Uzokwe's Searchlight


It perturbs this writer that when it comes to quelling the voice of dissent, the president gets very tough and yet fails to apply the same level of toughness in dealing with the myriads of problems suffocating Nigerians.
Monday, July 7, 2003


Alfred Obiora Uzokwe
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JUSTIFYING THE FUEL PRICE HIKE
- A SILLY MISTAKE INDEED



This commentary was prepared before details started emerging that there may have been a resolution and consequent suspension of the strike action initiated by the Nigerian Labor Union against the Nigerian government. While it is hoped that the terms of the settlement will not amount to backing down and allowing the proposed price hike of fuel to stand, the contents of this commentary are still as relevant as they were when it was originally written a few days ago.

n Monday, June 30, the Nigerian Labor Union, under comrade Oshiomhole, launched a general strike in protest against a 54% proposed increase in the prices of petrol, kerosene and diesel by General Olusegun Obasanjo. The official reason adduced by the president for contemplating such a tactless move, was that it would put an end to the fuel shortages being experienced in recent times by curbing smuggling of cheaper Nigerian fuel to neighboring countries.

The union strikes paralyzed government activities, leading to millions of naira in business losses and damages. The iron-fisted response from the government, which included the tear-gassing and manhandling of protesters, further tarnished Nigeria's image and continued to portray her in international circles, as a country where stability and tranquility have both become elusive and where democracy is just a mantra employed when expedient for the politicians of the day.

I agree with the president that the price hike would end fuel shortage, but that is only because if the proposal is implemented, fuel, like other essential commodities in Nigeria, will be outside the reach of the masses. In that way, it will be in abundance for the well to do. But what manner of government is General Obasanjo trying to foist on unsuspecting Nigerians? A government that caters to the rich alone? The administration even tells Nigerians that fuel price, in Nigeria, is among the cheapest in the world and so a hike would bring it in line with the world standard. Those who made this stupendously overzealous determination failed to also acknowledge the fact that in those other countries being compared with Nigeria, the minimum wage and per capita income are far higher than in Nigeria and therefore, the citizens of those countries could better absorb the cost of fuel than the average Nigerian. Details are beginning to emerge as to how the Petroleum Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, came up with the 54% price hike.

It turns out that they are attempting to pass on some costs to the masses, which are the results of the inefficiency and ineptitude of NNPC. For example, the proposed hike includes costs to cover the demurrage charge that accrues when the fuel-laden vessels are not offloaded within the contract time, an obvious lapse by NNPC for which the agency should be sanctioned. The PPPRA also designed the price hike to cover what they call road maintenance cost. After adding up all these frivolous costs, they came up with a 54% price hike and convinced the president that it was the best thing for the nation and he bought their argument hook, line and sinker! What the president and his advisers either failed to consider or deliberately decided to ignore, is the fact that minimum wage earners, in Nigeria, still make a little more than N5, 000 and the proposed hike would indirectly but devastatingly affect them.

If they are the best, go ahead and pick them. The time of picking idiots, morons, coconut heads, blockheads...that could hardly differentiate between their right and left hand is gone. It is time to seek for those that would get to the office and see themselves as servants.

It is a no brainer that if and when the price of fuel is raised to N45, molue and taxi drivers would not sit around and absorb the increased cost of operating their vehicles. They will proportionately hike their bus and taxi fares accordingly and make life miserable for the minimum wage earner, who will always depend on them for mobility and access. These are considerations that real economists in a nation review before making a decision as far reaching as this. In the Nigerian situation, the out of touch, insensitive and inept public "servants" sit in their ivory towers and make policies that affect people they have failed to identify with. Sometimes, as this case has shown, they make the masses pay for mistakes the masses did not make.

One used to think that General Obasanjo's brief stint in jail gave him the chance to get to know the average Nigerian and so would make him a champion of their causes. Apparently, he seemed to have jettisoned his experience during those tumultuous years of Abacha's government and climbed back into his erstwhile ivory tower. If the policy makers that came up with this manner of thinking had thought a little deeper, they would have known that each economic action begets a chain of reactions and these chains must be considered, weighed and dissected before an action like 54% fuel price hike is even contemplated.

The other reason adduced by the government, for proposing the price increase, is that it will put out of business, black market dealers who come from across Nigeria's borders to buy cheap fuel, thereby creating scarcity. This again is preposterous! Why does the Nigerian government have the penchant for attempting to treat the symptoms of an ailment rather than treating the ailment itself? The real solution lies in developing and implementing effective policies that would discourage oil bunkering and black marketeering including serious penalties for offenders. Of course that would be too much to ask because one has found out that Nigerian officials do not possess the moral high ground to effectively emplace and implement penalties on anything. This is because some of them do not have clean hands in the first place. Nonetheless, hiking fuel price to discourage black marketeering does not make sense; Nigeria is an oil-producing nation; it is this writer's expectation and that of many others, that fuel should be cheap in the country.

