Need for reconsideration

My problem with the national oil managers is that they have lost track of the realities that we are claiming to be a democratic country where no individual, not even Umaru Yar’adua himself can stand on top of his voice and humiliate the national conscience even if he believes he is blessed with the monopoly […]

My problem with the national oil managers is that they have lost track of the realities that we are claiming to be a democratic country where no individual, not even Umaru Yar’adua himself can stand on top of his voice and humiliate the national conscience even if he believes he is blessed with the monopoly of conventional wisdom.

The Oil Minister and his boys, relying on weak economic theorem, have caused much pains and anguish on millions of Nigerians through their insensitive pronouncements to the extent that even before the deregulation commences, we all are in the pains of acute fuel scarcity and the whole nation is already bleeding.

Perhaps, it is the failure to communicate the intention of government that has made the president to engage Mansur Mukhtar, the Finance Minister, to now be doing the talking instead of those whose economic ingenuity has led the government into forcing these unfriendly bitter pills down the throats of the Nigerian people.

Now, let’s look at it this way. Even if it is true as indeed it is that government spends a lot of money in equalisation and other forms of subsidies on what we consume, even if it is true that the monies that are put into these subsidies are so colossal that they will be sufficient to provide the substantial capital needs of Nigerians, we are not sure that if subsidies are removed, the savings would not go the way other billions of appropriated funds have gone.

What those in government don’t seem to know or deliberately refuse to understand is that the physical and psychological hostilities between the people and government are borne out of the failure to meet the commonest aspirations of the citizenry. The educational system has collapsed, health services are in shambles as General Abacha would always say, transport and transportation have crashed, power failure is the rule rather than the exception, unemployment is at an all-time high, hunger and poverty are the hallmarks of most Nigerians, while morality is at its lowest ebb.

In this scenario, we see those in positions of authority lavishing in ostentatious living only for them to continue to sermonise and preach patriotism, selflessness and call on the already battered citizens that the attention should be the contribution that we give to our country and not what our country can give to us.

Let’s take the deregulation argument which of course has since been over flogged. To say, for instance, that the subsidies government is giving on the products we consume is a waste is in the first place a clear indication that the government has lost track of its essence and as an independent arbiter which treats the rich and the poor alike. In this world of interconnectedness, we see governments even within the advanced capitalist realms reinventing themselves into the commanding heights of national economies due to the shock in the international economic system.

Last week in South Africa, I listened to the news from one of the radio stations and it was reported that there was going to be slight increases in the prices of certain petroleum products and there was no loud cry from the people. This may be due to so many reasons among which is the relative stability of the South African economy, the perception of sincerity on the part of those who make oil policies in the country, among many other reasons.

South Africans don’t have oil in the quantity that we have in Nigeria, they have refineries at home working, they don’t have short-circuiting in the industry, they don’t have young magic oil technocrats who have since turned the national patrimony into private estates of primitive accumulation of wealth while millions of their countrymen and women are in pains and penury.

The second dimension of this subsidy argument is that a few privileged marketers are reaping too much from the flawed system. Our argument on this is that why should the common man in Nigeria pay for the failures of the state or the leakages in the system? Why wouldn’t the government live up to its responsibilities by ensuring that all loopholes are blocked, so that the leakages are addressed in the name of the nation and its people?

That is in fact one of the primary responsibilities of the state: to make policies and laws for the good governance of the nation. Ours will always go the lazy way and the result we have seen over time has been pain and anguish on the citizens while those up there continue to lavish as long as they remain on top of the echelons. Our view on this is that those in authority must wisely use their positions to craft policies that will reduce and alleviate the sufferings of the majority of the people in the polity. That again is one of the central essences of governance.

Government should instead block the loopholes that exist which are responsible for the colossal economic wastages it is making. This is attainable through the evolution of genuine and vibrant oil policies which will check ambivalences and weaknesses that are exploited by the few against the lot.

In the past, governments have used very temporal measures as strategies of cushioning the effects of price adjustments through the procurement of buses as part of public transport agenda. They did not work because public transportation is hinged on discipline and effective transport policies and not just a wishy-washy bedroom strategy prompting.

This government may equally go the same way. The argument by all those against the plan to deregulate is that yes, even if as it is indeed true that a few people are reaping heavily from our collective sweat, the necessities of deregulation must be cushioned by practical resolutions of the endemic corruption in the oil sector as well as making all refineries in the country work while the government will also build some new ones and the private sector encouraged to own their refineries as well.

One of the major weaknesses of the Oil Industry Bill before the National Assembly is the failure to enforce some control on the oil majors doing business in the upstream sector. These oil majors – Shell, Chevron Texaco, et al – must be made by law to establish refineries in the country and compulsorily refine say 30% of all crude drilled in the country.

The impact of this will be tremendous on the economy. Apart from the fact that there will be sufficient quantities for local consumption and thus facilitating competition, the refining politics will impact significantly on the petrochemical industries in the country. In any case, these companies could equally export the excess refined products to not just other African countries but anywhere else in the world. After all, as the 7th largest producer of oil, Nigeria still and in the last several years imports what it consumes.

Unless things are done right, I am appealing again that the government should shelve the idea of deregulation for now. Why is it that we want to be more catholic than the pope? We see the USA, Britain, France and other western economies re-investing by force into the commanding heights of their economies and we are letting off ours at critical threshold when capitalist theses are being re-defined?

Look at the banking sector; Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had to frankly wade in to save the nation from further catastrophe. It will be sheer recklessness for the state to hands off the downstream sector, because the conditions to do so are virtually absent. This government will be judged by what it is and the president must be reminded that the bulk stops at his table and not Rilwanu Lukman’s or any young Turks in the NNPC.