₦airaland Forum

Well some good points. Welfare is the primary aim of govt.

But the big issue:Do we have the money to continue this largesse??

A staggering 3.7Trillion so far this year, and even at that NNPC says govt still owes 2.8t. overall debt is over 77Trillion!!

We borrowing into oblivion just to sustain this subsidy. Let's be honest, we can't continue this way.

Are you aware you have to repay that debt someday??

We are pushing the debt for unborn generations, simply because we want cheap oil. That is uncharitably and indefensibly immoral.

We need to face our shiit once and for all!

Yes, as a father I want the best for my children, but I can't keep borrowing far beyond my means to achieve that.

Removing subsidy without removing the fraudsters is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. As long as the fraudsters in government are still in charge, fund realised from subsidy removal will be mismanaged and stolen! The problem is not subsidy but our corrupt government officials.... Nothing will change until we purge the system.....

motayoayinde:
YOU DO HAVE A POINT.
HOWEVER, THE TERRIBLE FRAUD THAT THE OIL SUBSIDY HAS BECOME IN NIGERIA IS ABOUT TO KILL US.

IT HAS TO GO

Am not a Tinubu fan, but wholly support this move. Subsidy needs to go.

Btw this is false:

but you have to understand that these oil cabals would get their money anyway either from the subsidy or from 700 per litre petrol prices

,

Bebigiby1:
Can NNPC or oil marketers defend the figures purported to be the cost of fuel subsidy and amount of fuel consumed by Nigerians? Of course they can't justify the astronomical rise in subsidy payments if probed by a serious government.... Again, why must Nigerians pay for the mismanagement, looting, corruption and wrong decisions of our leaders? If the APC government was serious about fuel subsidy payments why didn't they build a new refinery within the last 8 years? Also there have been several petroleum subsidy litigations during this period that exposed massive graft by both government officials and private participants in the petroleum industry, why did our anti-graft agencies and committees fail to conclude investigations and prosecute these litigations? The truth is that removing subsidy which to me is a cosmetic approach to solving the underlying issues will only make our current economic situation worse as you can already see what is happening today..... You said that "....So, unless you want us to pay tax rates of 20-40% as they do in the UK....we cannot afford subsidy. And even if we cut cost of governance, at best it would bring in 1-2 trillion naira. At best. Subsidy costs this year have passed 3 trillion naira. And the year is not over." UK has a strong system of checks and balances to curtail stealing and abuse of public funds so you can't compare that to Nigeria. The main reason for the huge increases in subsidy payouts is simply corruption and greed by NNPC, politicians and marketers.... I believe that a serious government that is willing to establish a transparent fuel subsidy payment regime can address these issues without removing subsidy. Above all a serious government must as a matter of urgency build modular refineries and create innovative empowerment programs that will help key players in the Nigerian upstream petroleum sector to reduce cost and encourage local refining....

Whereas if we kept the subsidy, the deficit in the budget from keeping it would have grown and eaten our revenue...and then made us borrow more and more.

The subsidy had to go. If we kept it, we would have been in more and more debt.

Bebigiby1:
Removing subsidy without removing the fraudsters is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. As long as the fraudsters in government are still in charge, fund realised from subsidy removal will be mismanaged and stolen! The problem is not subsidy but our corrupt government officials.... Nothing will change until we purge the system.....

YOU ALSO HAVE A POINT.

BUT LET'S GET RID OF THE SMALLER MALIGNANT CANCER WHICH IS FEEDING THE LARGER ONE.

You still have not answered the question why can't government run a transparent subsidy payment regime? How much does Nigerians consume as fuel on a monthly basis? Do marketers inflate subsidy claims? Are they overpaid by Nigerian government? These questions must be answered before we can boldly say that subsidy should be removed or not.... Whatever that is eating our revenue will continue to do so even if subsidy is removed.... We must analyse underlying issues of corruption in the petroleum sector just as the OP said "...you have to understand that these oil cabals would get their money anyway either from the subsidy or from 700 per litre petrol prices, the oil cabals would get their money." removing fuel subsidy remains a cosmetic approach to the issue and it won't benefit Nigerians....

nairalanda1:
Whereas if we kept the subsidy, the deficit in the budget from keeping it would have grown and eaten our revenue...and then made us borrow more and more.

The subsidy had to go. If we kept it, we would have been in more and more debt.

