On the 1st of January 2012, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) gave us all one of the worst New Year presents of the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government with the announcement of the Total Petroleum Products Subsidy Removal, which then included AGO, DPK and the almighty PMS (petrol).

That announcement, even though said to be have been preceded by sufficient consultations and projections of Palliatives by way of the SURE-P and other programs, was still a very big shock..

Expectedly, the Western Media, the Lagos- Ibadan Editorial Columns and Back page circuit took advantage of this and chewed GEJ to shreds; they tore thru his Administration, they exposed everything that could be found about him and his Cabinet and made him the devil and hate object of all Nigerians.

The uproar, the anger and attendant Protest that culminated all fueled the later ‘JONATHAN MUST GO’ momentum that Tinubu and his likes rode on to form the formidable coalition that swept APC into prominence as an opposition party and later into Government..

Speeches were made, long processions were held and a general declaration of WAR against PDP and the Government in power was all but evident..

Unfortunately for GEJ, all his Ministers, His Advisers and closest allies, seeing the uproar, abandoned him and left him to the vultures that descended and afterwards fed on the disquiet and discontent to grow into a viable opposition that swept him out of power 2yrs down the line..

This uproar, this protest and the massive rage, culminating in the famous OJOTA RALLY, was the beginning of the Evil conundrum now known daintly as the APC..

Speeches were made by no less notables as our own Nobel Laurette, Wole Soyinka, Songs were waxed to disparage GEJ and PDP, missiles were thrown even at Democracy then as represented by the Government in power and The NASS was forced to call off their Yuletide Recess to address this National crisis..

Bowing to this much pressure, facing the brunt of the Lagos-Ibadan Press and seeing himself left to hold the hot end of the stick, GEJ dropped the idea of total Removal and agreed to a marginal reduction of the prices of Petroleum products from the proposed 147 to 97Naira per litre..

Its most instructive to note at this juncture that the man, the spearhead and indeed the leader and defacto Puppet master that orchestrated this massive uproar, the man who controlled the Western Press, known for its formidable use of propaganda as a tool of OPPOSITION, The veritable source of ‘FUEL’ that started in Ojota, razing thru the Western Press and feeding on the discontent in the populace culminating in the merger of convenience that brought up APC, is none other than The Jagaban Borgu, The Lord of Boudilion and God father of Lagos politics since 1999; The Man who built Lagos and fought the military of the Abacha later days with these same press; ALHAJI BOLA AHMED TINUBU..

THE SAME MAN NOW IN THE SADDLE WHO WANTS US TO BITE THE BITTER PILL HE TOLD US IN 2012 WAS  VINEGAR.

(You will read a PUBLIC LETTER he wrote to GEJ on this subject in this writeup too).

This is the man at the Helms of THE PROPAGANDA arm of the APC all these 8yrs hence and who now weilds the big stick of Government..

Like someone recently noted;

..The difference in the communication strategy between the Buhari presidency and Tinubu presidency is like:

Buhari rarely talks, his spokespersons read his body language and print rubbish.

President Tinubu will say rubbish, speak out of his  script and his spokesperson will use propaganda and some coercion to explain what it is he really said; Remember A TOWN HALL DIFFERENT FROM…

The danger here and now is the use, misuse and banal corruption of all Such medium of communication and the deployment of War like PROPAGANDA, not as a tool of Opposition anymore but that of subjugation..

We are not one week old in the live of this administration but we are already called names and labeled as DISSIDENTS, all who don’t accept willy nilly, all who call for a proper sensitization / Scrutiny and anyone who says this could be done better or later; THE OBINGOS..

The deployment of this much Propaganda basically draws on the widely accepted flaw that we have as Nigerians as people who forget easily, as people who read most sparingly and people who love their chains so much that the fight anyone who tries to free them of it..

This flaw, has been weaponised and turned against us with DISINFORMATION and sublime propaganda particularly in the 8yrs of Buhari, APC and the locust fed thru the Western Press; remember Buhari’s INLAW and Driver who were Igbo’s, those who showed him up as a true Nationalist pre-2015.

Remember how he is said to be so austere, how he was TOTALLY INCORRUPTIBLE, how he had only his pension, a car and two houses in Kaduna and Daura..?

