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.
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| *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.
In
the guise of fighting corruption, the Buhari presidency has
remorselessly violated the constitutional imperative
of considering the accused innocent until proved otherwise . Yet, it
is the same judicial intervention he has sought to prevent labour from
embarking on strike. Those accused of corruption and the courts granted bail
are still being detained. Those who dared protested against the skewed manner
in which the anti-corruption campaign is being prosecuted have been branded as
people who are enamoured of a defeated past that was marred by corruption and
lawlessness.
It
is obviously because the Buhari administration’s predilection for impunity has
not been matched with strong opposition from the citizens that it has brazenly
increased the price of fuel. If as the presidency wants us to believe,
the fuel price increase is a bitter pill the citizens must swallow to revive
the economy, they should have been told this before the announcement of
the increase. Before and after Buhari became president, he gave the
impression that there was no subsidy anywhere and that if at all it existed it
was a scam. He promised that instead of making the citizens to pay so much for
fuel, they would pay less. But now that he has realised that he was
wrong, and since the purpose of his government is to improve the lot of
the citizens, he should have consulted with the citizens. It is in this regard
that the opposition of labour to the price increase is significant. The
citizens under the aegis of labour must reject the price increase. How far
labour would go in rejecting this new price would determine whether the Buhari
presidency would still take the citizens for granted or not.
Buhari
failed to consult with labour apparently because he is torn between his
much-professed pre-occupation with the breaking of the jinx of the dominance of
the unearned prosperity of a minority and equitably distributing the abundant
wealth of the nation and his need to perfectly assume the place of a pawn
in the soulless game of capitalist hegemonisation that he was assigned
by the financiers of his quest for the presidency. Was the Buhari
presidency hiding anything that it failed to convince the citizens that there
is the need for a different price regime? Why did Buhari fail to convince
the people that his regulated deregulation is the best way for the country to
go? If Buhari chose to continue to run a byzantine government that is
characterised by the exclusion of the citizens’ input in its policies, it
should not expect the people to trust him no matter how genuine his intentions
are. After all, successive administrations have betrayed the trust of the
citizens and to regain the trust of the latter, the Buhari government must
operate on an unambiguous template of transparency.
The
two distinct instances of his arbitrary increase of electricity tariffs and
fuel price have clearly further demystified Buhari. Despite his pretensions
that he is one of the citizens who have been afflicted by poverty due to
decades of misrule and that he could not even provide the funds he needed to
buy his party form indicating his presidential ambition, Buhari
apparently is only interested in pleasing those who have
bankrolled his quest for the presidency. They are the ones who own the
companies that benefit from the arbitrary charges for electricity. And
this is why despite that the price of fuel has been capped at N145 per
litre, marketers are busy selling the product at over N200 without any
sanction. Who are the owners of these filling stations selling fuel
at these exorbitant prices?
Since
to some people Buhari’s unilateral increase of the fuel price is reflective of
his uncommon courage, there is the need for him to channel such courage into
making policies that would stop this perennial fuel crisis.fuel crisi He should
direct his energies into engendering a more equitable society. The president
should implement the 2014 national conference report that promises a more
equitable federalism. There should be true federalism that would stop the
country from depending on oil to sustain the economy.
A
true federal system that the citizens have always asked for would enable the
states to depend on their own resources to sustain themselves. He should
have the courage to make the refineries work or privatise them and facilitate
the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). Until Buhari moves in
this direction, labour is right in doubting his intentions and policies no
matter how altruistic they seem.
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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