By Akintayo Balogun Esq.
For the past couple of preceding years, I lost enthusiasm for listening to presidential speeches. There was neither any enthusiasm for the one delivered on the 31st of July either. However, I happened to be in a vehicle when the speech was broadcast on the radio station on play and I had no option but to listen to the broadcast. I was getting agitated at a point when the President kept on emphasizing that the entire subsidy sum was going to the pockets of a few and making them extremely rich to the detriment of the country. His scriptwriters emphasized and re-emphasized this point not less than 3 times in that less than 15-minute speech.
The President obviously knows these powerful few but has no power over them. However, the point of interest/disappointment with the President’s speech for me was the failure of the President to address the particular issue bedeviling Nigeria which has made us a victim of subsidy or no subsidy. Nothing was said about putting any of the dead four refineries to use. Nothing was said about repairing them in the nearest future or building new ones so that our prices can compete with the international market.
One thing our government fails to understand is that as long as Nigeria imports its refined products, we will forever be at the mercy of the international market. If the international market increases the price to N2000 per litre today, Nigeria will have no option but to do likewise and then we will be back to the starting point again or either increasing pump price or government paying subsidy again. This is unwise. We have the crude, we have the refineries, why not see to it that you make it work and we can determine our prices by ourselves? It would be a relief even if this is only the thing this government can achieve in its 4 years in office.
Repairing the refineries is a more permanent solution to the crisis than all those palliatives that would be diverted as usual. I have little belief or confidence in most of the listed cushions mentioned by the President. The reason is that these cushions hardly get to the common man on the street. The palliatives are still being shared among the powerful. We saw it happen in the aftermath of the COVID virus. Everything the President said in his speech as a form of palliative, relief, etc, to cushion the effect of the price hike is typically referred to as damage control and not a solution. They are temporal and have the potential of being bastardized because the execution of policies is one of our biggest undoings in Nigeria. A permanent solution to the crisis of facing Nigerians with respect to the downstream sector is the only way out. Repairing our refineries is a more lasting, long-lasting solution to the Nigeria oil sector and the reoccurring problem of price increases.
Again, I had thought that the speech of the President will address the recent hike in tuition fees that is spreading across the country like the Australian Wildfire. School fees of Unity schools across the country were increased by over 100%. It has also been in the news that several Federal universities have increased their tuition fees thereby causing a possibility of street protests by disgruntled students. Are these issues not germane enough to enjoy an immediate presidential intervention vide his national broadcast? These are issues that have been in waiting in the last few weeks that require urgent attention and possibly a quick reversal. You say nothing, we hear nothing, you do nothing, but Nigerians should remain hopeful that the pains of today will give way for the ease of tomorrow.
Mr. President Sir, we heard so much about bearing with the pains of today for the ease of tomorrow. Unfortunately, there has never been an easier tomorrow in governance.
While we remain hopeful that it would get better for Nigeria and Nigerians, we hope the government will take further steps that will aid and make life and living in Nigeria more bearable.
May the Almighty help us.
Akintayo Balogun Esq., LL.B (Hons), BL, LL.M, is a legal practitioner in private practice, based in Abuja, FCT. A prolific writer, public affairs analyst, and commentator on national issues. [email protected]