In the 8yrs hence have we bothered to read, ask or seen the Igbo inlaw, his Igbo Cook and driver, those that made him Pan -Nigerian..

Have we forgotten already how he confessed early on in His 1st Term that he could never do anything for the people who gave him 5% Against those who gave him 97% – the kind of arithmetics only he and Mahmud Yakubu can understand..

Have we bothered to find out how it is he was said to be more compliant with UK doctors on his meagre pensions even before he was sworn in, which formed the basis of His PROFLIGATE MEDICAL TOURIST TOGA..?

How on the same meagre Pension, half of which he was said to forfeit, he was able to train his kids all in UK Universities..?

WE DONT READ, WE DON’T ASK DEEP QUESTIONS AND YET WE FORGET EVERYTHING QUICKLY….

In times past, Nigerians were always equally united against the Policies, Programmes and DIATRIBES of Government targeted at pauperising us as Citizens even under the Military..

Now we are divided against ourselves and fighting each other on its behalf while APC smiles nay, sneers at and mocks us..

For any Organic protest staged to protest institutional decay and corruption (#ENDSARS is a good example), there will be two or more sponsored by Government and mobilized by Touts fed thru the itinerant Almajiri ready to do battle and pass a Vote of Confidence for the Government..

THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN OUR SHORT HISTORY, EVEN UNDER THE MILITARY..

NOW ITS;

#OBIDIOTS.
#OBIDENSE.
#OBINGOES.
#OBIDOGS..

Just don’t protest, dissent or say anything contrary..

In a Converse PARADOX, this Treatise Authored by no less a Personality than our own President in 2012 to GEJ reveals a lot more about the SCAM known as SUBSIDY than he is willing to let on now..

It’s a long read but it would widen our perspective properly to appreciate the kind of ELITE – COMMONMAN WAR we are enhaged in here.

Read it Carefully before we go on..

REMOVAL OF OIL SUBSIDY: PRESIDENT JONATHAN BREAKS SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH THE PEOPLE.

As Nigerians gathered with family and friends to celebrate the New Year, the Federal Government was baking a national cake wrapped in the scheme that would instantly make the New Year a bitter one. Barely had the public weaned itself from last year when government dropped a historic surprise on an unsuspecting nation.

PPPRA issued a statement abolishing the fuel subsidy. By this sly piece of paper, the Federal Government breached the social contract with the people. This government, which owes its very existence to the people’s desire to be governed by someone more humble than elitist, has turned its back on the collective will. By bureaucratic fiat, Government made the most fateful economic decision any administration has made since the inception of the Fourth Republic and it has done so with an arrogant wave of the hand as if issuing a minor regulation.

BECAUSE OF THE TERRIBLE SUBSTANCE OF THE DECISION AND THE HAUGHTY STYLE OF ITS ENACTMENT, THE PEOPLE FEEL BETRAYED AND ANGRY; (is this ringing any bells yet)..?

At this moment, we know not to where this anger will lead. In good conscience, we pray against violence. Also in good conscience, it is the duty of every citizen to PEACEFULLY DEMONSTRATE and record their opposition to this draconian measure that is swiftly crippling the economy more than it will ever cure it.

By taking this step, Government has tossed the people into the depths of the midnight sea. Government demands the people swim to safety under their own power, claiming the attendant hardship will build character and add efficiency to the national economy. It is easy to make these claims when one is dry and on shore.

Government would have us believe that every hardship it manufactures for the people to endure is a good thing. This is a lie. The hardships they thrust upon the poor often bear no other purpose than to keep them poor. This is such a time.

I am not calling President Jonathan an evil man. I do not believe he is perverse. However, the economic ideas controlling him are so misguided that they have a perverse impact. Because he is slave to wrong-headed economics, the people will become enslaved to greater misery.

This crisis will bear his name and will be his legacy. The people now pay a steep tax for voting him into office. The removal of the subsidy is the “Jonathan tax.” (READ BAT TAX HERE)..

This situation shows that ideas count more than personalities. People may occupy office but how that person performs depends on the ideas that occupy his mind.

Though someday, Nigeria will have to remove the subsidy, the time to do it is not now. This subsidy removal is ill-timed and violates the condition precedent necessary before such a decision is made.

