Buhari and moral burden of subsidy removal [1]

The Federal Government recently announced a policy deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry with the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit [PMS], popularly known as fuel/petrol, whose price has now been fixed at a maximum of N 145 per litre from its previous price of N 86.50 per litre. This seemingly inscrutable policy decision by the Buhari administration has generated heated arguments for and against by analysts, commentators, politicians and the generality of Nigerians. To start with, what is fuel subsidy? Fuel subsidy, in the context of the Nigerian situation, refers to the differential payment by the government to marketers for the importation [not production] of fuel, in order to keep the price of fuel below the expected open market price. This presupposes that the landing cost [not production cost] of the imported fuel is higher than the expected open market price. So, the shortfall between the landing cost and expected open market price is what is called subsidy payment.

However, for me, the issue of concern is not so much about the pros and cons or the economic plausibility for subsidy removal but really whether the present APC-led government of the “progressives” truly has the moral conscience and justification to remove the subsidy. Why am I saying this? I recall that the same “progressives”, when in opposition, in 2012, were in the forefront of protests and agitation by“occupy Nigeria” against subsidy removal by the erstwhile Jonathan administration! Some of us knew that fuel subsidy actually existed, albeit it was fraught with corruption. We also knew that the subsidy regime was not economically viable and sustainable and it was just a matter of time for it to be aborted. The APC was then playing the ostrich and living in self-denial, while its chieftains and spokespersons [Tinubu, Fashola, El-Rufai, Lai Mohammed & co] even went as far as positing that there was nothing called fuel subsidy and that the so called subsidy was nonexistent and  a mere fraud, deceit and smokescreen for corruption! The same APC-led Buhari government has now removed subsidy that was nonexistent! Aargh!  How can you remove something that was never there? Can you build something on nothing? Who is fooling who? What has since changed and why the subsidy removal now by a government of the progressives? This is sheer hypocrisy. Same of the same! What kind of change is this? What the APC-led Buhari government, that is assumed or supposed to be a symbol of anti-corruption, has done by removing the “subsidy” that never existed is fraudulent, deceitful and tantamount to corruption. You can now see why the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, referred to Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt” Nation!

Meanwhile, a rather curious and interesting dimension to the issue of moral burden is the denial by the government of subsidy removal!  The APC-led government, in order not to contradict its previously held position that subsidy never existed, claimed that it has not removed subsidy but has only introduced a policy of “price modulation” mechanism or “fuel pricing regime”. The denial of subsidy removal by the Buhari government smacks of moral ineptitude, double speak and outright falsehood by a government that prides itself on moral rectitude, integrity and credibility. If the Federal government did not remove fuel subsidy, as it has been stridently claiming, then what the government has simply done through its avowed “price modulation” mechanism or “fuel pricing regime”, is not deregulation, but, wittingly or unwittingly, an arbitrary and discretionary price increase, or better still price manipulation, which is even worse, high handed, costly and fraudulent than subsidy removal. This is because, according to industry experts and analysts, if it were to be mere subsidy removal, the price will not be as high as N 145 per liter as it is presently under the spurious “price modulation” regime of the Buhari government!

Consequently, by it’s so called “price modulation” mechanism or “fuel pricing regime”, the PMB government has only succeeded in shortchanging Nigerians by inflicting more pains through arbitrary fixing and increase of petroleum prices.

Furthermore, in trying to deny the removal of subsidy, the Federal government is undoing itself by digging more holes and sinking in an abyss of fraudulent leadership and intellectual deceit and manipulation of the masses!  The mere fact that subsidy payment was not included in the 2016 appropriation budget was a clear indication that the PMB government has decided to jettison the subsidy regime.  Why the unnecessary denial? It would have been better to explain to the people that the government needed to free the subsidy payments for developmental purposes, rather than denying what is an obvious removal of subsidy by using various semantics and technical economic jargons [“price modulation”, “fuel pricing regime” etc.,] to deceive the people. That is a moral issue.

The government should realise that “You can fool some people, some time. You can fool some people all the time. You can fool all the people, some times. But you can’t fool all the people, all the time”.  Our leaders should be more forthright, morally upright, honest and sincere in their dealings and actions with the people. A word is enough for the wise.

KAYODE OLUWA