By S. Long Williams Esq.
It has been an unprecedented flurry of economic hamstrings and strangulation after few weeks that the administration headed by
Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed the reigns of government as the President of the “Federal” Republic of Nigeria on 29th May, 2023.
No sooner was he sworn in as President after an election that has been adjudged by the sane and sublime as the worst of the worst in the annals of Nigeria’s democratic romance and of which, it’s outcome is being tested in our law courts ( law courts seen and perceived with so much disdain and distrust) that he brazenly, without much ado, on the grave consequences of his, on the road decision, unilaterally announced the removal of the much touted phantom subsidy on fuel prices.
He was still clutching on to the microphone at Eagle Square, Abuja the sit of the inauguration when his on the record proclamation sent negative economic shock waves reverberating across the perimeters of the Nigerian space.. The prices of Premium Motor Spirit usually referred to as fuel space-rocketed from N159.00 to N511.00 & N530.00 . Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to make a difference but the question is what manner of difference does he intend to make? Jane Goodall once mused and said “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make”
This can be described as the most unprecedented increases in the prices of fuel in Nigeria. The consequences were devastating and it left Nigerians numb and comatose. Before the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress could catch their breath after the issuance of a strike notice, the Federal Government approached the Judiciary and obtained an Ex Parte Order castrating the Unions from putting life to the planned national shutdown and that became the death knell to one of the much anticipated greatest labour crises that would have bedeviled the Nigerian state.
Nigerians in their usual unfortunate candour coupled with the deficit spirit as compared to their counterparts in the 1785 French Revolution kept mute and swallowed hook, line and sinker the devilish unparallel increase. Usual adjustments were quickly made here and there. Life became nightmarish, parents relocated their kids from far away schools to ones close home. Workers resorted to trekking long distances to and from work as transporters increased their fares. Traders were not left out. Prices of goods and services became literally out of reach. It was becoming hell on earth. Another Venezuela was fast creeping in. Citizens became desperate, scared and unsure of the future as purchasing power was near zero. Suddenly the government in its uncouth, uncoordinated and poor thought process came up with an N8, 000.00 per poor household initiative. This elicited an unprecedented uproar in the country. Various pertinent questions asked as to the workability of the insane initiative has remained unanswered. How do you determine the poor households, how can you take a loan for the purpose of sharing and not for investment, what parameters will be employed in the sharing processes. Demand become overwhelming for the fixing and functioning of the four gigantic refineries that lie comatose across the country for the final annihilation of the criminal fuel importation. Nigerians were furthermore bewildered that the Dangote Refinery that was commissioned for full operations by Mohammad Buhari few days before he left office became another licensee for fuel importation. When the news broke out, Nigerians were perplexed and frustrated. As Chido Onumah once wrote “Nigeria is a country sleep walking to disaster”
When the questions on the viability of borrowing for sharing became deafening, the government suspended the program for a review. As Nigerians were trying to come to terms with that decision, another more vicious Scorpion was unleashed.
The years 2015-2023 was the reign of President Mohammed Buhari. It can conveniently and candidly be described as the years of the locust in Nigeria. It was almost a decade. A period of famine, death, destruction, hunger and penury. Nigerians were economically, political and socially brutalized.
The staggering irony is that an English philosopher once pondered what would life be like without any government. Would it be a utopia, or would it be miserable? This English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) famously leaned in the latter direction. He argued in his book Leviathan that, without government, life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
What perhaps this deep and insightful philosopher did not anticipate was that even with government, depending on the government, life could all that which he described in the negative!
Many lost their precious lives, limb and properties in so many communities across the country. Terrorism, kidnapping, rape, mass murder, ritual killing, land grabbing, cattle rustling became the new normal. It was the years of the WHIPS. Nigerians prayed that May, 29th come quickly and finally it did come but what Nigerians got was not what they bargained for. The people longed, yearned and craved for hope, succour and comfort, but what they got was a different ball game altogether. What Nigerians got is the sting of the Scorpion.
In the book of 2nd Kings Chapter 12, It was recorded that at the death of King Solomon, his son Rehoboam became King of Israel. During the dying years of the reign of King Solomon, due to the various acts of disobedience against God, the people of Israel suffered pain and penury. Solomon’ s distraction with so many women and so many god’s led him astray and he treated the people harshly and grievously. After his transition, the people then sought a meeting with Rehoboam at Shechem and demanded that their yoke be made light but what the people got was far from succour. Instead of leaning to the yearnings of the people, Rehoboam unleashed scorpions on them and this led to the eventual breakup of the country.
Likewise a Scorpion King has been unleashed on Nigerians. Nigerians prayed and yearned for a leader who will ameliorate the pains they have gone through in the past eight years in the disastrous hands of Mohammad Buhari, but what Nigerians got was the sting of the Scorpion. PMS is now up to N617-N635 per litre and the reason is that the value of the naira has dropped against the dollar. With the value creeping up to N1000 per dollar, Nigerians should be expecting a N1000 per litre price of PMS in the coming days. This is real, it’s coming unless urgent drastic measures are taken. The consequences of the increase will be better imagined than real. We are grinding to a halt in all spheres of life. Bola Ahmed Tinubu should know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
The question is how did we get to this sorry pass. How did we allow four refineries to collapse and go under? Who orchestrated this monumental national disaster. How come after eight years each of President Goodluck Jonathan and Mohammed Buhari respectively, none of our refineries could be made to be functional? Are the people who are suffering today the negative consequences of fuel importation the cause of this monumental and unprecedented failure of governance never imagined in human history. It was not this bad in Venezuela.
Instead of the government to think out of the box on how to fix our refineries, what they talk about is palliatives. Palliatives to be serviced with borrowed money. Why not use this loaned money for the fixing of the refineries so that we can put a stop to this regime of PMS importation and it’s attendant negative consequences on the economy and the lives of Nigerians. Certainly, the King is listening to the ears of the young Turks and not that of the Elders. Certainly
another Jeroboam is coming that will put the brakes on the vicious reign of the Scorpion king.
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