First, government needs to clean up and throw away the salad of corruption in the NNPC. Then, proceed to lay the foundation for a mass transit system in the railways and road network with long term bonds and fully develop the energy sector towards revitalizing Nigeria’s economy and easing the burden any subsidy removal may have on the people.
But we know this is about more than the fuel subsidy. (HAVE WE SEEN ALL THESE DONE UNDER THE APC)..?

It is about government’s ideas on the role of money to better the lives of people, about the relationship between Government and the people and about the primary objective of Government’s interaction in the economy. It is about whom, among the Nigeria’s various social classes, does Government most value. This is why public reaction has been heated. It is not so much that people have to spend more money. It is because people feel short-changed and sold out.

Government seeks to convince us that the Jonathan tax is an unavoidable decision mandated by immutable economic principles. If you accept their premise, you must agree with their conclusion.

However, their argument falters at its inception. There are few immutable economic principles. Economics is not an exact science with unbreakable rules like physics.
Economics is no less subjective than politics. It was born an offshoot of politics and there it remains. What this government claims to be economic decisions are essentially political ones.

As there is progressive politics, there is progressive economics.

As there is elitist politics, there is elitist economics.

It all depends on what and who in society Government would rather favor. The Jonathan tax represents a new standard in ELITISM.
This whole issue boils down to whether Government believes the general public is worth a certain level of expenditure. It is like the situation where a man dates more than one woman. To each, he promises love thus nothing can be deduced from his words. However, we know he will spend and dote more on one and she will be the one he loves above the others.

When banks were in distress, Government produced billions of naira out of thin air and in record time. It was explained the swift expenditure was needed to stop the banking system from imploding. There was no worry that Government would be bankrupted. If the banks were to fall twenty times in the future, Government would jump twenty times to their rescue. It does so because this Government lives a conservative economics placing it in close alliance, if not collusion, with corporate power.

However, because the distance between Government and the people is far and genuine level of affection is low, Government sees no utility in continuing to spend the current level of money on the people. In their mind, the people are not worth the money.

Government sees more value in “saving” money than in saving the hard-pressed masses.

Yet, what does Government actually save by this measure? The concept of a Government that has the unfettered ability to print its own currency needing to save that currency for fear of insolvency is an anachronism. That his economic advisors would cling to this notion is like a person insisting on taking to the expressway in a horse-drawn carriage.

For a government that prints its own currency, attempting to save in that very currency in order to defend against bankruptcy in that currency is a relic of the gold standard abandoned forty years ago.

If Government thrashed the fuel subsidy based on considerations that it will run out of naira then it based its decision on a factor that have not been relevant since the time of the Biafran war.

In 1971, the world left the gold standard replacing it with “state” or “fiat money.” Under the gold standard, a nation had to save gold to support its currency or risk insolvency.

After 1971, bondage to gold was broken. Since then, the worth of a nation’s currency is not tied to gold which means that the ability of a nation to print currency is not determined by its holdings of gold.

The worth of the currency is based on the strength of the economy and the amount of money the nation prints is determined by that strength as well as the nation’s future economic objectives. A nation can no longer fall insolvent concerning debts or payments issued in the national currency.

As long as the fuel subsidy is paid in naira, then Nigeria cannot go bankrupt paying it any more than the ocean can run out of salt water. In a fiat money system, the problem with the fuel subsidy is not impending insolvency as the government asserts. The serious constraint is inflation. Here we must ask whether the payment is so inflationary as to distort the economy. We have been making the payment for years and inflation has not wrecked the economy. This historic evidence refutes the imminent disaster claimed by government.
In advancing the argument that subsidy would lead to imminent bankruptcy, Government reveals its lack of trustworthiness on important matters of fact. Is this the same government that several weeks ago claimed Nigeria was among the world’s best performing economies with a GDP growth rate of 7 percent annually?

It seems Government has a vast canvas on which it can paint a number of different scenarios of Nigeria depending on the whim of the moment. While government may alter its portrait of the nation, the people are forced to live one reality at a time. Is Nigeria a fast growing economy? If the nation’s GDP is growing so strongly, the subsidy or a similar expenditure on the people cannot be the lethal burden government now maligns it to be.

