Fuel Price: See What Politics, Hypocrisy Have Caused!

By Onuoha Ukeh

Last week Wednesday, when the Federal Government announced the increase in the price of petrol, from N86. 50 to N145 per litre, I went to a filling station to buy fuel. The time was 11.15pm. On the queue before me was this commercial tricycle operator, who was, surprisingly, excited that he was paying N145 for a litre of petrol he had bought N86. 50 a few hours ago. As he handed his money to the filling station attendant, after being served, he said, with a wry smile on his face: “If they (government officials) like, they should increase the price further. We will continue to buy fuel. Nigerians must survive, whether government likes it or not.”

I saw on the man’s face an obvious scorn for government. Where he was supposed to be angry that a government and a group of politicians, who had made Nigerians to believe that the previous government was clueless, incompetent and unpatriotic, are simply hypocrites, who say one thing and do completely another, he appeared overwhelmed by shock, which has turned to disdain and derision. Like this tricycle operator, most Nigerians would rather mock the government than cry for an action, which would definitely increase their suffering and hardship.   It is a feeling of regret, a feeling that one has when his trust has been betrayed.  It was such a feeling that Julius Caesar had when he was stabbed by Brutus, during the conspiracy that claimed his life. Caesar had exclaimed, when Brutus thrust the dagger into his back: “Et tu Brute?” (Even you, Brutus?).

To be sure, when the hike in the price of fuel was announced last week, most Nigerians felt betrayed. Who would have believed that President Buhari would approve the hiking of fuel price, having opposed this previously? Indeed, Nigerians will not forget January 1, 2012, when the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of subsidy and effected an increase in the pump price of fuel to N141 per litre. When this happened, President Buhari, who was then smarting from defeat in the presidential election of 2011, about seven months earlier, condemned the action. Former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, kicked against it. Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, rejected it. Erudite Pastor Tunde Bakare not only preached against it but also participated in a mass action organised by the Save Nigeria Group he co-convened and other groups. Many members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were in Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) then, spoke against the increase in fuel price. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), human rights groups and activists opposed the price hike. Indeed, the groundswell of opposition gave fillip to a street protest, wherein the opposition took over a square in Ojota, Lagos to hold what could pass for “political adoration.” And for days, Lagos and some major cities were grounded. We remember that the President Jonathan administration, face-to-face with imminent crash of government and democracy, buckled and reversed itself, only making a slight increase to N87 per litre.

Buhari, When Transparency Matters

Paul Onomuakpokpo

What is more alarming in the midst of the current  crisis  of  fuel price increase is not really its searing impact on the lives of the citizens . Of course, the increase throws into sharp relief the calamitous  progression of  the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari  from a disavowal of promises to a brazen affliction of the citizens with policies  that would effectively plunge  them to the nadir of despair. But what is clearly grimmer is the path of the lack of transparency that the Buhari administration has taken.

*Buhari 

Remember, desperate to clinch the presidency in 2015, Buhari and his co-travellers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the giddy days of the campaigns made several promises that apparently portrayed them as fully reconciled to the urgent need to rescue the citizens from the depredations of a ruthless political class. They promised to pay unemployed graduates N5,000, create jobs for the teeming population of the unemployed and through a magic wand known only to them transmute the  severely decimated naira  from trailing behind the dollar  to a pedestal of parity of  N1 to $1.

But since almost a year that Buhari became president these promises among others have either been blatantly denied or totally neglected.  It is not only that the promised stipend has not been paid but that the rank of the unemployed has bourgeoned against the backdrop of failing companies due to the worsening economic crisis.  And instead of the promised parity, the naira continues to crash, with heightened speculations that it would soon hit N500 to a dollar .

