The deregulation saga

The riots which, some have argued led to the civil war scattered the prospects and when the war ended, our so-called leaders did not have the blueprint to ensure the development of what we had, instead, they jumped on the oil bandwagon. A lot has been said about the degradation of the Niger-Delta landscape, leading […]

The riots which, some have argued led to the civil war scattered the prospects and when the war ended, our so-called leaders did not have the blueprint to ensure the development of what we had, instead, they jumped on the oil bandwagon. A lot has been said about the degradation of the Niger-Delta landscape, leading to the protests of the 80s, and the militancy we are now trying to eradicate. But the truth remains that the post-war Nigerian government was too eager to ask for any investor in the oil industry without minding the environmental impact. Indeed, in all literature relating to the prospecting for oil in the region, there is no record of any conduct of any environmental impact assessment before prospecting began. Little wonder that the first oil well at Oloibiri has remained an eye-sore rather than a historical landmark.

Farming has continued on the primitive scale in spite of the billions of money we spend on research institutes and agricultural agencies in this country. The average farmer continues to eke out a living from the same land that his forefathers have cultivated centuries before him virtually on his own, with little input. The result is that seasonally, we are able to augment our food supply, but largely we still spend a lot of our money importing food from countries which were no better than ours pre-independence.

Apart from winning the Nobel Laureate and a couple of other individual feats, successive Nigerian governments have done nothing to help improve learning to the level that our country can earn a truly global laurel. The few people who have won anything have done so at the expense of their own brains or innovation but our rebranding masters now find in their achievements objects of national advertisements. It’s a shame.

It’s a shame that all we can think of is oil. It’s a shame that we cannot see a future outside of oil. Our country has recalled criminals who slaughtered soldiers for presidential luncheons and handshakes while laureates are ignored and sometimes branded as dissidents. Mr President has just announced a token percentage point to oil producing communities as his own way of arresting the unrest in the Niger Delta. It would appear to be a wonderful thing to do in the circumstances he finds himself. His seven-point agenda is more on public broadcast media than anywhere on ground.

It is also shameful that this government and indeed the ones before it see no present or future outside of oil. Gandhi was quoted as saying that what India does not produce, it should not use. That statement has buoyed India to produce a chunk of its own vehicles and its citizens are known globally for their technological advancement. Indeed, it was a topic of horrible patriotic debasement in the early 2000 when it was discovered that call centres were warehoused from the UK to India. America introduced special entry concessions to Indian IT specialists to come and work and live in the USA. Nigerians are queuing up in embassies and high commissions in droves trying to escape the stark realities of our subsistence. An unprecedented and unspecified number of our citizens are dying in the harsh desert in their quest to cross the borders to Europe and other countries. Much has been written about our citizens maltreated not just in Eastern Europe where communism had blighted life and capitalism is said to be restructuring lives but in states like Libya, a desert whose citizenry leave its own shores only as envoys.

It is a shame that in spite of our huge potentials, our country and its leadership have no economic or social blueprint. Their own way of raising funds is removing a phantom subsidy on petroleum. This Rehoboam Complex in which one government chastises the citizenry with whips and lashes and successive ones do so with snakes and scorpion is unnerving. Rilwanu Lukman is in cahoots with Mr. President in his quest to increase the hardship and suffering of the citizenry by taxing us on the petrol that they contribute nothing to produce. Our government is a mere commission agent. The four refineries built earlier have taken far more in rehabilitation than it would have cost to build new ones. Licenses issued for private ones are glazed certificates with no practical effort to build. Its a shame to pay more for fuel in a country that produces it than in countries that does not and with the attendant hardship. Yar’adua should remove the subsidy overnight, raise hell and see hell consume him and his government.