Nigerians have a collective stake in the ownership of our oil resource held in trust by the government of the day. What we need then is the effective management of this scarce resource that will beget long term prosperity to the suffering people of Nigeria and not the present racket in which those in power abuse access and control of NNPC and oil revenue to warehouse money to fund their election campaigns)..!!

This brings us to another inconsistency. On one hand, Government states the expenditure is unsustainable yet on the other it claims the amount now earmarked for the subsidy will be used to fund other people-oriented programs. However, the two assertions cannot exist at the same time . If the subsidy is bankrupting us, then reallocating funds to different programs will be no less harmful.

A bankrupting expenditure retains this quality whether used for the subsidy or another purpose. Earmarking the funds to something else will not change the fiscal impact. If Government is sincere about using the funds for other programs, then it must be insincere about the threatened insolvency.
The concern about Government saving naira is purely superfluous. Officials cry that Nigeria will become like Greece.

Those who say this disqualify themselves from high office by their own words. Greece sits in a terrible situation because it forfeited its own currency. Thus, it cannot print itself out of insolvency and it must save or earn euro to pay its bills. Because Nigeria issues its own currency, it does not face the same constraint. Again, Nigeria’s problem with the subsidy is not insolvency.

Therefore, to go from subsidy to nothing is not wise economics for it “SAVES” GOVERNMENT nothing. What it does is produce real havoc and misery for the majority of the people while the governing elite worship their mistaken fiscal rectitude. Ironically, by acting like the old gold standard fiscal constraints are real, this government will incur the very thing it seeks to avoid. It will subject Nigeria to a crushing economic contraction. The difference between us and the Greeks will be that their situation is the inevitable result of being a weak member in a monetary union dominated by a strong economy, while our downturn will be a discretionary one artificially induced by the backwardness of our policymakers.

By its action, our Government placed itself on the list of conservative Governments imposing unwise austerity programs on tired and weak economies. The results have been alarming. Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and the UK have imposed stiff austerity. Each Nation that has done so now has an intimate relationship with recession. Must we travel the same path? Why does our GOVERNMENT think an independently-minded Nigerian success is inferior to the mimicry of European failure? I don’t understand why we take this road.

(Our Government has allied itself with the goals of the European conservatives and not with the needs of the Nigerian populace. No one plucks a chicken to feed his children feathers. Nor does a man set his house on fire just so people can bring him water).

However, this is spirit behind Government policy. There has been no nation on the face of the planet that has developed or achieved long-term prosperity by devotion to conservative, ultra-free market economic ideas that dominate this Government.

America, the United Kingdom, and now China all based their initial thrust toward national economic development on significant Government interplay in the economy and on sustained Government fiscal deficits. If no nation has grown using these conservative ideas when growth was constrained by the gold standard, why would we shackle ourselves to these ideas when we operate under a monetary system that provides the federal government greater policy latitude to achieve economic development objectives.

Again, we must rid ourselves of the old notion that government saving and budgetary surpluses are inherently good and that deficits are always bad. For Government to save naira, that means it brings in more than it pays out.

Where does this influx come from? It comes from you and me, the private sector. If the federal government saves more, it means the private sector will have less. Government surplus means private sector contraction. This shows that the administration has its priorities confused. It acts as if the people are there to help Government run itself. The more beneficial relationship is that government should be giving people the help needed to better live their lives.

(The Government’s position is akin to a wealthy parent demanding his young children bring home more food for him to consume than the parent gives them to eat). We would deride any parent for such MEANNESS. Yet, this Government believes this conduct is wise and prudent.

Another argument Government has presented is that removal of the subsidy will stabilize the exchange rate. This makes no sense. True, since marketers convert much of the naira from selling petrol gained into dollars, there is downward pressure on the exchange rate and foreign reserves. However, this pressure is not a byproduct of the subsidy.

It is a byproduct of importation. With the subsidy lifted, the marketers will earn the same or more from the sale of petrol. For there to be less pressure on the exchange rate would mean the marketers would seek to exchange significantly less of the same amount of naira into dollars simply because the subsidy was removed. There is no logical basis to assume the new JONATHAN TAX will have the behavioral impact of causing importers to want to hold more naira. The downward pressure on our currency and reserves will not change simply because the imported items are no longer subsidized.

