A Journey so near, yet so far

The argument by government is that it has been holding tremendous funds constant by subsidizing the petrol that Nigerians consume instead of these funds deployed to more productive sectors. That according to them, this is partly responsible for the dearth in infrastructure and thus causing a lot of stress on very limited national resources. The […]

The argument by government is that it has been holding tremendous funds constant by subsidizing the petrol that Nigerians consume instead of these funds deployed to more productive sectors. That according to them, this is partly responsible for the dearth in infrastructure and thus causing a lot of stress on very limited national resources. The government argues further that a whopping sum of over N1.3 trillion is spent on subsidy of petrol which Nigerians consume. The argument further points to the very dangerous reality that in fact it is not all about the large sums deployed to subsidy but that a few Nigerians have constituted themselves into a clique that is soaking fat from this leakage called subsidy. Meaning that huge sums deployed to subsidy is merely funding a few wealthy citizens who are feeding fat on the nation while the rest of the population is in dire need of virtually all critical infrastructure.

A country that budgets a little over 4 trillion Naira spends about 1.3 in subsidy. This, in the surface looks interestingly amazing but looking deeply into the nitty gritty of the nation’s financial estimates and transactions reveals more horrifying facts that certainly put the leaders as either callous or extremely selfish to say the least. In the last few weeks, as the debate for or against removal of subsidy rages, one major issue which some of us have talked so much about and which the government is cleverly shying away from is the vexed question of the very meaning of then term subsidy itself. What does it mean?

Are we not talking about it because the nation’s refineries are old and working at less than  30% of their capacities? Yes, this fact has been mentioned several times by government. Nobody in position of authority however is questioning the integrity of this failure and the suitability of the export-import politics of oil and refined products. It was during the government of General Abacha in the heat of the civil war in Sierra Leone that a BBC commentator defined Nigeria as a strangely funny country because according to him, it is only Nigeria that imported what it had and exported what it never had. That the government was busy importing refined petroleum products, a resource that it had in great abundance from even lesser producers of the commodity and was busy spending billions of its currency in trying to institute democracy in another country, a  situation that was lacking in the country because Nigeria was then under military rule.

Throughout the almost 13 years of civilian rule in the country, no government has ever thought of investing in public refineries. The excuse has been the same old one that government is weak in running businesses. Whose fault is that mine, or that of those who take decision on our behalf? The tragedy of the Nigerian scenario has been the failure of government to do what it is suppose to do and only to return and punish us all for the failures.

If the government is proposing N4.5 trillion as its financial estimates for the year 2012, out of this sum, about 1 trillion Naira is allocated to what the rulers called security, that amounts to about 35% of the total proposal. What picture, even if the proposal is sincere would that paint to the so called international investor community on the safety and integrity of Nigeria as an investors’ heaven? I thought if the government wants to fight insecurity the most important step that it ought to take is to address the issue from its basic roots and not from the surface. Why would you fight insecurity by simply mounting roadblocks all over the place and by further exposing the military to the realities of the nation’s corrupt tendencies? Is nobody out there telling the powers that be that it is dangerous to expose the soldiers to the harsh whether that the rest of us live in?

In any case, Nigerians seem to be agitated by this failed economics of government and they are asking some specific questions that require answers immediately. In the last one week, the social media has been put to use by several groups in the country where several critical questions are asked and they definitely require immediate answers from those who allocate our resources. Some of these questions as they relate to budgetary proposals are reflected below as they are currently being sent to several other citizens by those who author them.

Is it true that while the government is urging to make sacrifices it is budgeting over N280 million to buy just 2 bullet cars? And N356 million to replace cars use by the president and his vice?  Upgrading villa gates at over N75million, refurbishing of family wing poof the president’s official quarters at over N500 million. Is the allegation as insinuated by the social network commentators right that president and his vice will use over N900 million almost 1 billion Naira to feed themselves and their families in 2012?

These are critical and crucial issues that need to be attended to and we need to hear from those in government why we should make more sacrifices when the budget proposals contain increased expenditures on their running costs. One fact is however clear, while the journey seem so close, it will appear that we are far from our destination.