By Lillian Okenwa
After approving the sum of N90 billion as subsidy for Hajj fares, the federal government of Nigeria finally took counsel from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which had earlier in the year said there was an urgent need for Nigeria to completely phase out electricity subsidy as part of measures to address its economic challenges.
The tariff increase amounts to over 300% and raises the tariff to N225 per kilowatt-hour from the previous rate of N66. Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Musliu Oseni made this disclosure at a briefing in Abuja, adding that customers on other bands will not be affected by the tariff hike.
The N90 billion Hajj fares subsidy is three times higher than the 25 billion budgeted for universal healthcare that would carter for over 200 million Nigerians. It is higher than the combined 2024 budgets of the University of Ibadan (N23.4billion), Obafemi Awolowo University (N17.1 billion), Ahmadu Bello University (N29.2 billion) and the University of Lagos (N19.4billion) and more.
Nigerians are still reeling over the effect of fuel subsidy ‘removal’ since on 1 July, 2023. Life has become harder and hasher for citizens. IMF holds the same view on fuel subsidies.
But the Nigerian government has chosen the most essential. A holy pilgrimage! Far better it is to sponsor people to visit the holy land, so they can pray and make heaven than pander to the whims of irritant Nigerians! It’s better for them to die of hunger than reman alive and be a nuisance to the rich…
For countless times in the last few months, the national grid collapsed. Nigerian leaders refuse to see the correlation between power generation and prosperity. Our leaders appear to be more interested in bank credit alerts, printing more naira notes which will used to purchase the highly favoured US dollars.
After it was signed into law, the repeal and re-enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 (the ESPRA) also known as the Electricity Act 2023 (the Act) was seen as a major game changer in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
This is because amongst the comprehensive legal and institutional framework introduced by the Act, is that states now have constitutional authority to enact laws that allow them to generate, distribute, and transport electricity within its boundaries, including territories formerly covered only by the national grid. Why are state governors not exploiting this? So far only Abia has shown interest.
Our governors seem to be more interested in sharing grains, food for breaking of fast than creating an environment for citizens to provide for themselves. Otherwise, bandits cannot be controlling mines and farms, taxing communities while their governors look away; some receiving all manners of awards and others getting rewarded by transitioning to the National Assembly. Their pitiful records notwithstanding.
It’s all politics. The people do not really matter.
Lasisi Olagunju in his article, FG’s N90 billion Hajj politics said: “Each of the 48,414 intending pilgrims was initially supposed to pay N3.5 million, then it was jacked up to N4.9 million when the dollar raced past the strength of our sense. N4.9 million is a huge amount in this season of want. There was an outcry which the anti-subsidy government in Abuja heard and doused with a subsidy coolant which translated to N1.6 million per pilgrim. This N90 billion pilgrimage subsidy paid by this government I could not find anywhere in the 2024 budget of the Federal Government. Even in the pads and paddings, it is absent. So, where did the president conjure that humongous sum from?
“Even after that intervention, there are further subsidies to pay. Because the forex crisis has set every plan ablaze, the total hajj fees payable is no longer N4.9 million per pilgrim. The hajj commission last week raised the fare by a further N1,918,032.91 blaming forex volatility. The amount is now N6.8 million per pilgrim. The arithmetic is well explained in a report by the Daily Trust some days ago which quoted a Hajj commission source: ‘By the previous calculation, the N90 billion given by the Federal Government can only subsidise 19,000 intending pilgrims by ₦3.5 million. But by spreading it on 50,000 pilgrims, it (the subsidy) reduced it (the shortfall) to N1.9 million. This means that the federal government has subsidised each pilgrim by ₦1.6 million…’ There is still a shortfall of N1.9 million which each of the pilgrims has to pay. But they may not pay anything. Some state governments are paying it for them….”
After the bleak 8 years of the Buhari regime, Nigerians appear to having the Rehoboam experience. Let me explain. After the death of King Solomon, his son Rehoboam succeeded him.
…and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”
But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, `Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
The young men who had grown up with him replied, “Tell these people who have said to you, `Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter’–tell them, `My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.'”
Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders. He followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”
So the king did not listen to the people… 1 Kings 12, The Holy Bible.
It appears our leaders are telling us as they say in Naija parlance: “If e pain you, go hug transformer.” Will Nigeria ever be liberated?