In fact, the higher rate of inflation caused by the removal may make importers keener to change naira into dollars. Thus, the real challenge in this regard is for Government to pave the way to increased domestic production.

There is another “philosophical mystery” in the government’s position.

They state the subsidy must be removed to end the unjust enrichment of the importing cabal. There is a major problem with this assertion. If this is truly a subsidy, there should be no unjust enrichment.

(A subsidy is created to allow the general public to pay a lesser price while sellers earn the prevailing market price)…!!!

Subsidy removal should not increase or decrease the amount earned per litre by the suppliers. If the amount earned by the suppliers will diminish materially, what Government had been operating was in part a pro-importer price support mechanism on top of the consumer-friendly subsidy. If this is the case, Government could have abolished the unneeded price support while retaining the consumer subsidy. More to the point, Government has failed to show how the system it plans to use will be protected from the undue influence and unfair dealings of those who benefited from the discarded subsidy regime. Because it is capital intensive by its very nature, this sector of the economy is susceptible to control by a few powerful companies. Most of the players will remain the same except that a few cronies of the administration will be allowed entrance into the lucrative game. Sending the economy into the gutter is a steep cost to pay just so a few friends can reap a new windfall.

Government claims the subsidy removal will create jobs. This is misleading. The stronger truth is that it will destroy more jobs than it creates. For every job it creates in the capital intensive petroleum sector, it will terminate several jobs in the rest of the labor intensive economy.

SUBSIDY REMOVAL WILL INCREASE COST’S ACROSS THE BOARD. However, salaries will not increase. This means demand for goods will lessen as will sales volumes and overall economic activity. The removal will have a recessionary impact on the economy as a whole. While some will benefit from the removal, most will experience setback.

What is doubtless is that the JONATHAN TAX (call it BAT TAX) will increase the price of petrol, transportation and most consumer items. With fuel prices increasing twofold or more, transportation costs will roughly double.

PRICES OF FOOD STAPLES WILL INCREASE between 25-50 percent. Yet this is more than about cost figures. Most people’s incomes are low and stagnant. They have no way to augment revenue and little room to lower expenses for they know no luxuries; they are already tapped out.

The only alternative they have is to fend as best they can, knowing they must somehow again subtract something from their already bare existence. There will be less food, less medicine, and less school across the land. More children will cry in hunger and more parents will cry at their children’s despair.

This is what Government has done. Poor and middle class consumers will spend the same amount to buy much less. The volume of economic activity will drop like a stone tossed from a high building. This means real levels of demand will sink. The middle class to which our small businessmen belong will find their profit margins squeezed because they will face higher costs and reduced sales volumes. These small firms employ vast numbers of Nigerians.

They will be hard pressed to maintain current employment levels given the higher costs and lower revenues they will face. Because the middle class businessman will be pinched, those who depend on the businessmen for employment will be heavily pressed. States that earn significant revenue from internally generated funds will find their positions damaged. Internally generated revenue will decline because of the pressure on general economic activity. The Jonathan tax will push Nigeria toward an inflation-recession combination punch worse than the one that has Europe reeling.

(This tax has doomed Nigeria to extra hardship) for years to come while the promised benefits of deregulation will never be substantially realized. People will starve and families crumble while Federal OFFICIALS praise themselves for “SAVING MONEY.” The purported savings amount to nothing more than an accounting entry on the Government ledger board. They bear no indication of the real state of the economy or of the great harm done the people by this MISERLY STEP.

As stated before, the threat of bankruptcy is nothing more than a ghost of something long dead.

The real consideration is not whether this sum should be spent but whether it is better spent on the subsidy or on other programs. Nigerians do not need to be wedded to the subsidy. It is not the subsidy that gives life to the social compact; the amount of the expenditure is the better litmus. When attempting to douse popular sentiment, Government pretended that the SOCIAL CONTRACT would remain intact because government would spend the money saved from the subsidy on other programs. This would be nice if supported by action. If Government were sincere in this regard, it would have used an entirely different strategy. It would have looked on the removal as evolutionary, long-term process instead of as a sudden event accomplished by executive decree. If Government had proceeded along these lines, it would have first perfected the plans for the new programs and projects that would receive the funds previously allocated the subsidy. These plans would have been in place and ready to implement. Only then would the subsidy be removed.