No doubt, while the citizens wait for the government to make the right policies to improve their condition, it is clear that they are currently beset with  a cruel fate. Or how else do we explain a situation where while their economic power is becoming more vitiated, they are compelled by the government to pay more to live in the country? Since those first few days of the Buhari administration when it appeared as if electricity had improved in response to his so-called body language, the nation has been plunged deeper into darkness . Yet, the Buhari administration increased the tariff regime, contrary to his promise to improve electricity. The citizens protested, whined about the injustice in paying for a service that was not provided. Some went to court to seek judicial ramparts against this impunity. But the Buhari administration and the electricity companies have had their way.

Buhari, Please, Reverse This Anti-People Fuel Increase Immediately

By Mike Ozekhome

The recent increase in the price of fuel from N86 to N145 is the most incensate, unsympathetic and anti-people decision the PMB government has yet taken in its flip-flop one year of clueless and directionless govt. At a time Nigerians are already groaning under a grotesque over 500% increase in prices of ordinary consumables with the miserly non living wage of N18,000.00 unaltered, it is inconceivable that the government will add to the pains, anguish, pangs and sufferings of ordinary Nigerians whose only crime is that they “voted” for “change”.

*Buhari 

This government has indecently reversed all its promises to the Nigerian people, treating them as inconsequential nonentities in its governance index. It is not about whether there are advantages in the increase. It is simply about honour, dignity and integrity in fulfilling election promises, which constitute a pact, pactum sunt servanda (agreements must be respected) with the Nigerian people.

It is commonsensical that a fall in the international price of crude oil should only lead to a further fall in the prices of PMS in Nigeria. No one needs to be an acclaimed economist to know thus simple truism. But, the Buhari government treats Nigerians with levity and disdain, as if they do not matter in its governance template and index. The already overburdened masses, who are groaning under excruciating economic woes are again told to go to hell.

Politics Of Fuel Subsidy

By Sunday John

ONCE  again, the issue of fuel subsidy has come to the crucible of socio-economic life of Nigerians. Politics of fuel subsidy withdrawal has been a recurring issue over the years, from the time of General Yakubu Gowon as head of state. No government has come without harassing and intimidating Nigerians with fuel pump price increase and/or complete removal of fuel subsidy, otherwise called deregulation. It appears to have become a pastime for our rulers especially when they want to make scapegoats for their corruption, failures and economic naivety.

All governance ineptitude by the political rulers are heaped on fuel subsidy. It is the reason for the country’s backwardness, abysmal infrastructure, debt burden, poverty, corruption, etc. That is the reason the populace is intermittently administered with some obsolete concoctions of the benefits of subsidy removal by every successive government. Buhari may not have engaged in this sophistry of the benefits of subsidy removal because of some want of oratory. Indeed, as long as fuel subsidy is concerned, Nigerians have gone through a lot of torture in the hands of various governments. We have been harassed, tormented and bamboozled.

 Protests against fuel pump price increase/subsidy removal have cost lives, wastage and destructions. The ruling class are, of course, not the victims. The victims are the commoners, on whom they unleash their mediocrity and sadism. Like the ancient Roman emperors, the governments of Nigeria revel in seeing their subjects fight with the beast of subsidy now and again in the amphitheater.

 It is entertainment for them to hear us cry, see us abandon our legitimate duties and spill to the streets in protest, and our children roam the streets because schools are shut. Otherwise, how can a president or the ruling class that say they understand our pains add to the same pains instead of ameliorating it? The government knows that petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, is one thing that affects the lives of all Nigerians irrespective of their social status or age. All aspects of life is based on it, and that is why the people do not react happily to any tampering with its price. With a high currency exchange rate that has triggered inflation and put private businesses at risk, the removal of fuel subsidy at this time is nothing but rubbing salt in a putrefying sore.

Fix the Fuel Supply Problem; Don’t Dump It On Nigerians

By Moses E. Ochonu

Now that one has had time to digest the announcement of a massive increase in petrol price, one should enter a few comments. The astronomical hike has nothing to do with the “cost of production” argument we have become accustomed to hearing. There is some cost involved in refining crude oil abroad and transporting it to Nigeria, but with crude being so cheap, the previous price of 86 naira a litre had already accounted for all the cost, give or take a few naira.

