The People And APC’s Government Unpopular Petrol Hike Policy
Since the sudden hike of the petroleum pump price from N86.5 to N145, the explanation on the part of the Federal Government has always been tied around the truth that the country’s foreign exchange and/or earning has declined drastically, and that the hike will ultimately eliminate subsidy payment, fuel scarcity, hoarding and diversion of the product, as well as bring about market and labour stability. But then, the question that Nigerians have always and continued to ask is that how has this policy and/or better still, decision transformed into immediate staple on their tables. The government has persistently talked in the futuristic, but the people have adamantly insisted that there cannot be the future without the present.
Truth be told, the government’s decision has created unbearable hardship in the land and the people’s agitations for an instant reduction in the new pump price, and their many regrets for voting the APC into government may reach a boiling point unless the government is able to relate or transform this policy or decision into essentials.
No doubt, all over the world, some governments’ policies are usually unpopular and very hard to implement, but such policies, no matter how laudable and progressive thinking it may be, must not further impoverish the people nor subject them into untold sufferings and poverty or worse still, take away the basics from their tables.
I have watched with keen interest the lieutenants of the Buhari-led federal government struggling desperately to justify and/or clarify the government’s decision, but in all of their efforts, it was obvious that they failed to see the decision from the people’s point of view - hunger.
They held on to their motives and continued to preach it aloud, hoping that Nigerians would eventually accept it, but they forgot that you do not preach the gospel to a hungry man. Without mincing words, the government’s recent decision to increase the petrol pump price is praiseworthy and broadminded in thought, but whether it likes it or not, some Nigerians, if not majority, would never see this motives, rather it is the government that must come to terms with the people’s request. This is because the government failed to get its priorities right.
It failed to use the banana and stick approach by not creating some reliefs for the people. I doubt if the people would reject the new pump price, if some elements of succor were on ground. The canniest move would have been to raise the minimum wage, before tempering with the pump price. The people are the government, and the government exists for the people not the other way round.
For an average Nigerian, the essence of governance is food and shelter, and perhaps, healthcare and education, but when these necessities are taken away from them by some policies, that government ceases to exist, if not unpopular. Nigerians are particularly bitter and not interested in the APC’s explanation for hiking the pump price of petrol, because it promised, during its campaign to bring about quality and superior standard of living, as well as sustained their livelihood through a radical reduction of fuel price, and other liberal policies rather than the existing adversity.
I have listened aptly and devotedly to comments and appeals over the Nigerian Labour Congress’ supposed intended or perhaps, ongoing protest and strike against the increase in petrol pump price and the comments of some persons, especially those on the side of the government, urging the NLC and other affiliates to shelve their strike, seemed to have caught my curiosity. They have insisted the hike in the pump price of fuel is inevitable at this time, because Nigeria is experiencing dwindling economy, particularly as a result of it declining foreign earning from oil.
But then, as much as it seemed so tempting to align with their views, especially with the undeniable economic ambiguity, I deliberately refused to see the point in their opinions, as I was also so curious and impatient to know the parameters they engaged in measuring a supposed improved and/or declined economy? And, I thought that if they have used the same indices to measure the timing, they would have also told members of the National Assembly to shelve their needless demands in the face of the same economic woes.
To me, their sudden cry or better still call on the NLC to shelve its strike only goes to underline the saying that "sacrifice is important and compulsory when the sacrificial lamb is a commoner". It is always so easy and expedient to urge the people or their representative to tread softly when it concerns their welfare, but when it is about the rulership, their welfare and benefits is a necessity and in fact, a statutory duty. After all, in spite of Nigerians’ disapproval of their wasteful quest for 36 SUV cars, if not 108, they still went ahead to incur the uneconomical expenses. They never saw anything wrong in the economy and/or the country’s foreign earning when they bought each of their imported 36 cars at twice its original price - N36.5million. They never heeded or acted sensibly or in line with the people or Nigeria’s plight, when they decided to pad the 2016 budget with N100billion for their constituency, if not personal projects, at the detriment of a people oriented Lagos/Calabar rail project, which stands to connect a greater part of Nigeria, as well as create jobs for the unemployed youths.
As much as an industrial strike maybe too much a burden for the All Progressives Congress government to deal with at this point in time, the unreliability and tactlessness of the present crop of Nigeria's lawmakers has awoken the realization of the NLC and Nigerians to the truth that they must fight for themselves. Take or leave it, gone were days when the people believed in the effectiveness of the mechanism of government. Today, they see the Nigeria project, as a disarrayed jungle, where every animal fends for itself. They are alive to the reality that even in this supposed progressive republic, the notion of once beaten twice shy is unsurprisingly in operation, as no animal wants to be caught unaware twice by a predator.
If I must borrow the words of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, over the recent hike in electricity tariff, I will suggest that the proposed industrial strike, though not a best possibility, is also a bitter pill that the Buhari-led government must swallow at this time. If not for anything, at least, to pay excruciatingly for the carelessness of its present crop of legislators, who willfully ignored Nigerians’ warnings in their self-seeking venture. No doubt, the times are hard, and Nigerians have been very considerate and passionate about this government, but in a situation those in power failed to see this truth, and became too egocentric, inefficient and wasteful, there is bound to be anxiety and perhaps, a fundamental disquietness amongst the people for survival.