Bebigiby1:
You still have not answered the question why can't government run a transparent subsidy payment regime? How much does Nigerians consume as fuel on a monthly basis? Do marketers inflate subsidy claims? Are they overpaid by Nigerian government? These questions must be answered before we can boldly say that subsidy should be removed or not.... Whatever that is eating our revenue will continue to do so even if subsidy is removed.... We must analyse underlying issues of corruption in the petroleum sector just as the OP said "...you have to understand that these oil cabals would get their money anyway either from the subsidy or from 700 per litre petrol prices, the oil cabals would get their money." removing fuel subsidy remains a cosmetic approach to the issue and it won't benefit Nigerians....

Oga, the issue is, I am not answering your question because EVEN if there is a TRANSPARENT SUBSIDY REGIME....the more the difference bettwen the cost of production and the subsidzed price of petrol grows, the more the cost of the subsidy.

And the more our consumption grows...because of our growing populaiton and growing needs for power , the more the cost of the subsidy.

The corruption and lack of transparency makes a bad matter worse.


And as subsidy grows, we would take money from other parts of the budget.....until we reach a point where our entire revenue and budget would be going for subsidy.

And here is the harsh truth...we have long since reached that point.

And we were, as someone has said here, already BORROWING to pay for the subsidy directly.

You see the problem.

sukkot:
I am gobsmacked when I read from citizens especially on nairaland supporting the removal of petroleum subsidy. Only in Africa does a human being support a policy that would incapacitate him and grind him to a halt into a community gridlock as we have seen in the past few days where everything has come to a halt as people cannot afford to pay 700 per litre at the pumps .

You people have to understand that there is absolutely no benefit to the populace in removing the subsidy. That subsidy is THE WELFARE PACKAGE that GOD has allowed the leaders to give us because they know society has to move and people must be able to move around to conduct their businesses out of which the government can then have a tax base to get money from. So this fuel subsidy is a WELFARE PACKAGE for the citizenry so as to be able to move around affordably to conduct their businesses out of which the government can then have a tax base to draw money from and so this subsidy keeps the society going and just like they have WELFARE BENEFITS in the west where they pay their citizens hardship money so that they can still live and move around, the subsidy is our governments way of indirectly giving us welfare. The welfare package total bill in the UK Is around 400 Billion pounds. Do you think the people in the UK would support the government ending their welfare ? They would destroy that country and riot but only in Africa will a zombie support the government in taking his welfare package and grinding the society to a halt when people can’t afford to move around again

And so there is the argument that it’s free money paid by government to the oil company cabals etc etc but you have to understand that these oil cabals would get their money anyway either from the subsidy or from 700 per litre petrol prices, the oil cabals would get their money. They are in it for the profit and not for charity and so they must get paid and the government is paying them on our behalf by paying the subsidy. All the cheap fuel we buy is our welfare package and the government is paying the difference on our behalf to the oil cabals in subsidy and so by removing the subsidy the government is simply telling us that they have no other creative ways of generating more money so we have to stop this welfare we pay to the citizens. The government is looking for free easy money without having to work for it and this is the easiest way for them to do it. They do not want to do the hard work that China did to increase their tax base so that the government can have more taxes. Look at the whole south east ? Full of brilliant minds. That whole south east is ripe for an industrial revolution. Turn the whole south east to a manufacturing hub and invite investors from all over the world to come and manufacture their products there . The country would be rich overnight as foreign currency flows in and government has more money money to tax and this way they don’t have to look for money by going for low hanging fruit like removing subsidy. This is the government telling you it has no ideas and ways to generate money and is looking for the easy way out which is terminating the WELFARE PACKAGE of the citizens and you zombies are supporting your own slaughter

My brother, we have the most disguisting set of humans there has ever been here. Ethnic bigotry and petty politics has eaten so deep into there brains. They are nothing but worthless entities, dragging us down. I feel like rounding them up and nuking them for good. By then, may be we will be united and stand up to these smelling, old men holding this country down.

dejol88:
The worst part is that after the claims by the politicians they have not reduced their own expenditure but want the masses to understand. Infact many Nigerians don’t think at all. Something that everyone should be on street.

