I am neither in Potiskum nor did I witness the attacks but I am a Nigerian and wish to state some facts about the events going on in my country.

1) The President, Goodluck Jonathan, has expressed suspicion that the Boko Haram may be supported by some government officials. Perhaps this is true and if so, it is because these officials believe that the President lacks the courage needed to stop the violence and protect the victims. They believed, and evidently so, that he would become flustered and do nothing in the hope that the problem will just go away. This is evidenced by his recent statements that 'it is something we have to live with'. The aim of such officials (if the hypothesis was true, of course) would be to stir fights between the Northern and Southern parts of the country and portray the President in a bad light in the eyes of both the citizens and the International world as insensitive and incompetent. If the hypothesis were true, then it must be working because that is the growing sentiment both within and outside the country.

2) Then comes the removal of the fuel subsidy. Apparently, the President was advised by indigenous and foreign experts to pull out the subsidy in a bid to save the nation from imminent economic ruin. Experts they may be, but they lack the wisdom to fine-tune a theoretical idea in a manner that addresses country-specific problems. The result of the removal is no longer a secret as the nationwide strike is in its 4th day.
Removal of the subsidy may be a good economic idea but there are many reasons why the timing and manner of implementation has produced such heated reactions from the populace.

a) Sources have noted that the monthly salary of a senator in the country is about N15.16 million while the minimum wage of civil servants is at N18,000 monthly. Even the numbers for the civil servants are still impressive for a large population of the country which consists of menial workers, street hawkers, labourers and even the unemployed. The figures of these senators do not include their allowances that cover every need from food, health, furniture, housing even newspapers. So suffice it to say that these government officials are completely cocooned in comfort and luxury while the rest of the country sweat and pinch every penny to survive.

b) The national expenditure reading in September shows that N992.57 million was budgeted for food and catering for the President and his Vice. This figure means that 82.7 million is spent per month on food only by the 2 main leaders of the country. Again from last year’s budget of about N4500 billion, approximately N2500 billion was budgeted for these government officials. The rest of the money goes into ‘projects’ for different ministries which as the whole populace is well aware evaporates before it gets down to the grassroots. And guess whose pockets (or bank accounts) this money goes into? The same government officials and their friends who they award dubious contracts with incongruently magnified payouts for these contracts that are never carried out or done so haphazardly that they last only a year so that another budget can be made for them the very next year. The whole nation has lived with this knowledge for years and have rarely questioned it because they are so busy trying to make a living and survive the hardship. Since the country’s independence in 1960, the masses have sacrificed and yet the President is asking them to sacrifice some more while he and his officials return to their lives of wealth and comfort insulated by their exorbitant salaries and even more ludicrous allowances. This fuel subsidy supposedly accounts for 25% of the N2000 million left for the whole nation and this is why the masses see it as the only benefit they get from the country. Come 2012 and the President proclaims that this 25% for fuel subsidy will send the country into economic ‘ruin’ if it is not stopped immediately. He notes that this money only goes to enrich the greedy fuel importers and should rather be ploughed back into ministries for infrastructure projects. The people know that the removal only means more money out of their pockets and into the accounts of the equally corrupt officials in these government ministries.
In response to these claims by the President, I have a few statements/questions about fuel subsidy removal.

• The president announced that the money saved would be used to develop the country while the finance minister maintains that the subsidy money was borrowed and since borrowing is detrimental to the country, should be stopped. Who should we believe? Does this mean that the country is going to stop borrowing to stop subsidy or that it would continue borrowing the money but use it for ‘infrastructure development’?

• What will the 75% percent of the N2000 million left be used for? If this money has not been effective in these promised ‘infrastructure developments’ all these years, then surely 25% will not. Why must the President force the already impoverished populace to pay for the debts brought about by the subsidy which was originally imposed on them by the same government? Why not put infrastructure in place that will minimise and eventually eliminate the country’s dependence on a fuel subsidy?

• There are a few refineries in the country that have either been neglected or under-utilized by previous leaders so that they can dole out the fuel subsidy money to these fuel importers who were their ‘friends/business partners’ and this engendered a culture of fuel subsidy. This means that contrary to what the current President is trying to make people believe, the real evil is not fuel subsidy. The real evil is the fact that these refineries, which at full capacity can meet the fuel needs of the country, have been paralysed in order to promote the fuel subsidy. Therefore removal of the subsidy is not the solution the country needs. The only solution that can bring true relief to both the government and the people is repairing the refineries and building new ones. This way, the country won’t need to import finished petroleum products and will even provide jobs for its common people.

• One would have thought that there are more sensible ways to implement such a policy. For example, the President should have announced that he plans to remove the fuel subsidy at a given time in the future and that at the moment, resources will be channelled to renovate the refineries in the country so that there can be a gradual transition from fuel subsidy era to local production. Perhaps even validate his words by stating that there will be no removal until at least one of the refineries is working at full capacity. If he had gone ahead to put these words into actions, the reaction from the masses would have been different. That way, the people will see that he was a man of his words and throw their support behind any further reforms he planned to make. Nigerians have long lived with the empty words of past leaders that they no longer trust mere words – you need to act in order to convince them that you are genuine.

• True, there is corruption in the country, but I strongly believe that the only reason this evil has lived on for so long is because our leaders ignore people that have been so publicly known to have embezzled money or aided in such embezzlement. They have made them above the law and since there is no punishment for such offenders, the offence continues and breeds new forms each day. If the current President is as determined as he claims in curbing corrupt practices, then there is only one option – make people accountable for their wrongdoings.

• Allegedly, these fuel importers have been reaping the subsidy from the government and then smuggling them out of the country. Who are they? Why are they not being questioned or investigated? Could it possibly be that the President is not competent enough to find out what is going on or that he has full knowledge of the issues but lacks the courage to bring these fraudulent people to book? Perhaps, he is afraid of confronting the thieves who also happen to be some of the richest people in the country.

Provided that the President ignores embezzlement in government ministries as his predecessors had done in the past or thinks that it will end without any action on his part, then the removal of the subsidy will neither stop corruption nor save the economy of the country. At the end of the day, the only thing that the President will succeed in achieving is handing over control of the country’s fuel needs to the greedy fuel importers while widening the ever-growing gap between the few rich and the poor masses.

I support that the fuel subsidies should be put back immediately, and then a withdrawal plan backed up by action be implemented so that the subsidy removal occurs at such a time in the future when the idle refineries are repaired and brought into operation to ease off both the government and the Nigerian people.

A concerned Nigerian
Tel: (07570369019)
E-mail: thdeze@yahoo.fr
Please publish this article for me. I wish to remain anonymous.
Send to: yourpics@bbc.co.uk