(To say that they will develop programs once the subsidy is removed suggests Government‘s heart is not in these alternatives. Government only raised this possibility as a public relations afterthought to douse public opposition).

For instance, the government’s top spokesperson said it was obvious the Administration had guillotined the subsidy since it was not included in the 2012 budget. If we take this as the measure, there is no evidence in that budget of Government transferring the bulk of “subsidy savings” to other programs. Using the reasoning employed by government itself, the budget reveals no sympathetic plan to buffer the effects of the JONATHAN TAX.

Even if Government wanted to engage in naira-for-naira alternative social spending, it would take well over a year for the programs to have even minimal effect. Such expenditures would require new legislation. Given the pace of the National Assembly, such legislation would take months even if fast tracked. Then appropriations would have to be made before the process of procurement began.

(If the Federal Government were to buy sufficient buses to subsidize urban transport across the nation, orders would have to be placed for the purchase and importation of these buses. Again, months would elapse. If we are aiming at major road construction, the processes of project planning and contract bidding will require well over a year after a project is approved and funds appropriated. Last, Government has just established a large committee to oversee this alternative expenditure. We have no need for another such body. If competent, Government would not require this help. Moreover, we have seen this tactic before. Time and money will be devoted to running the committee. More attention will go to the committee’s emoluments than to its fundamental work. The actual parameters of the committee’s scope of work are nebulous and ill-defined. Will it have the authority to act or only advise? This looks like another blind alley where Government hopes to misdirect our attention. This committee is not meant to accomplish anything except to numb public opposition. Government hopes people will posit confidence in the body because of the eminent people named to it. By the time the public discovers the committee is a zombie creation, too much time would have elapsed and it will be too late to reignite public protests. The people then will resign themselves to their fate. This trick has worked in the past; it will not work today because the people are much too aware and too agitated).

In the end, the Federal Government has done the nation an awful disservice at the worst time.

This is an unneeded and avoidable emergency. Pursuing the grail of elitist economics, the Federal Government brings economic disaster to our doorstep. Attempting to protect Government bank accounts from false bankruptcy, they push the people into real bankruptcy.

(Government is relying on the fact that the people are long-suffering and patient).

They think the people will quickly forget this latest ASSAULT and return to the GRUELING CHALLENGE of daily survival.

(Government thinks people will be so fixated on survival that they will forget, Government has made survival more difficult).

RARELY HAS A GOVERNMENT BEEN THIS CYNICAL.

Not even the reclusive Yar’adua or the dictator, Obasanjo placed this HARDSHIP on the people.

Of course, Nigerians know that Obasanjo failed spectacularly to lay the necessary infrastructural foundation which could have made the recent removal of subsidy an easier decision for President Jonathan and a lesser burden for Nigerians to bear.

Nigeria in Jonathan is confronted with a Government “on top of the people” rather than a “government for the people”. It is as if Jonathan has turned from PRESIDENT to PHARAOH and has decreed that the people make bricks without straw. What manner of LEADER has he become? I don’t know. However, there is only one just way out of this distress.

(Government must modify the sudden and complete removal of the subsidy).

EITHER WE RESTORE THE SUBSIDY OR USE THE FUNDS FOR OTHER SOCIAL PURPOSES.

If we are to use the funds for other programs, those PROGRAMS shall be placed on parallel track with the subsidy. As more of these programs are ready to go on line, then the subsidy can be lifted in phases. In this way, the public is assured Government will not lower its total expenditure on their behalf, thus maintaining the spirit central to the SOCIAL CONTRACT.

(Fuel price increases will be moderated so as not to cause extreme economic distress. And the people will see and feel the benefit of the alternative programs at the same time of the cost increases, thus further blunting the adverse impact of those increases).

“Until this change occurs, the people must remain vigilant or else we will sink under the weight of what the Federal Government has done”.

Signed:
Asiwaju Tinubu,
January 8, 2012. (capitalization and brackets mine for emphasis, please read it again and imagine someone wrote this to BAT now)..

We saw Propaganda being put into good use against the ruling party in Government, we saw it push out narratives that caused Disaffection, dislike and utter disdain for the Government which eventually lost out, we were all witnesses to how it propped up an ailing, incompetent and Nepotistic President and yet we hailed bcos we were told it was Patriotic to do so even when he was away more than with us throughout his first tenure..

