Determined to go ahead with its plan to remove the unproved subsidy on petroleum, the federal government is resorting to various tactics to force acceptance on the nation. One of such was the announcement it made last week that it held a meeting with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). The latter, through its acting Secretary, Owei Lakemfa, promptly denied that such a meeting took place. It (NLC) however said that it was ready to meet the government as long as the agenda of such a meeting is known beforehand.Earlier in another report, the same federal government had announced that the Council of States and the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) have supported its plan to remove the subsidy.Before then still, a spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Levi Ajunoma had made two remarkable points. Firstly, he denied the report by Jakarta Post, an Indonesian newspaper that Nigeria's federal government was trying to build a petrol refinery in that country. Second, Ajuonoma disclosed that the government, under President Goodluck Jonathan, is committed to building the three refineries it announced eight months ago. He assured that work has already started in the planned refineries sited respectively in Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi states.A report by Guardian on Sunday (October 23, 2011) however revealed that investigative visits to the three areas where the refineries were to be located shown that no work has commenced in any of them. The federal government, through the NNPC 'is presently on the verge of building three Greenfield Refineries in Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi States with the country's international partners and therefore it does not make any sense to embark on any such project,' Ajuonuma, who is the Group General Manager (Group Public Affairs Division) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had said while refuting the story of the $2.68 billion, 300barrel per day planned refinery project in Indonesia.Government has based its argument for subsidy removal on two major planks. The first is that the subsidy is benefiting only a few powerful people. The second is that non-removal of the subsidy has been the disincentive for those who wanted to establish refineries in Nigeria. The insincerity of the government is very conspicuous on both accounts. Firstly, if it is true that some people are taken undue advantage of the subsidy, is removal rather than apprehending and prosecuting the culprits, the solution' Do we, for instance, pull down a building because criminals take advantage of the owners not being around or we install security measures around the building' Do those in the corridors of power apply sense ' or at least concede that those of us outside have some sense at all'On the second issue, if the 21 odd firms and individuals given licences to establish refineries since about two years ago did not do so, why cann't the government establish same when it knows the importance of the industry' In any case, what happens to its four refineries that have, like the electricity sector, gulped billions of naira with nothing to show for the huge sum'In November 2000, a few of us activists visited the then President Olusegun Obasanjo in Aso Rock with what we called 21 Point Agenda. The agenda was presented by Comrade Moshood Erubami on our behalf. One issue we underlined on the occasion was the need to build functional oil refineries in parts of the country. When responding, Obasanjo, in his usual lugubriousness, lambasted us for our ignorance. According to him, a refinery takes not less than nine months to be built whereas the problem he faced then was finding a way of ensuring that fuel was available for Nigerians at petrol stations. He promised to embark on the refinery issue after first use the stop-gap measure of importation to prevent a halt in the country's transport and industrial sectors. Today, 11 years on, there is no refinery despite the fact that the same person was in the saddle for eight years while he handed over to persons of his choice. Eleven years after, we are faced with the possibility of buying a litre of petrol, from January next year, at about N200. We are being deceived by a remark last weekend in which President Goodluck was quoted as resisting the urge by his Economic Team to remove subsidy from kerosene also. He had been quoted as saying that it is poor people who use kerosene; as such subsidy on it must be retained. The deceit was not long in being discovered. On the eve of his departure for Australia earlier this week, he was reported to have told a meeting of PDP big-wigs that fuel subsidy has to be removed otherwise the country's economy will ground to a halt.The federal government's 'trick' is not shrouded at all. The kite of N200 per litre is flown. At the end of the day, it will settle for about N100 'in deference to popular opinion and its love for the masses'. And after sometime, kerosene which will sell for N50 per litre at the beginning will also go off the roof. An artificial scarcity will be created first. People would begin to agitate that the commodity be made available even at a higher cost than they were buying it before. Then, it would be made available.Government has been doing this for a long time. Every indication points to the fact that it will do so still. It only needs to remember that even a fool has an elastic limit. An otherwise sober individual, Professor Ben Nwabueze said recently that he has come to a painful conclusion that only a bloody revolution can bring Nigeria back to a redemptive route. Many Nigerians and many Nigeria watchers have no reasons to disagree with the constitutional lawyer.The way it is going about this 'fuel subsidy removal' mantra, the federal government and its hirelings are saying that without removing subsidy, the country's economy, if not the country itself, will ground to a halt. A replay of Ibrahim Babangida's sing song of 'there is no alternative to SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) in 1986.To think that what is happening in the Arab world today may not happen in Nigeria is to live in a dreamland. Nigerian political elites, you are being warned!jareajayi@yahoo.com
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