With the price of crude inching up slightly in the last few weeks, it should add no more than a few nairas to the price if indeed we want to let market fluctuations modulate the pump price. This increase has everything to do with government’s last ditch effort to end the scarcity, which is caused by the inability of fuel importers to secure foreign exchange, a problem that was in turn caused by the government’s rigid restrictions on access to foreign exchange.

It was unrealistic to expect fuel importers without access to Forex at the official rate to continue to import fuel with Forex sourced from the parallel market ($1=N320) and then sell the same fuel at N86. They would have lost money. The Forex policy was a disincentive to fuel importation business and many importers simply stopped importing, especially since the government announced that it would no longer pay subsidy; subsidy being the difference between the total cost of importing fuel plus a small profit margin and the pump price. Now, with the deregulated regime, fuel importers can source Forex from the parallel market, import fuel, and sell at a price that would allow them to recoup their cost and make a small margin.

In other words, the government wittingly or unwittingly created a problem, which caused many fuel importers to quit the business, and the same government is now deregulating the sector fully so that it does not have to (1) pay subsidy, and (2) subsidise Forex for fuel importers. The government also desperately wants to end the fuel scarcity, which has eroded its political goodwill. In plain language, the government wants to kill three birds with one stone.

Another appropriate proverbial metaphor is that the government wants to eat its cake and have it too. It wants to subsidise neither Forex nor the difference between the cost of fuel importation and the pump price, but at the same time it wants fuel to become widely available. The government wants to transfer the burden of solving a fuel scarcity problem caused by its Forex restriction policy to Nigerians. The government is throwing Nigerians to the jaws of fuel marketers in the hope that, as long as fuel becomes widely available through improved supply, Nigerians will forgive the insensitivity of the policy, especially since this will also mean the end of the fraudulent subsidy regime that Nigerians universally despise.

Petrol: N145 Per Litre For Who?

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government – Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution
• WHY is it always easy for us to choose sentiment over logic? 
• Why would anyone celebrate “deregulation of price of petrol?”
• What are the bases of the celebrations? 

(pix:SR)

• How are MARKET FORCES supposed to flow through fuel at N145 per litre eventually downwards? 
• Why do we often situate our arguments by referring to price of fuel abroad?
• Where is the security and welfare of Nigerians in this decision?
• Has the primary purpose of government changed?
• Who changed it?
• What replaced it?

Some basic FACTS:
• Fuel is still imported.
• Price of fuel is based on US Dollars (or Chinese Yuan Renminbi)
• If the Naira falls against the US Dollar (or Chinese Yuan Renminbi), the price of fuel will not be N145 per litre
• If the Naira gains against the US Dollar (or Chinese Yuan Renminbi) there are no guarantees that the price would go below N145 per litre
• There is scarcity of foreign exchange meaning that N145 per litre will not work
• “Everybody can bring in petrol” is not true, regulatory strictures are plenteous
• Our porous borders mean that the products would end up other countries willing to pay more than N145 per litre 
• Our refineries never work at any reasonable capacity
• An increase in the price of fuel doubles prices of most goods and services, food, transportation
• Inflation will spiral

We Shall Resist This Increase – Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)

The unilateral increase in prices of petroleum products today by government represents the height of insensitivity and impunity and shall be resisted by the Nigeria Labour Congress and its civil society allies.

With the imposition on the citizenry of criminal and unjustifiable electricity tariff and resultant darkness and other economic challenges brought on by the devaluation of the Naira and spiraling inflation, the least one had expected at this point in time was another policy measure that would further make life more miserable for the ordinary Nigerian

The latest increase is the most audacious and cruel in the history of product price increase as It represents not only about 80 per cent increase but it is tied to the black market exchange rate.

Further more, the process through which government arrived at this is both illogical and illegal as the board of the PPPRA is not duly constituted. In our previous statements and communiques, we had stressed the need for reconstituting the boards of NNPC and PPPRA and wean both away from the overbearing influence of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources who has assumed the role of a Sole Administrator.