studied the content of the press conference in Perth, Australia by Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke. Essentially, she claimed before the international community that the Federal Government has not taken a decision on the removal of oil subsidy and that no date has been fixed for the removal.
These are untrue statements calculated to mislead the international community and to lure Nigerians away from the on-going mobilization against this anti-people policy.
The truth is that President Goodluck Jonathan in his letter to the National Assembly on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework of his administration stated categorically that the government has decided to remove fuel subsidy and that the take off date is January 2012. Also the President on his way to the Commonwealth Summit in Perth, Australia, to which the Petroleum Minister accompanied him, had told the country that fuel subsidy must be removed as the alternative is the collapse of the economy. So Mrs. Allison-Madueke is not forthright on this matter and the NLC urges Nigerians not to relent in their patriotic mobilization to resist this policy that will further impoverish the citizenry.
In any case, the issue at stake is not whether the Jonathan administration is yet to take a position or is confused as to what decision to take, the patriotic issue is that fuel subsidy should not be removed.
The fundamental issue is not the per-second denials of government officials, but that the Jonathan administration should side with the Nigerian people.
It should be noted that the whole debate which has pitched government and its cronies against the Nigerian people, was started by the Federal Government which is still expending huge public funds on this maneuver.
The position of the NLC is that our oil resources which should be an advantage to the country should be used for the benefit of the people; that as Nigerians, we should have comparative advantage on prices of petroleum products over citizens of non-oil producing states.
The NLC rejects the Petroleum Minister’s lamentation that Government cannot check the fraud in subsidy because “… we are not in a military regime, the market forces of supply and demand has to be allowed to a certain extent”. We think that this is a rationalization of criminality and an admission of failure. We do not need a military regime to deal with criminality, what we need is a democratic process of bringing culprits before a court of competent jurisdiction and dispensing justice.
The Minister’s announcement that a Think Tank is being proposed by Government on the subsidy issue is laughable as Government should have done so and thought through the process before announcing subsidy removal. Also, her claims that Government wants to consult “stakeholders” on the issue is like putting the cart before the horse; that should have been a basic step before Government announcement of its decision to remove oil subsidy.
Her announcement that the subsidy to be removed would be used for road works, public maintenance, mass transportation, youths skill development, maternity and child care is gimmickry; what are the huge resources of the country which are at the disposal of Government used for? The reality is that despite the trillions of naira budgeted annually for these basic needs, the roads remain in a deplorable state, public maintenance is absent, mass transportation is non-existent, youths are abandoned as are the public hospitals leading to high mother and child mortality rates.
The Petroleum Minister also announced that the proceeds of the subsidy removal will be managed by Nigerians of integrity. The question is, who are those managing the national economy and the annual budgets; if they are not Nigerians of integrity, why not handover the economy to such Nigerians?
Recreating a DIFFRI as General Ibrahim Babangida did, or a Petroleum Trust Fund as General Sani Abacha did, is disingenuous. Government should simply leave its induced oil subsidy in place.
The Minister’s statement that “We (Jonathan administration) cannot please all the people all the time” rings hollow. While this is a truism, the removal of oil subsidy will displease 99 percent Nigerians. If Government disproves this, it should subject its fuel subsidy removal to a referendum.
Rather than this endless rigmarole, the NLC advises the Government to drop the so called fuel subsidy removal and concentrate on actual governance and the alleviation of the suffering of the people.
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