I once read an article in a Nigerian magazine on a visit to my family in Lagos, that alluded to the fact that Nigerians being classified as one of the happiest people in the world was both a blessing and a curse. The writer said something i agreed with, it’s absolutely wonderful and positively peachy to be able to look away from your problems and see the joy and beauty in life, but sometimes people have to stare their problems in the face and allow themselves reach boiling point. Why? Because that’s one of the few reasons why people do very risky things like putting everything they have into ensuring that a desired change takes place.
Now, i have come to the conclusion that it’s necessary to add something to that. Don’t just get mad and take to the streets, for crying out loud, do it right! Before you start pulling your own unique what on earth is she on about face, take a minute to hear me out. It is absolutely imperative and extremely important, in fact I don’t know how else I can stress this, that the reasoning behind your anger is sound. There’s got to be a method to your madness! The cause must be worthy and the means to the desired end, effective. Everyone must know exactly what, how and why they are fighting!
Take for example, the recent removal of the fuel subsidy. The fuel price has shot up from 65 naira to a whopping 140 naira. So, Nigerians have decided to protest and to strike, cool beans. By all means, take action; strike action, peaceful protest action and whatever else you think will make the right kind of impact. What you shouldn’t do is spend your energy and resources trying to get the original subsidy back, that would be extremely ridiculous.
Its time we start thinking smart and stop thinking cheap! Because smart is not only cheap, but also effective and sustainable, but cheap is exactly just that, cheap. A smart person would tell you that even with the removal of the subsidy we still have reasonably priced fuel. A smart person would also tell you that a subsidy that keeps the price at a set extremely low level is ridiculous given the volatile nature of the commodity in question. A smart person would tell you that there are so many more underlying problems. Here’s what the cheap person is thinking at this point, “how do our prices compare to those of the other large crude oil exporting nations?” without giving any thought to the factors, other than the subsidy removal, which could be responsible for the disparity.
Well if you really want to know how we compare, I would be more than happy to give you the dish. We stink! The only thing we have in common is the oil under our feet which we all got for free. Now let’s talk about the important things, the things that make their total revenue from the original raw resource make our’s look like child’s play. The infrastructure and organisational systems, the sustainability plans and human capital that they have and and we don’t. Right there, that is the real comparison that makes the disparity between our fuel prices, totally justified. They took what they had and made it produce more moola.
That being said, how on earth would the kind of govt subsidy we had be the answer to the aforementioned problem. It solved nothing, the real problem has always been and still is that we are a crude oil rich country with not a single working refinery in sight and to top it off, no real desireamongst the powers that be to make what we got work for us. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that filthy rich developed countries with not a single drop of oil in their soil can buy our crude oil at low prices and sell it back to us at prices that are digging holes in the nation’s pockets. So……..what was that about the subsidy again? Yeah…… I thought so.
What we should be angry about is the fact that the price increase is way too much too soon, there was no preparatory awareness campaign for the necessity of its removal, nothing at all to cushion the blow. We should be pissed off about the fact that no measures have been put in place to guarantee that the extra cash gained from the removal of the subsidy will actually be used to fix the real problem with our oil, the dead refineries. So, by all means take to the streets but do it for the smart reasons not the cheap reasons unless you want to bankrupt our nation and have the same developed nations who charged the cut throat prices for our own fuel, pretend to bail us out.
In tough love and careful retrospection, I am Temmy101 signing out for now on all things Nigerian!
MY COLLOQUIUM 