There has to be an advantage, for Nigerians, in the fact that she is the world's 5th largest exporter of oil. In other oil producing countries, citizens are reaping the benefits by way of good roads, government scholarships, high standard of living and more. What are Nigerians getting in her own case? Nothing. Her leaders take turns to plunder the national treasury and siphon the oil money to overseas countries. Some of them have more money than the third generations of their families could ever deplete in a lifetime and are still stashing away more. Yet, when it comes to giving the masses some reprieve by using some of the oil money to subsidize fuel and provide necessary amenities, they become "fiscal gurus" Simply put, the arguments for hiking the price of fuel and kerosene just do not cut it and one hopes that the settlement being reported between labor and the government means that the idea has been scrapped. General Obasanjo must now get back to the drawing board and map out better plans for dealing with the real problems of cross border activities to stave off the machinations of black marketers and people of their ilk.

It perturbs this writer that when it comes to quelling the voice of dissent, the president gets very tough and yet fails to apply the same level of toughness in dealing with the myriads of problems suffocating Nigerians. As the fuel price hike union action was still underway, there were several reports of protesters being manhandled by the police. They shot into the air, beat people with the butts of their guns and directly tear-gassed them. An AP photographer, George Oshodi, was reportedly injured during the rally at the federal capital complex in Abuja. "Three heavily armed police in riot gear dragged Mr. Oshodi from the rally to join 10 other officers who struck him with rifles, whips and boots [AP, July 1] What could the journalist possibly have done to them to warrant that type of treatment? Simply, they did not want him to report the brutality that the police was meting out to the protesters. They knew that they were doing something antithetical to democracy but were willing to do it anyway while ensuring that it was not reported. Where is Nigeria headed? Where is the freedom of expression we are touting if journalists would not even be allowed to do their jobs?

General Obasanjo has not applied the same level of effort or brutality in dealing with night marauders that have made Nigeria unsafe. As I write, all the past rulers who plundered Nigeria's treasury are still walking around, some even have private jets that take them back and forth and the president has failed to deal with them, yet he is often too willing to muffle opposition and bring his "detractors" to their knees. During his first term, the looters of Nigeria's treasury refused to go to the Oputa panel as requested and this same president was unable to do anything. At that time, he remembered that we had democracy and respected their democratic rights. What happened to the democratic rights of the ordinary Nigerian who is simply saying that the proposed price of the fuel will be too much to shoulder, especially considering how much they earn? Is beating people with the butts of guns democratic? Obasanjo must rethink his policies on these issues because so far they stink!

The biggest and most nagging question, as one ruminates the fallout that was brought about by the strike and attendant police brutality is: Are Nigerians seeing signs of things yet to come in General Obasanjo's second coming? One still remembers Odi, Zakibiam and the rest. Nigerians cried fowl at the high handedness of the president in trying to suppress dissent. The criticism was very vehement and all the statements coming from the president gave the impression that he had learned a hard lesson. What happened to the protesters, this past week, is just unacceptable by any standards and all Nigerians and the international community must rise and condemn it, while vehemently condemning the proposed hike.

In a country that produces and exports fuel, scarcity of fuel exists and the ordinary man has to queue in line for several hours to get fuel. Why must this happen? If this is an example of what Nigerians would see during the president's second coming, then I am afraid that it does not look good.

My final note and advise to the president is that the fuel hike be rescinded, if it has not already been rescinded. Also, instead of visiting his highhandedness on law-abiding Nigerians, who attempt to speak up against his ill-advised policies, he should be extending this highhandedness to fiercely fighting night marauders and robbers, who are still terrorizing Nigerians day in day out, killing and maiming those who would not surrender their possessions to them. Mr. president should use his high handedness to recover the loots that ex-military men stashed away in overseas countries while the masses are languishing in poverty and penury. He should use this high handedness to fight the scourge of 419 that is threatening to paint all Nigerians abroad as criminals. He should stamp out the problem of bribery and corruption in the country. He should whip NEPA into shape and stabilize electricity. Most of all, he should use his highhandedness to formulate better policies that would put smiles on the faces of Nigerians and forge a nation, where we would all be proud to identify with rather than otherwise. Mr. President, the race for legacy has begun, the clock is ticking but you are getting off a faulty start.

HERE I STAND!