By Oluwole Ogundele
People-centred economic policies and their implementation are an effective non-kinetic methodological approach to sustainable peace and development of any country. Nigeria can only be an exception at its own peril. Government is for the living and not the dead in their graves. The removal of fuel subsidy in May was a welcome development because it would, according to the government, stop the sale of this product by a few members of the upper class to African countries as far afield as Sudan. This was happening at the expense of the Nigerian masses. Therefore, the accrued monies from this new policy, are supposed to be spent on the provision of infrastructural facilities among other things.
However, the masses who are usually the victims of poor leadership over the years, did not completely believe the story of the ruling class. They are naturally distrustful of the Nigerian political leadership based on antecedent activities and actions with a special emphasis on petrol subsidy removal. Previous administrations made a lot of promises which they never fulfilled. Therefore, Nigerians are legitimately tired of their empty rhetoric as the situation continues to go from bad to worse.
Read Also; Troops kill 13 terrorists, rescue nine victims in Zamfara, Kaduna
Nigerians are no longer suitably impressed with high-sounding economic theories often packaged by some advisers to our political authority. Maximum corruption has become a tradition in the country. Selfless service to humanity has no space in the Nigerian political discourse. Therefore, this administration has to concretely prove that it is different from the previous ones. This may be a bitter pill for the reactionaries in our midst to swallow. As far as those benefitting illicitly from the government are concerned, it is too early to begin to worry about palliative measures. This group of Nigerians only reads about abject material poverty in our local newspapers. They have no experiential knowledge of starvation. The ruling elite are not on a par with the led. Despite the good intention of President Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima for Nigeria, they need to be much more mindful than hitherto about the danger of listening to such advisers. The rich who have been robbing the ordinary Nigerians blind must also cry! Those who have stolen our national material riches must be made to return some of them. The Nigerian masses are asking for justice and equity. The federal lawmakers must not furnish their offices at the expense of the led if they are truly patriotic. This is a critical period in our chequered history.
Read Also; Tinubu appoints UI student for presidential advisory committee
The PBAT/KS administration has promised to provide some palliatives due to the debilitating effects of the fuel subsidy removal. However, the purpose of these palliative measures would have been defeated if nothing happened in the next one or two weeks. There is widespread human suffering in the land. Palliatives are short-term measures taken to mitigate economic hardships of a people. That is to say, that the arrangement is intended only as a stop-gap to prevent people from going to their early graves or become criminals. Although PBAT and KS inherited this ugliness, they cannot afford to drag their heels. Nigerian lives and their minimum comfort must matter. No excuses! No further delay!
Long-term solutions or measures can be delayed due to a wide range of factors including excessive bureaucracy. The socio-economic life and living of an average Nigerian have been heavily paralysed particularly in the last two months. The country is now a mini hell! The number of vehicles plying the roads has reduced drastically due to low patronage by commuters, who have resorted to compulsory trekking. This is because of a fare hike.
A few tyre repairers in my neighbourhood have stopped coming regularly to their places of work because of very low patronage. Small businesses are folding up or shrinking. These are existential realities. No food, no transportation, no good health! Many Nigerians have now become “walking corpses” and highly irritable. Extreme poverty as a form of war dehumanises. This poses a major security threat to the fabric of our society. It pains that the so-called representatives of the Nigerian people in the National Assembly, are detached from us and by extension, the philosophy of President Tinubu. That was the reason why they were talking recently about buying bulletproof cars and refurbishing their offices with a lousy amount of money from our national treasury. This is just too appallingly unpatriotic.
PBAT/KS can start cushioning the effects of the fuel subsidy removal within a week. For instance, the current obnoxious taxes being paid by public workers especially federal varsity staff, could be drastically reduced. After all, we don’t see what these taxes are being used for. Our “malnourished” roads including bridges are collapsing across the country. Yet more rains are coming this year. Again, this administration should stop the fraud called “Housing Contributions” (NHF) for staff in the federal universities. No agreement was reached between the government and workers’ unions to make such an exercise legal. In Nigeria, governance is not a social contract. Our leaders have forgotten that illicit material riches or juicy political offices are not a guarantee of happiness in the long run. Happiness is a by-product of robust service to humanity.
Would the savings from this fuel subsidy removal be managed in the interest of the common good? Palliatives in Europe and the US are successfully managed because there are effective punishment systems. Nobody is above the law. But can we trust our senior public officers with respect to Economic Impact Payments or Cash Transfers for the extremely poor Nigerians? Do we have reliable statistical data bases to ensure a credible distribution of relief materials and cash? Most people in leadership positions in Nigeria have a high propensity to steal public funds, because those corrupt officers before them were never punished. We were told that the Cash Transfers concept was allegedly abused in 2020. Suddenly, COVID-19 palliatives became COVID-419, as the former central political authority looked the other way. This is not the Nigeria of our dreams! The “Trader Moni” saga is also fresh in our minds. The Nigerian masses do not have a memory like a sieve.
Increase in the salaries of public workers will necessarily boost the local economy. Such monies permeate down to the entire society. Vegetable sellers as well as those in charge of stock-fish businesses among others would get better patronage. Even my wife, who has been avoiding her stock-fish customer like a plague in the last two months, would resume buying this stuff, in the face of a “salary relief.” All artisans would get more jobs. Let us stop deceiving ourselves! Salary increase, in my opinion, is the surest/safest way of helping the Nigerian masses, given the country’s peculiar political culture rooted in unbridled corruption. No one believes in the idea of cash transfers again. Indeed, no amount of high-tech weaponry can mitigate security challenges in Nigeria, in the face of dire material poverty and hopelessness. Many citizens are growing increasingly desperate as they live in subhuman conditions. Nigerians no longer need high-sounding economic theories/rhetoric and jargon, but urgent practical measures to stop these unprecedented agonies.