fade as Nigerians begin to reap the
benefits of the removal.
He said, “I promise that the pains will
not be the way people are thinking. The pains will be temporary, and
after few weeks or months, Nigerians will be better off, the economy
will be repositioned”.
The governors under the Nigerian Governors’
Forum, while also advancing support for it, said subsidy removal “will
create employments and begged Nigerians to “sacrifice” and “trust” them
to properly utilize funds that would be saved through the policy.
The
Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Governor of Rivers State
said, “It is a sacrifice that we must make as a nation for the country
to move forward”.
However,
according to a public affairs analyst, Victor Anya, “it was later
revealed that the governors only backed the removal of petrol subsidy so
they could have more money to control since the Federal Government
would no longer need to make deduction from their share of the Excess
Crude proceeds to fund the subsidy scheme.
Anya recalled that, “On
January 1st, 2012, when Nigerians were preparing to celebrate the new
year, the Federal Government announced the removal of petrol subsidy
which caused the price of the commodity to jump from N65:00 to N141:00.
“As
the protests persisted across the country, President Goodluck Jonathan
mobilized some of his ministers and aides to speak potently in support
of the subsidy removal. Prominent among them were the Minister of
Petroleum, Mrs. Diezanni Alison Madueke, Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngonzi Okonjo-Iweala, the
then Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi etc.
“When
Nigerians doubted President Goodluck Jonathan’s sincerity on the proper
use of the funds from the removal of petrol subsidy as previous
governments have in the past, increased the prices of petroleum products
with the same promises to use the proceeds to provide infrastructures
but failed to keep their promises after such increases, Dr. Iweala said,
‘We plead for patience. The impact of this will begin to show soon. We
intend to start publishing the amount we are saving from this withdrawal
of oil subsidy monthly and also where we are directing them. Nigerians
will be participants in this process. In few months prices will begin to
come down depending on market forces’.
“President Jonathan
claimed subsidy had gulped N1.43 trillion by 2011 end. He said the
government would realize N1.134 trillion from the removal of petrol
subsidy. Thus, as petrol now sells at N97, (and lately N87), which is 50
percent increase from the previous price of N65, the Federal Government
would have ranked in about N1 trillion in one year!
“Nevertheless,
after making these promises, there is nothing on ground to show for the
money which the Federal Government has realized from the removal of
petrol subsidy! For instance, the Turn around Maintenance of the Port
Harcourt Refinery scheduled for the First Quarter of 2012 has not yet
began. The construction of eight major roads, two bridges, six railways,
19 irrigations, healthcare centers for three million pregnant women,
etc are yet to commence.
“Can Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala speak
passionately on the benefits from the withdrawal of oil subsidy on
Nigerians the way she spoke in its favour when the withdrawal commenced?
Where are the buses for the urban mass transit which the Federal
Government promised? Where are the palliatives President Jonathan and
the governors promised Nigerians?
“Immediately after the removal
of petrol subsidy, the Federal Government promised Nigerians better life
under the Subsidy Reinvestment Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). Under
SURE-P, the government promised the construction of eight major roads
and two bridges, provision of healthcare for three million pregnant
women, six railway projects, 19 irrigation projects etc. Now, it is time
to ask questions and the questions Nigerians are asking are: (a) Where
are the eight constructed major roads located? (b) Where are the two
constructed major bridges sited? (c) Where are the healthcare centers
for the three million pregnant women located? (d) Which part of the
country are the 19 irrigation projects situated? Nigerians want
President Jonathan, the governors, Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani
Alison Madueke, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the
Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and the then Central Bank Governor,
Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to answer these questions because they
championed the cause to remove petrol subsidy!”
He added that,
“When the Federal Government removed petrol subsidy and promised to use
the proceeds to provide the above mentioned infrastructures, Nigerians
made it known to the government that the absence of infrastructures in
the country was not as a result of lack of money but due to corruption
because every year budgets are made for them.
“Also, Nigerians
doubted the sincerity of government to use the proceeds from the removal
of petrol subsidy for the above mentioned infrastructures since
previous governments have also removed subsidy from kerosene and diesel
without anything to show for the money the government received. But Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala assured Nigerians of the judicious use of the funds.
Now, let her come on air and tell Nigerians where those projects they
promised in January 2012 are sited. But I do not blame the likes of Dr.
Ngozi Iweala rather I blame the Nigerian masses, Nigerian Labour
Congress, Trade Union Congress, Save Nigeria Group, Civil Liberty
Organization and other civil society groups who have refused to ask
questions on how the subsidy funds are being used. Successive
governments have failed to keep their promises because Nigerians don’t
ask questions!
“With the elimination of petrol subsidy, the
standard of living of ordinary citizens of this country has fallen
drastically because the price of everything has gone up. A sachet of
pure water now cost N10 as against the previous price of N5. Small and
large scale businesses are folding up due to high cost of operation;
leading to increase in unemployment rate.
“Thus, from all
indications, the Federal Government has failed the masses once again
because there is nothing to show for the money that was realized from
the elimination of petrol subsidy in 2012. Since the Federal Government
has failed in its promises, it should therefore revert the pump price of
petrol to its former price of N65”.
Expectedly, as days go by,
more angry reactions would trail the planned total removal of petrol
subsidy. More so when a major petrol scarcity is looming in the country
over government’s alleged failure to pay outstanding debt to oil
importers.
With this development, it would take Buhari’s administration a supplementary budget to wriggle out of the looming labour action.
Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Ahmad Lawan, has hinted
that despite passing the 2015 Appropriation Bill, the National Assembly
was still expecting the President-elect to send a supplementary budget
to the 8th Assembly, when he assumes power from May 29, 2015.
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