STILL ON SUBSIDY ISSUE…..
The journey of a thousand mile begins with a step, and proper preparation they say prevent poor performance. At this critical stage of our economic downfall, it is imperative that we, the good citizens of this nation must be unbiased in our judgement, critical enough in our thinking and less political in our reasoning.

Still on subsidy issue, It is obvious that most Nigerians are in a state of dilemma as to where they stand if either fuel subsidy should be removed or not.

Yes! Subsidy must be removed. Did I just mention that? Yes I just did, it must, either now or later but the question is how and when? To those putting up several articles, either in support or opposite, I salute your reasoning, courage and patriotism. However, if am given the opportunity to advice our amiable president on this issue, I will rather say fuel subsidy should remain for now. Permit me to say, that at this point in time our government has good motive but lack innovative ideas of its implementation. Barely a week that the budget was signed where everyone’s hope has been raised that it will reduce the level of hardship currently faced by the masses, the government came up with another form of punishment stabbing the hope of Nigerians in the newly signed budget.

Apparently, I was just in my room some minutes ago and I came across an article written by Aderemi Anjola on the reasons why he felt subsidy must be removed. He made his points cleared enough, even for a blind man to read, but as far as am concern, I still stand with my view, that even if subsidy must go, it shouldn’t be now.

As much as possible, I will not base my article on political inclinations but rather on critical evaluations.

Critical Evaluation of the advantages of subsidy Removal as being propagated by some individuals 

Attraction of more Investors:
Yes, theoretically, Deregulation and removal of subsidy will attract investors into the sector, however, the Hon Minister should stop cajoling us, because we are not kids and Nigerians are intellect not fools. If more Investors moved into the sector, will the Price fall drastically as proposed? Of course NO, it will only be stabilized. Consequently, the concept of more investors creating more supply thus reduction in price (the higher the supply, the lower the price) will work but only to some extent (probably 5 to 10naira reduction) because the price of PMS will never fall below its production cost no matter the number of investors in the labor market. Just some days ago, the Hon minister of state for petroleum, released the breakdown of how the price of petrol came about to be 145naira, after this evaluation sir, are you still saying the investors will spend about 145naira on the cost of importation and expect them to sell below it? Sir, remember, the sole aim of any business mogul is to make profit, therefore no matter the number of investors in the petroleum sector, PMS can never be sold below its cost of production. 

Building of Refinery:
I always laugh when I hear people arguing with this fact, that investors will be compelled to build refinery instead of importation at higher cost. However, Come to think of it, who will invest so much money on building of refinery in a nation where security is nothing to write about? Where the likes of avengers can wake up one morning and decide the oil belongs to them, where vandalisation of oil pipeline is at its peak, where security of its citizen is not even guarantee not to talk of the foreign investors. For crying out loud, no investor will invest such huge amount of money if the success of its business for minimum of three years is not guarantee, he will rather want to import the product because he is pretty sure Nigerians will buy it. 
Reduction in Corruption:
it is only in this administration that I read on paper that subsidized fuels are being diverted into other neighboring countries. If truly they are being diverted, should removal of the subsidy then be the solution. If a baby is sick, will the doctor advice the parent to kill him or rather if one is suffering from headache is cutting it off the remedy? These are questions we need to ask our government. If the government entrusted with the lives of over 170 million people cannot even secure tankers of subsidized fuel then, how can we be sure our lives are secured with them? 

Diversion of subsidy funds into provision of social amenities: Mr. Hon. Minister Sir, the 6 trillion naira budget recently signed into law was based on assumption of about $30 per barrel and never on subsidy money so why do we suddenly need subsidy money for the provision of social amenities now? The money being recovered from looters, can’t they be used for provision of amenities? I still keep on asking why will government want to raise funds from the masses already in abject poverty apart from their taxes?

In view of all these, I still believe the merits of subsidy removal being proposed by the federal Government are only theoretical and might not work if subjected to practice. (I stand to be corrected anyway)

Finally, my advice to GMB 
Instead of removing subsidy now, concentrate on the full implementation of the budget and recovery of loot funds which will reduce hardship on the people you wish to serve 

initiate measures to checkmate the diversion of subsidized fuel to neighboring countries to reduce corruption, because if you cannot fight corruption within your own government, then why hunting on the previous ones 

Concentrate more on power, security, agriculture and solid minerals as this will help a lot in diversification of our economy and attracts investors 

Propose the removal of the subsidy when Nigerians have started seeing the change they voted for. God bless Nigeria!

Abiodun Sakiru L.
A Concerned Nigeria
Abey.olamilekan@gmail.com