By Othniel A. Ikpibako, Esq
It is now global news that Nigerians are hugely dissatisfied with their own government evidenced by the End Bad Governance protest; this is in contradistinction to government unconvincing propaganda and lacklustreness. How did we arrive at the state we currently find ourselves as a nation?
Firstly, I do not believe in shirking responsibilities to blame game, hence I will circumscribe us to the time the incumbent President was sworn in. His faux pas started at his inauguration on the 29th May 2023 when he announced and in a most brazen, tactless and magisterial fashion that fuel subsidy has been removed. The immediate consequence was about triple high costs of transportation which impacted concurrently with the prices of commodities. While Nigerians were still grappling with the untold effect of the fuel subsidy removal and yet to adapt to same, the President in a very uncompassionate fashion again floated the naira which led to unprecedented galloping inflation since we import virtually everything. Other doses of callousness that followed by the President, among others, were removal of subsidy from education et cetera.
I would like to state that all the above policies of the government were good but were pell-mell and ignorantly introduced. Hence, they seem and also qualify as bad policies since their implementation were terribly bad. It would have been expected that when the President was sworn in on 29th May 2023 he would have shelved the announcement of fuel subsidy removal and come in to understand the issues which would have led to an implementation without the untold ripple effect it had. Firstly, within the first year, the President would have
cracked down on oil theft in the Niger Delta and ensure that all our refineries were working and in conjunction with the Dangote refinery, we are able to produce domestic consumption of fuel. Hence, the gross price of petrol would still have been within the firm hold of the President since we would have both the crude and the refined products. Then, with this strong confidence built government could then deregulate the sector which would not only make the product available but on competitive prices far cheaper than what we currently buy.
Furthermore, with domestic supply of fuel having been completely domesticated, since fuel import creates huge trade deficit for Nigeria, with huge strain on the naira, then the naira could be floated. Remember, oil theft would have been drastically reduced or eliminated within the first year crackdown by the President which would also boast our oil export. With this preliminary measures in place, the value of the naira might not have fallen so steeply by over 100% but remain stable at N700/$1 or maximally about 10% to 20% devaluation. Even at that, massive investment in critical sector like Agriculture, education and manufacturing could, in the near future, make the naira stable and stronger.
The foregoing were not even thought out neither considered by the President, but we saw a government who desperately wanted money at costs, hence policies hastily flew out which had led to where we are today with untold hunger in the land. While government and officials have enough to feed their opulence and profligacies, the man on the street could barely eat one square meal a day. Some questions need to be asked then: are we not all Nigerians or the government officials are more Nigerians? Does the commonwealth not belong to all Nigerians or to only government officials? Answers to the above lie at the heart of understanding and resolving the issues surrounding the End Bad Governance protest.
I will affirm the above-mentioned first question that government officials are no more Nigerians than other Nigerians. Hence, the gross and total disregard of the populace is not only misplaced but also condemnable. Secondly, the commonwealth belongs to all Nigerians and not to only the President or government officials; the converse attitude of the President and government officials has led to the “Lord of the Realm” behaviour when they are supposed to be actual servants of the people.
The panacea for the imbroglio we have found ourselves are as follows:
The President should hasten the fixing of all our refineries to refine petroleum products alongside with the Dangote refinery. Advisedly, Dangote refinery should not be the only working refinery in Nigeria to avoid monopoly like cement issue.
The President should as a matter of urgency crackdown on oil theft in the Niger Delta as this hurts the economy sorely and gravely.
In the interim, the government should fix value of the naira again pending the complete resolution of 1 and 2 above.
Having removed subsidy from education, the government should provide humane and adequate education loan and invest massively in education (can isolate the first three universities of University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria and Ahmadu Bello University for massive academic and infrastructural development to world class standards).
Cut the flamboyance and costs of governance by fifty percent (50%) across the executive and legislative arms of government, to have enough resources channeled to human capital and infrastructural development of the nation.
To introduce bill towards fiscal federalism in the fashion of our founding Constitution of 1960 which is the consensual basis of our union, and by extension establish state police and community (local government) police to tackle headlong insecurity ravaging the land.
Long live a just and equitable Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Ikpibako holds Master of International Law and Diplomacy, and Master of Laws.
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