By Paul Dada
President Bola Tinubu and his speech writer(s) need to learn how to humanely communicate to the public the hard policies or choices ( even if beneficial) of his administration.
Although, I thought the president’s inaugural speech was brilliant, I hold that the way he announced the end to fuel subsidy, sounded harsh if not brash, and left much to be desired.
The result of the “fuel subsidy is gone” declaration by Tinubu was the panic buying of the Premium Motor Spirit by the citizens, the hiking of its price per litre and its hoarding by fuel stations.
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The rough declaration has led to all sorts of half-baked analysis or even illiterate commentaries from otherwise educated folks who keep advertising their ignorance over this issue.
Under the current circumstances, Tinubu couldn’t have lawfully continued with the fuel subsidy regime beyond June.
The Buhari administration in the 2023 budget did not make provision for subsidy payments beyond the month of June. So, it would not make sense to commit funds into what is not captured in the Appropriation Act. There would be no legal backing for it.
Also, the outgoing 9th National Assembly passed the Petroleum Bill signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari. This Petroleum Act has no provision for the payment of subsidy.
The only way to bring subsidy back perhaps, is for the National Assemby to make a new law to the effect. But this will be injurious to the economy.
Subsidy is a demon we have been forced to accommodate for years. In 2022 alone subsidy gulped $10 billion.
Of course, subsidy came to be so the ordinary Nigerian could buy fuel at a reasonable low price. But it has through the years provided an unholy opportunity for rapists of our economy to steal funds and corruptly enrich themselves.
I recall that during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, some fuel importers were being prosecuted by the EFCC over allegedly collecting subsidy payments for importing nothing.
I blame the previous administrations for letting the situation be the way it is. If we had had high-capacity functional refineries, there would have been no need for fuel importation. And if we weren’t importing fuel, we wouldn’t be paying subsidy.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo sold the four moribund and comatose refineries ostensibly in the hope that private investors would rejuvenate them. But his successor, Umar Yar’Adua reversed the sale. That may have been a mistake. The government refineries have remained in a state of coma for years. Much money has been spent on turn-around maintenance which did not turn them around.
Thankfully, we now have the Dangote Refinery which is the largest single train refinerey in the world and has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil daily. We shall see what impact it would have when it begins producing by the end of July.
Still, Tinubu should not have rushed to declare subsidy gone. He ought to have waited to meet with stakeholders, engaged and enlightened them.
Tinubu also failed in his speech to explain or give the assurance of how his government would handle or ameliorate the temporary negative impact of fuel subsidy removal.
The president must learn to do better.
