This year has been remarkable for pain, anxiety and fear. The nation-state is suffering from the cumulative effects of past leadership failure: ineptitude, inaction, misplaced priorities, errors of corruption, lack of vision and foresight, and general maladministration.
Yet, as some discerning people have argued, the trial, test and travails are inevitable. Nigerians may need to pass through the current “thorny path” for the country to survive. The government and the governed are paying the price for past mistakes, which the current corrective economic policies are meant to address.
Most Nigerians agree that fuel subsidies should be removed. It was the highlight of the campaign promises of the major presidential candidates in last year’s general election. The budget inherited from the past administration laid the foundation for the removal. But it is now a major bone of contention. Even past presidential candidates are employing it to blackmail the Federal Government and accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of inflicting pains, deliberately, on Nigerians.
Subsidy curators and beneficiaries are mounting a propagandist campaign to tarnish the government’s image. But it does not distract from the fact that these oil barons have forfeited the monopolistic opportunity to hold the country by the jugular. The privileged few have lost the chance to milk Nigeria through manipulative oil business.
Also, although the floating of the naira and its consequential devaluation have compounded the economic logjam, they are not obstacles to an economic recovery, which the administration is pursuing with its reform agenda. A man of courage, the Commander-in-Chief has decided to take certain hard decisions in the national interest. The fruits are coming in the long run.
President Tinubu has no antecedent of an aloofness or insensitivity to the plight of the common man whose interest he has devoted his entire political career to defend. Yet, no explanation would be rational or tenable to the ill-informed critics who claim to fight for the ‘hungry and angry’ masses who have slid further into deep penury.
Despite their access to state resources, those in government are not having peace of mind. They are inundated with complaints about the diminishing standard of living, the high cost of goods and services, and the gap between the promise of relief and the reality of a potentially disastrous downturn. Citizens want immediate or prompt solutions to long-standing problems, oblivious that managing an already dilapidated economy is not a tea party. Thus, appeals for more patience, sacrifice and perseverance fall on deaf ears.
The agitations of poor Nigerians are not without some justifications. Three square meals are no longer feasible. A feature of the adjustment is meal skipping. A particular culture is fading in Yoruba land. After meals, parents don’t usually ask their children if they have their fill. The period of surplus contrasts sharply with this moment of austerity.
Comfort in most homes is a tall order. Convenience is a luxury. People now take new lessons about the scale of preference and money management. The boring social condition has turned some fine gentlemen into executive beggars in urban centres. Many are adjusting to the reality of want and inadequacy wrongly.
Households are in turmoil. Couples argue and fight over money for housekeeping. The wife returns from the market grumbling about the exorbitant prices of consumables. The pitiful and exhausted breadwinner appeals to her to manage, explaining that he is still on the same salary level. The wife protests angrily and accepts her fate.
Certain expenditures are inevitable: school fees, rents, transport fares, utility bills. But workers complain that their salaries cannot take them home. Dependents suffer. May people not fall sick in this period. Hospital bills are on the high side. The cost of medication is burdensome. More people now patronise herb dealers. Others hold on to the efficacy of prayers.
Many car owners now dust their shoes. They leave their cars at home and join public transport. Others trek to work. It is a forced exercise. Inter-city travelling drains the purse. Either at the local bukateria or city eatery, food is expensive everywhere. They are not just affordable. Money is scarce. Bank customers withdraw more times than they save. Job losses are on the increase. Both employed and unemployed are united in agony. The difference between the two categories is thin.
The quality of living is on perpetual decline. Poverty is growing in leaps and bounds. Kids of those at the lowest rungs drop out of schools in droves. Global bodies are concerned about the turn of events in the education sector.
As people compare and contrast, many are disillusioned. There is nostalgia for the good old days. Sadly, many still prefer the past, which cannot rekindle a memory of happy times. More worrisome to them is the prospects of a bleak future. Indeed, there is fear about tomorrow.
Read Also: FG to adopt Digital Travel Credential to ease air travel
It is because the economy is on crutches; the Nigerian economy is limping. It has been battered and forced into a coma. It is not productive. Until recently, the government’s programme of diversification was hanging. It is a mono-economy, which exclusively thrives on oil that has been described as a blessing and a curse. At a time when electricity is stabilising, indeed, at a huge cost to stratified consumers, the petrol crisis is wiping away the meagre gains.
The economy has been bastardised by long years of mismanagement by successive managers. Critical sectors are on their knees. They are on life support in intensive care. The reality of state fragility is here, although a state failure is being averted. The burden is on Tinubu’s shoulders.
For a long time, huge debt burdens, large-scale embezzlement, misplaced priorities, tensions arising from the ill-structured governance, flawed constitution of the complex federal country, inexplicable insecurity and lack of patriotism by sharers of political control constituted a drawback. They still make Nigeria a country of misery and adversity, despite the nation’s potential.
A surgical operation is inevitable. That is what the current administration is doing. Sadly, the reforms also bring unavoidable pains that have triggered protests and rage. The mess and garbage being cleared are not the making of the current leadership. They were inherited. Be that as it may, government, as it is often said, is a continuum.
Those who led Nigeria to the current predicament are its past visionless leaders who failed to lay a solid foundation for a greater tomorrow.
Clearing the Augean stable is a herculean task. Sometimes, it is easier to build from scratch than to pull down a dilapidated edifice before rebuilding it. It is more distressing when the builder seems to lack the unalloyed cooperation and full compliments of co-builders who are in a vantage position to even sabotage the corrective measures through their hypocritical commitment.
President Tinubu probably had a premonition of the hard tasks ahead of him. He said nobody should pity him. He applied for the most difficult job in Africa.
But the captain needs the support and understanding of all and sundry, those who should bear in mind that today’s hardship must be endured in anticipation of a better tomorrow.
An economic crisis, even a depression, is not forever. There will be light at the end of the tunnel.
In the interim, individuals need to tighten their belts. Adaptation is crucial. Priorities should be got right. Tastes should be moderated. It is time for people to cut their coats according to their clothes. Unwise spending should be avoided.
Nigerians should support the government as it searches for effective solutions to the current petrol crisis.
The road to deregulation of fuel importation and supply is long and tortuous. The path is unclear. There are doubts. The government needs the political will to pursue and implement the policy. Private businessmen still suspect an inexplicable subsidy, making them think the coast is not clear.
People are hopeful about Dangote Refinery. But it is not the ultimate saviour. Dangote may harbour the fear that the NNPCL price of petrol per litre is lower than its cost price of petrol.
All government refineries should be revived fully. It is sad that Nigeria, which is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world, cannot boast a single functional refinery.
The investors already granted licences to operate refineries should be encouraged to come on stream.
Unless government refineries are fully operational, we should visualise the implications of a looming monopoly for the political economy.
Also, the government should hasten action on the compressed natural gas initiative.
The debate on solutions to the protracted fuel crisis continues.
