Subsidy Removal: The Abacha formula, by Nasir S. Gwangwazo
In his inaugural speech, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy. Not a single individual among the 220 million Nigerians came out in the street across the federation to protest his action. This was perhaps out of the belief that the fuel subsidy regime had been a conduit pipe for siphoning the wealth of the country by a few corrupt people.
A month later, the federal government announced N400 billion revenue accruing to its coffers from the removal of subsidy. Nigerians had made the right sacrifice by enduring the hardship of buying a litre of petrol at N550-617 which translates into those billions revenue. The Tinubu government explained that removing subsidy was to free revenues towards infrastructure development; N400 billion monthly would go a long way to ease hardship of Nigerians, if the government means business.
N500bn palliatives:
In another unpopular and arbitrary decision, Tinubu earmarked N500 billion as palliatives to some Nigerians due to the subsidy removal. The sharing formula of the palliatives is definitely elitist and skewed to favour some states and a few individuals including the legislators and the judiciary. One would be surprised at the speedy approval of this proposal by the National Assembly. Tinubu’s sharing formula of N70 billion to the legislators and N35 billion to “Our Lords” while the poor man in the street (12 million out of over 200 million) would get a meagre N8000 for six months is inequitable. We have seen the eight wasteful years of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, and being condemned to the dustbin of history it cannot right any of its wrongs, unlike the present Tinubu government that is just two months old, with at least about four years of its mandate to rescue the country.
In view of that, this government must borrow a leaf from the late head of state Sani Abacha who established the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, following fuel price hike in the early 1990s.
Independent Development Trust Fund (IDTF):
Tinubu should create an Independent Development Trust Fund, IDTF, for the new revenue windfall of N400 billion monthly hitherto paid as subsidy to drive its infrastructure development plan that could impact on: food security, water supply, health, education, transportation,
housing, infrastructure, power and, of course, security.
The fund should be managed by tested and trusted Nigerians who can deliver without fear or favour.
Food security:
Food security, on which the federal government recently declared a state of emergency, should be complemented by releasing 5000 bags of grains from its strategic reserves to all the 774 local governments in the country at the subsidised rate of N10,000 per bag for the next several months. The distribution must be one person per bag so as to reach the needy and prevent unscrupulous elements from hijacking the process. Fertiliser should also be subsidised at N5000 or less to reach the small farmers across all the local governments.
Water supply:
The federal government should embark on massive drilling of boreholes, at least four boreholes per ward to arrest water shortages in poor communities across the country.
Healthcare:
Healthcare is now beyond the reach of the poor and vulnerable Nigerians.Thus, this sector also needs a declaration of national emergency and government hospitals should offer free consultation and drugs for perennial diseases like malaria, typhoid, ulcer, maternal care, hypertension, diabetes and accident victims.
Education:
Massive renovation and equipping of at least 20 primary/secondary schools in each local government area of the federation should start in earnest. School fees should be scrapped and school feeding programme improved.
Mass transit:
In order to improve and subsidise inter and intra state travels, 25 buses should be procured to operate in each of the 774 local government areas. Ease of movement is paramount in lubricating the flow of humans and goods that stimulates economic growth which was recently hampered by the oil subsidy removal. At least one major road in each of the 774 local government areas should be renovated immediately.
Housing:
A new federal housing project to build 10,000 units in each state should be a priority to bridge the housing deficit in the next few years.
Power:
The power sector in recent years was able to generate and transmit about 5000 megawatts of electricity, but the the bottlenecks experienced during transmission and distribution continue to hamper electricity supply in Nigeria. This can be addressed by creating more sub-stations in key local government areas. Transformer shortage is one of the issues bedeviling the distribution system, therefore, government should earmark at least 25 transformers for each local government area, which will significantly improve access to electricity that would stimulate economic growth.
Duplication of MDAs:
In order to ensure effective and productive service delivery, it will be necessary for government to immediately address the issue of duplication of responsibilities that put a cog in the wheel of smooth operations of governance and government’s projects by bureaucratic bottlenecks while at the same time creating wastages of man-hour and manpower. Government must merge and rationalise where necessary key parastatals/agencies like CBN, NDIC, NNPC, NSPMC, NPA, NCC, NSITF, PENCOM, FIRS, SOVEREIGN FUND, to deliver on their mandate through the provision of professional and competent management and board. The appointees must be insulated from political, tribal or religious considerations.
Security and social reorientation:
On the issue of security, and social re-orientation, as well as maintenance of law and order at grassroots level, there is the need to strengthen our traditional rulers’ roles through the creation of Traditional Rulers Advisory Council. The breakdown of our social order owes its origin to the breakdown of family units and neighbourhoods. Social re-orientation is desperately needed for this country to succeed and it is only through the traditional institutions that we can revive our long lost values at the community level.
With rise in population and over 70 percent of that population being young and vibrant we must checkmate our social decadence by reviving our moral values.Those young people (uneducated and unemployed) are just time bombs waiting to explode if we ignore to provide the necessary skills for them to thrive.
No matter how good a new leader is, unless he has competent and capable hands to assist to achieve his vision and policies, success would be elusive.
Appointment of ministers:
As Tinubu is poised to appoint his ministers, we hope he would learn from the immediate past administration. He should appoint his ministers based on competence, integrity and credibility rather than rewards to political gladiators. If anything, Buhari had shown Nigerian politicians, especially the powerful governors bloc, by refusing the usual nomination from them.
Conclusion:
Finally, President Tinubu must realise that he is on the threshold of making another history where others failed. He has nothing to lose after being blessed with everything God would bless a man with. He had antecedents during his time as governor of Lagos state, let him not fumble on this opportunity to write his name in gold by shaking off detractors that are drumming into his ears to continue business as usual. It is indeed his “Emi Lokan” (it is my turn), so let him also make it the “turn” for ordinary Nigerians.
Gwangwazo is the editor, Blueprint Manhaja, a publication of Blueprint Newspapers Limited, Abuja
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