Nigerians had tolerated bad leadership and rulership as well as countless killer governments, and I know that they are no longer ready to sit back and watch any government take them for granted again. Nigerians understand it is impossible for a leopard - politician - to change its spot, but at the same time, are ready, with their eyes wide opened, to give true agents of change their best faith and assurance to succeed.
What this government - perhaps politicians, especially those in the legislature - has failed to realize is that good-optimism is unquestionably not goodwill. Good-optimism is the ability to be patient and tolerant in anticipation, while goodwill is the ability to be kind and friendly in anticipation. The difference is that while good-optimism is based on hope, goodwill is based on facts and truth. And what the APC is enjoying now is good-optimism, because it is yet to demonstrate to Nigerians that it is capable of running the affairs of the nation. The APC must never forget that there is a very thin line between love and hate. It must be mindful that it is quite possible for people to hate for the purpose they have loved. The people are not stupid!
It is important to warn at this juncture that it is risky to play politics with Nigerians’ plight, because the people is undeniably seen all over the world, as the strength of any serious progressive government. The wellbeing of a country’s workforce tends to be the easiest proof that qualifies its government, as a progressive or otherwise. The value a government places on its people is no doubt, the yardstick by which its progressive intentions or policies is measured. Like the great sage, Pa Obafemi Awolowo said in his pre-Biafra war: speech to Western Nigeria leaders of thought that “the aim of a leader must be the welfare of the people whom he leads.” He went further to say ‘welfare’ denotes the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of the people, explaining that these must be unflinchingly and unchangeably fixed in a leader’s projection.
Honestly, it is bad enough that past governments, obviously not reformists, failed to appreciate the link between some socio-economic signs such as livelihood, purchasing power, crime and corruption, but it is even upsetting that the actors of the so called change government, have become insensitive and careless in their approach to representative governance. Common sense tells us that any system, where the aforementioned socio-economic signals, especially the first two, are absence or distorted in any form, the third and fourth are bound to be physically powerful and dominating.
Whether this government wishes to hear this or not, the recent hike in pump price of petrol has not only distorted the livelihood or the purchasing power of an average Nigerian, it actually strangulated life out of them. Nigerians are as good as dead, if nothing is urgently done to their minimum wage. And there is no better time for the NLC to cash-in on this matter.
But then, it is not just about protest and strike, it is about labour leaders coming up with a reform strategy and approach to engage the government to do the right thing. The truth is that for this government to make any meaningful impact with its unpopular policies coupled with its anti-corruption campaign, and ensure the people’s confidence, it must first take care of their basic domestic welfare. It must factor the people’s comfort, if not luxury, into its intended economic recuperation and anti-graft war, if it must have a holistic success. It also follows that it must reconsiders allocations such as security votes, salaries, allowances, travel expenses and even constituency funding of politicians, to intimate itself to the people.
A recent situation, where a serving Minister is asking for over N13million from an agency for a trip to China and all sorts, seems absurd. Nigerians are not fools, they see all of these and are not ready to keep quiet any longer. If not for anything, at least, experiences with past governments, have taught them to only agree to endure challenges of governance only when it is clear that enough sacrifices have also been made by those in public offices. And one sure ways to gain the people’s confidence is by being transparent, accountable, prudent and importantly seeing them, as partner in progress - and particularly attending to their plights.
Sincerely, it is evil and satanic for any person in government, no matter the constraints, to expect a grown up Nigerian adult, if not with a wife and four children, to continue to survive on N18, 000 monthly pay, even with the current hike in the pump price of petrol, yet workers of other petroleum producing countries, where the economy works and all basic conveniences, such as roads, electricity, water, education, healthcare, shelter and even food, are sustained, earn better wages.
The danger in paying workers peanut, particularly in an exhausted economy such as Nigeria, is that when money is taken away from a large number of people, their children’s access to the fundamentals - food, education, healthcare and shelter, if not all critical conveniences - is ultimately taken away. This also causes an imbalance in the system and creates a thick gap in the individual purchasing strength and obtainable lifestyle.
This disparity in turn sets in motion the economic rat race for individual survival that always pervades a crime and corrupt swamped society, where innocent children are often by such action, unconsciously sent to the streets, which over time influenced them into acts like armed robbery and kidnapping, which today our so-called honourables in both the Upper and Lower Chambers of the National Assembly are battling with. The truth is that the recent hike in pump price of petrol could worsen the above scenario, if an urgent measure is not taken to cushion the effect of the pump price hike.
The essence of this piece however, may not be to arm-twist the government to do what the NLC or better still, the people, are seeking, but to ask, when exactly will, an average Nigerian cease to live a worthless animal life?
Georges Macnobleson-Idowu
[email protected] , Coolwazobiainfo, Lagos.