We watched as our economy, security and food crisis worsened under a man we were made to believe had the magic wand and now, 8yrs later when we should know better, 8yrs of sorrows, tears and blood, THAT SAME PROPAGANDA MACHINERY HAS SUCCEEDED IN RIGGING ITSELF INTO POWER AND ONCE AGAIN, WE HAIL AND DEFEND ITS FIRST FATAL STRIKE AGAINST US AS CITIZENS..

Recently, during an interview on the heated lobby and agitation with regards to the Leadership of the incoming 10th Assembly, a Politician (off course APC Stalwart and a member of the last PCC) on live National TV, used the Office of the Vice President of the USA to defend or justify the odious Label of RUBBER STAMP which the outgoing Assemblt has worked so Hard to earn.

He said we are mocking them wrongly bcos even in the USA, the Vice President is equally the President of the Senate and works to align them with The President who he shares a ticket with in the first place..

Like I have maintained, this all comes from a place of deep set ignorance bcos no Vice would survive IMEACHMENT in the USA if he attempts half of what Lawan had done in the last 4yrs.

For God’s sakes we have Nigerian infrastructure in Niger bcos NASS wants Buhari to progress..

SUBSIDY ON PETROLEUM PRODUCTS.

If asked, over 80% of the people crying and lamenting over the waste of resources and the alleged discrepancies in the administration of said Subsidy will only tell you about Oil Marketers making unbelievable profits from Oil imports and all kinds of shady deals that had nothing whatsoever to do with the real issue.

That’s where reading comes in, thats how much we don’t know and thats what APC plays on..

In 2012, the pump price of fuel was N65 ($0.40) per litre, against a landing cost of N139. The government thus contributed a N73 SUBSIDY PER LITRE OF PETROL IMPORTED into the Country; what this tells us is that SUBSIDY is the difference in Landing cost and what the Government has set as Pump price. This was paid to Oil Marketers who were engaged by the Government then to Import petroleum products in the wake of our Refineries decay..

How do we then arrive at The Landing Cost;

International cost of crude,
Cost of product,
Cost of funds to procure products,
Cost of FOREX,
Insurance for products,
Cost of freight,
Custom and excise duties,
Demurrage,
Etc…

From the above, when GEJ attempted it, it would have merely stopped at around 140 Naira per litre and indeed he had pegged it at 147.

This was at a time when the importation was done solely by Oil Marketing Companies with minimal Intervention by the NNPC and we had over 72 of them admittedly jostily for leverage, control and dominance.

This would have created the needed competition that would have kept the price down, ensured comparative value chain improvement with time and guaranteed positive review downwards if necessary by Legislation and Enforcement of prices and Import figures..

Dropping subsidies in 2012, even though a Painful pill then – I remember I was lucky not to be stranded at home after the Yuletide Breaks bcos I could afford to catch a ride back to Abuja – many couldn’t and lost jobs as well as means of livelihood for this reason, but then if Government had off loaded this issue of imports and price fixing then and handed over all of the attendants figures to the Marketers, the cost would never have gone above 200 naira per litre and in the period thence, spent what it had on fixing the moribound Refineries..

NOW PAY CLOSE ATTENTION BCOS THIS IS WHERE IT GETS REALLY INTERESTING;

The NNPC under Buhari and the APC who had always called it a fraud, took this issue to another dimension..

THE DECEPTION;  

Starting from June 2016 till December 2022 we were told at least 5 times that Fuel subsidy was removed. Yet now we are being told that it has been removed FINALLY.

In 2016, this same Buhari regime told us that they were removing SUBSIDY and so PMS which they met at N87 per litre became N145 and since then they have been at it until Buhari left it at 195per litre.

“The government, however, quietly restored subsidy in the pricing template of petrol without any formal announcement. The then NNPC, classifies its subsidy spending as “under-recovery” (operational cost), repeatedly arguing that only the National Assembly could approve a subsidy. Under-recovery is the additional cost that the NNPC is incurring in subsidizing the price of petrol in order to ensure that it is sold at the regulated price, even when the real market price is above this regulated rate haven become the SOLE IMPORTER OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS..