Have said it before. Every nigeria should be on the street protesting. Kick those criminals out of power

You said "....EVEN if there is a TRANSPARENT SUBSIDY REGIME....the more the difference between the cost of production and the subsidzed price of petrol grows" I disagree because a transparent subsidy regime will expose the monumental corruption that has plagued the sector for years. As long as we can not establish with fact the actual amount of fuel Nigerians consume on a daily or monthly basis we are only borrowing to fund a corrupt system. Since the government of the day doesn't want to do the hard work of regulating the sector or establishing the truth as regards fuel consumption and cost (Oil Marketers Subsidy Payouts) if the subsidy is removed it won't be surprising that we may still borrow to fund the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) once it is removed (The same mismanagement and corruption that plagued the fuel subsidy payment regime will also affect SURE-P).... Tinubu's APC government lacks the integrity to handle such a delicate policy like removal of subsidy... Nigerians must reject the sudden removal of fuel subsidy by Tinubu....

nairalanda1:
Oga, the issue is, I am not answering your question because EVEN if there is a TRANSPARENT SUBSIDY REGIME....the more the difference bettwen the cost of production and the subsidzed price of petrol grows, the more the cost of the subsidy.

And the more our consumption grows...because of our growing populaiton and growing needs for power , the more the cost of the subsidy.

The corruption and lack of transparency makes a bad matter worse.


And as subsidy grows, we would take money from other parts of the budget.....until we reach a point where our entire revenue and budget would be going for subsidy.

And here is the harsh truth...we have long since reached that point.

And we were, as someone has said here, already BORROWING to pay for the subsidy directly.

You see the problem.

its like borrowing money to do giveaway. it has to go, fuel in Benin, Niger, Cameroon, Togo cost over 500 they have not died. Nigerians will adjust last last.

Bebigiby1:
You said "....EVEN if there is a TRANSPARENT SUBSIDY REGIME....the more the difference between the cost of production and the subsidzed price of petrol grows" I disagree because a transparent subsidy regime will expose the monumental corruption that has plagued the sector for years. As long as we can not establish with fact the actual amount of fuel Nigerians consume on a daily or monthly basis we are only borrowing to fund a corrupt system. Since the government of day doesn't want to do the hard work of regulating the sector or establishing the truth as regards fuel consumption and cost (Oil Marketers Subsidy Payouts) if the subsidy is removed it won't be surprising that we may still borrow to fund the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) once it is removed.... Tinubu's APC government lacks the integrity to handle such a delicate policy like removal of subsidy... Nigerians must reject the sudden removal of fuel subsidy by Tinubu....

Yes, I think the government lacks integ myself.

But the truth is, we have reached a point of no return.

If we keep the subsidy, we would run out of money. Literally run out of money.

Good afternoon.

As I said there have been several fuel subsidy litigations that exposed massive graft by both government officials and private actors in the petroleum industry. If truly we don't have money to fund subsidy the government if sincere can go after these cases and start to recover looted funds siphoned as subsidy payouts to "Oil Marketers" through NNPC and other government agencies in the petroleum sector.... As I said in previous post the government is only deceiving Nigerians and don't want to do the hard work.... we simply can't trust APC government.....

nairalanda1:
Yes, I think the government lacks integ myself.

But the truth is, we have reached a point of no return.

If we keep the subsidy, we would run out of money. Literally run out of money.

Good afternoon.

ednut1:
its like borrowing money to do giveaway. it has to go, fuel in Benin, Niger, Cameroon, Togo cost over 500 they have not died. Nigerians will adjust last last.

I don't think many of you understand the issue here, the money made from this subsidy will be embezzle by our corrupt politicians,
In two years time we will be here talking about it aka rinse and repeat, I spit

Gradually everybody will get tired of this country, this country was never design to prosper

i understand we don't really trust our governments but it makes absolutely no sense to be spending the below on education, health, security etc and be spending over 4trillion p.a on subsidies. The people we pay subsidy to are not up to 200. Common!

Wutinky:
I don't think many of you understand the issue here, the money made from this subsidy will be embezzle by our corrupt politicians,
In two years time we will be here talking about it aka rinse and repeat, I spit

Gradually everybody will get tired of this country, this country was never design to prosper

You say so because we don't trust the government. There's a point you get to in life that you just allow. If you've been to the hospital, you will understand. Nobody is doing shakara when in pain. You don't care what the doctor does or touches irrespective of gender or trust. Or if you are drowning/choking and someone is trying to rescue you, you don't care if it's the "devil" at the point of resuscitation.
Nigeria is seriously bleeding from subsidies, everyone has said it regardless of party affiliation.