The bitter truth about petroleum subsidy removal
Afam Nnaji
Publisher
If we refine crude oil in Nigeria, we will provide jobs for Nigerians, make money for the government, NNPC, tanker drivers, petrol station owners, workers etc.
If we continue to import refined products from countries that are even as small as some states in Nigeria we will continue to subsidize inefficiency, incompetence, corruption, wastage etc.
If we continue to import refined petroleum products Nigerians will be paying the wages of gainfully employed foreigners working in their own functional refineries whereas our own people will be jobless with many turning to crime.
By the way, who produced the crude oil in Nigeria? God gave Nigeria and Nigerians crude oil but a few corrupt Nigerians insist that crude oil would remain a curse instead of a blessing to us! Is this not sheer wickedness? Inflicting pain on the majority using a product you never produced?
Unfortunately, the government seem oblivious of the fact that removing the subsidy that shouldn't even exist in the first place will affect the government badly just as it will affect the majority of Nigerians because
• the cost of fueling the vehicles used in different convoys would atleast double
• the cost of food required to feed their families will atleast double
• the cost of transportation will at least double
• the cost of almost everything will at least double
Meanwhile, with unemployment on the rise, poverty on the increase, businesses shutting down etc many more Nigerians will turn to crime in order to survive and even those that depend on government money today to survive who think that they are immune to the hardship being visited upon Nigerians will live in the same society after they leave office and at different settings they will meet the same Nigerians that turned to crime because of their actions and/or inactions and such settings could be related to armed robbery, assassinations, kidnappings, mob actions etc
Asking Nigerians to pay for the incompetence and corruption of the government officials and those that have refused to make the refineries work is a huge crime, a crime that may come with so many unexpected consequences!