With the NNPC being the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria, it was essentially subsidizing the product for users. The price remained at N145 per litre despite variations in the international price of crude.

Arguments for the removal of fuel subsidy have always bordered on a need to free resources and take needed measures towards long-needed reform, as the cost has become unsustainable, especially as the economy hovers in and out of recession. The present deregulation (subsidy removal) agenda is part of what is contained in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Under GEJ, we were doing 35m litres daily shared amongst over 72 Oil Marketers, most of who we knew never imported a drum of product and hence the SCAM associated with the scheme. THIS WE THOUGHT WE COULD CURB UNDER A DISCIPLINARIAN AND ANTI-CORRUPTION TZAR AT THE HEAD OF THE SAID SLEAZE TOWERS OF NNPC..

What did we get..?

However, as early as in May 2017, THE NNPC under The Full watch of President Buhari as Substantive Minister of Petroleum took over the importation of PMS after freeing that of AGO & DPK thereby becoming  the sole importer of petrol in the country..

This is where it starts to get awry; as soon as they took full control of the Importation and consequently SUBSIDY RÉGIME, all Hell was literally let lose on us and fuel import figures started growing disproportionately.

In 2018, it was reported that Nigeria consumed between 45 million and 50 million litres of petrol every day Jumping from 35 that GEJ left it; over a 100% increase in a time of recession..

In 2019 it climbed to 55 and to narrow the differnctials the Government had no options but to raise the pump price to close the gaps; remember, SUBSIDY..

This consumption figurea, which is the real SCAM has risen far above this in the last 6yrs with a peak at 110m litres sometimes in 2021; Even during the LOCKDOWN and ravaging Covid, we remained constant as the Northern Star..

According to Bloomberg, Nigeria averagely spent  $7 billion on fuel subsidies annually in the 8yrs of the Buhari / Tinubu led APC.

These fiscal burdens are often financed by a combination of higher public debt, higher tax burdens, and disruption of potentially productive public spending (for example, on health, education, and infrastructure), all of which were evidently clear setbacks to economic growth.

What are the gaps?

Simple; corruption that has raged on unabated even under the nose and possible connivance of Baba Integrity..

The fuel subsidy regime in Nigeria has been rife with ELITE MANIPULATIONS and intrigues. It is worthy of note that no administration has been able to give Nigerians the true picture of what happens in NNPC, not even the one under which The President served as Minister of Petroleum..

This is the exact same scheme APC managed for 8yrs, this is the same scam they perpetuated thru THE VERY OPAQUE NNPC for so long, this is the simple reason why THE NNPC never declared its Accounts for all these years..

WHERE IS OUR DOMESTIC CRUDE..?

Where is the 450,000 barrels which The Constitution Statutorily allocated to Refineries when they were working to be used for Local PMS consumption..

How is this allocation administered..?

What is the Crude Swap Arrangements..?

How much are we paid for that Crude..?

Do you know how much products is in one Barrel..?

Do you know the number of Petroleum Products in just a litre of Crude..?

Have you ever heard them talk of the cost of that Crude..?

These are questions we need answered before we support any SUBSIDY REMOVAL..

BREAKING: NNPC TERMINATES CRUDE-FOR-PETROL SWAP DEAL CONTRACT WITH FOREIGN REFINERS

“This is the first time NNPC has said it is terminating crude swap contracts. By importing less petrol, as private companies import the bulk, NNPC will be able to pay for its purchases in cash.”

Kyari said NNPC’s monopoly on petrol supplies was ending and private firms could start importing as early as this month. He added that Nigeria’s total crude and condensate output was at 1.56 million barrels a day (bpd) as of Friday.
The move was part of Tinubu’s plans to deregulate the petrol market and reduce the burden of subsidy payment on Government finances.

Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari

NNPC had been importing petrol from consortiums of foreign and local trading firms and repaying them with crude oil through the DSDP contracts since 2016, as it did not have enough money to import on a cash-and-carry basis.

News recently indicates that THE CRUDE OIL SWAP so far, is Horrendous; more details will be released as all these unravel even as CSO’s/CLO’s and labour unions are urged to bear the citizens in mind as they negotiate.

*Oduh, a Journalist/Social Commentator writes from Abuja via alhajiahmed_nsc@yahoo.co.uk

StreetReporters.ng