By Comr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka.

The sincere removal of the fuel subsidy should be a welcome development, that is if the government is indeed SINCERE. From my discussions with friends and patriotic Nigerians off and online, my conclusion is that Nigerians no longer trust this government, atleast as much as they did prior to the elections, and that is the reason for the ambivalence and scepticism expressed upon the latest pronouncement of subsidy removal.

But to enable you understand what we have called "subsidy" hitherto, read my logical and apparent prevailing sharp practices by our petroleum marketers below;

Chief Joseph is a petroleum importer. He imports 10 million litres of petrol at the of cost of N95 per litre.
He reports to the DPR that he has imported 15 million litres at the cost of N105 per litre, requesting N30 subsidy per litre.
DPR sends Mr. Yusuf an inspection and monitoring officer, to measure and verify the authenticity of the claims.
Chief Joseph offered Mr. Yusuf a bribe of the applied subsidy in lieu of 1 million liters, which Yusuf rejected instantly, requesting that of 3 million liters so that, it can comfortably go round to his bosses.
Apparently they ended up agreeing on 2.5m liters each. The deal is struck, Mallam Yusuf and his Bosses ended up with N75,000,000 while Joseph, the importer gain N400,000,000 on the deal They jointly cheated the government the sum of N175,000,000.
Finally Chief Joseph divert 75% of the
product to the black market and sell at N120 per liter to the masses. Later the government will also pay the cost of transporting 15 million liters to the
allocated filling stations across the country.
Thats exactly the case of petroleum subsidy in Nigeria. So isn't it better for the government to invest those savings of hundreds of Billions of Naira wasted every year on subsidy, on life touching projects? Just a thought worth ruminating upon.
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But then we must continue to push for the total deregulation of the downstream sector wherein prices will be determined by competing investors and not the government fixing the price. This competition will force the players to reduce pump price just like the communication sector.

Nice