FGN: PERFECTING THE ART OF PURSUING SHADOWS
There is trouble in the land. Anywhere you look there is
consternation. The people of Nigeria are unhappy. Government seems to be
failing in its critical responsibilities to the citizens. Many Nigerians had
very difficult Christmas and new year celebrations because of a suffocating
fuel scarcity. President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) threatened to find out the so
called saboteurs who caused the terrible fuel scarcity that disrupted the peace
of most Nigerians over the Christmas / New year celebrations and to punish them
severely. He made this threat in his new year address to the Nation on the 1st
of January 2018. Firstly, I was not minded to take him seriously as it is
common for government officials to manufacture " enemies" to explain
away their failures. Sometimes the threats are merely empty threats, just made
to give the citizens false comfort as nothing happens thereafter. For example,
look at the several threats issued by government after each orgy of violence by
marauding Fulani cattle herdsmen and practically nothing happens until the next
round and then new threats are issued.
In the last two weeks, Benue State has been boiling because
the Militant Fulani Herdsmen invaded
Guma and Logo LGAs, killing over 70 men, women and Children while razing down
homes and destroying other property. Before the furore could die down, it was
reported that the Militants hit the Lau
LGA in Taraba State and about 55 lives were taken in the onslaught.Rather than
display integrity and humility and accept blames for their failures, the
government will always look for a fall guy or some one or group to blame. Every
government does this but this particular government in power has excelled more
than previous governments in manufacturing enemies and bulk passing. Nearly 3
years after coming to power, they have seldom ceased from blaming the past
government or PDP for every of their failures.
Now they seem not to find a way to pin this embarrassing
fuel scarcity on the past government, hence they have come up with imaginary
saboteurs. Soon, to prove their point, they will arrest some 'powerless' fuel
distributors perhaps by EFCC in the usual theatric manner, parade them,charge
them to court, and then after the drama of arrest and the imposition of
ridiculous bail conditions by the compliant judicial officers, the case will
die down till the next crisis and we look for another set of fall guys or
enemies!
True, we have watched this drama, long enough and many of us
are getting bored. This art of pursuing shadows instead of substance has
reached a crescendo.Let us be sincere to face the real issues and stop playing
games with Nigerian citizens. Where are the saboteurs? The first are those we
have elected or selected to run our government that have failed, refused or proven
incapable of taking simple but bold decision to fully deregulate the downstream
petroleum sector. If that decision is taken today, Nigeria will finally say
bye-bye to this nagging and actually annoying perennial problem. I do not know
what else anyone needs to say to PMB and his team to convince them to let go.
They stubbornly refused to let go, even when a pricing parity was achieved
following the drastic fall of oil prices in 2015/2016 time frame, only to allow
a drastic price adjustment that dislocated the economy and helped to fuel
inflation. They are holding on again, and dilly dallying, seeking unsustainable
options, till the pressure becomes unbearable and then they will be forced to allow another precipitate
price adjustment, that will add insult to existing injury. Why we can not allow
the market to determine the price of PMS as it is determining the price of
diesel, Rice, yam, Garri, sorghum,
millet, medicines, cars, books, air tickets etc etc, leaves me perpetually
perplexed.
Recently, the Minister of State for Petreolum resources- Dr
Ibe Kachikwu announced to a bewildered Nation that the NNPC had wasted or lost N85.5 billion of our commonwealth in subsidizing the importation of PMS.
This same subsidized PMS was what most of us paid for again at N250 per
liter at different locations in Nigeria outside Lagos and Abuja and those who
paid N145 per liter lost many productive hours in long queues at filling
stations in the two towns, which meant that all most all paid economic prices
that were in excess of the official price. What a double or even Tripple
jeopardy for Nigerians! This is the same story for years, so much so that in
2011 or so this Nation wasted nearly two trillion Naira in questionable subsidy
payment. How long must we suffer these avoidable wastes or losses? If we were
looking for economic saboteurs, should we not first ask these government
policy makers why they are wasting our scarce resources, resources that can be
used to provide roads, railways, modern security and quality education amongst
other critical needs crying for attention in Nigeria. Is there an addiction
somewhere that is proving impossible to break?
If we are looking for saboteurs, the second place to look is
NNPC. We are sure to find many who are either directly sabotaging government's
wishes or collaborating with others to do so. It is commonly alleged in the
Petroleum down stream sector that no one gets to lift PMS from many NNPC depots
in the Country without paying premium to the depot management in normal times.
At abnormal times as we are just passing through, the premium is multiplied by
factor 'x'. Even at that, not all retailers are able to even buy directly from
these depots at these elevated premiums. The scarce commodity is preferentially
allocated to some well connected marketers who now resell at an additional mark
up to other retailers. After buying at these inflated prices, the jobless DPR
officers now start parading the streets to force the hapless retailers to sell
at official prices and even go further to confiscate the fuel of some
retailers, selling them off for free to Nigerian motorists. What a travesty of
Justice!
Yes, there are a few retailers and marketers who can get
extraordinarily exploitative and I fully support that they should be punished
but the real problem is not with such. The real problem is that the NNPC and
their officials make it impossible for many retailers to sell at the official
price of 145 Naira per litre, for the simple reason that their cost of purchase
is above N145 per litre. According to NNPC, the current landing cost for
those who import directly is N177 per litre. It will therefore be economic
suicide for such retailers to sell at 145 per litre. It is becoming clearer to
many that some of the NNPC and DPR staff like this situation of monopoly of
supply and price fixation. Many of them will become poor and some jobless if
the down stream is fully deregulated and full supply is established. Any where
in this whole wide World, that you create monopolies, corruption will thrive
and distorted pricing regime will reign. Any where in the World that demand
exceeds supply, prices will rise and if supply exceeds demand, prices will
fall. And when the demand for an important utility like Petrol exceeds supply
as we have recently seen, no force ( all the army plus police , plus DPR, plus
NNPC) can stop prices from rising. May be some day, Nigerian policy makers will
come to accept the reality of this Economics 101.
PMB sounded angry and serious when he was making this threat
to arrest the saboteurs who caused the
recent fuel scarcity. I pray he will stop playing the ostrich. He should live up
to his famed courage and integrity and take actions to dislodge the cabal at
the NNPC depots who trigger the problem and as National Patron to the Herdsmen,
call them to order and punish the the culprits and the security personnel who
are collaborating with them and bringing this great embarrassment to the
Nation. When some renegade policemen or military commit crimes in the society
and they are then asked to investigate same crimes, often nothing happens,which
is why many crimes remain unresolved today just because the enemy is inside.
Let us stop pursuing shadows otherwise things may get out of hand.
Mazi Sam I. Ohuabunwa OFR
sam@starteamconsult.com
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