Contemporary empirical facts abound to suggest that fuel subsidy is more a farce than a fact.During the regime of late General Sani Abacha when the international community nearly excommunicated Nigeria, and hope of raising foreign finance was very dim, the junta decided to raise the pump price of PMS from N5 per litre to N11.00 with a promise to set aside the difference in a special account called the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) which was later managed by ebullient and unassailable patriot, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd). Through judicious application of the PTFund, Nigeria was able to see the benefit of paying commercial rate for petroleum products at the pump. Let me add here that if Nigeria has been fortunate to have Buhari to manage their finance again, governance could have ceased to be seen as dubious and devilish and not deserving any trust. Chief Obasanjo took it from N11.00 in 1999 and in eight years, took it to N70 per litre before the late Yar'Adua, his successor gave the people a respite of N5 to reverse the price to N65 per litre in May 2007. It is therefore brazen leadership irresponsibility and official lying for government to claim subsidy when we have been made to see and feel like a proud contributor to our own development under the PTF regime. Even if government has come to continue to increase pump price of petroleum products to raise more money for development from a vibrant sector, it is wrong to take the route of this mindless deceit of subsidy removal. In a democracy, every insincerity is tort of deceit and a felonious crime. Another very instructive lesson to the handlers of our polity today from the Buhari experiment is the fact that PTF earned its credibility both on trust and justification by performance but not by flamboyant lifestyle of its leadership. It is easier for people to follow leaders who are transparent and sincere even to a perilous war but not so with deceitful and clueless cheats. To tax the people further than necessary in a democracy, there must be accountability in public finance, there must be people-oriented agenda and leadership must be seen to be serious and determined to curb waste, graft and profligacy.Nigerians deserve to debate and agree in concrete terms what they are to expect if they sacrifice to pay a kobo more for their God's given resource. Or are we forever condemned to pay for leadership's inefficiency, bloated government, inefficient public service and a clueless political class that has left the people without electricity after 12 years of promises, bad roads, comatose railway systems, unhealthy educational institutions and scary health infrastructure. Or why has it remained an impossible task for successive administrations to make the local refineries work at their optimal levels despite huge turn around maintenance costs borne by tax payers' What has government been able to do to the flourishing business of oil bunkering on the high seas where Nigeria loses 600,000 barrels of crude oil on daily basis according to a 2011 Maritime Industry Advocacy report' And how will a government that cannot ensure that the international oil companies properly account for how much oil is extracted from our wells convince the people that it has no other option left to raise money than to increase pump price of the products for the peoples' local consumption'What is the motive of NNPC for suddenly taking over all the petroleum products retail outlets in Nigeria when government is deceiving the people that it was going the way of deregulation and liberalisation' Something is definitely wrong with this system and unless there is a change of this leadership style, the people may have a strong reason to revolt against this wanton display of insensitivity, unbridled corruption and parasitism on the commonwealth in due course.
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