Fuel Subsidy probe;Where is team Jonathan

By Chinedu Ekeke

On Wednesday, the Honorable Farouk Lawan-led House of
Representatives ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy regime
laid their findings on the floor of the House. Whoever that
has read that report and is not angry with the government
must either be one of the indicted criminals or down with
dementia.
Below is a paragraph from the report:
We found out that the subsidy regime, as operated
between the period under review (2009 and 2011), were
fraught with endemic corruption and entrenched
inefficiency. Much of the amount claimed to have been
paid as subsidy was actually not for consumed PMS.
Government officials made nonsense of the PSF Guidelines
due mainly to sleaze and, in some other cases,
incompetence. It is therefore apparent that the insistence
by top Government officials that the subsidy figures was
for products consumed was a clear attempt to mislead the
Nigerian people.
To refresh your memory, I will take you back to
December, 2011. The event was a town hall meeting
organized by the Newspapers Proprietors Association of
Nigeria. It was designed to create an opportunity for the
government to engage the Nigerian people on why the
administration needed to increase the pump price of fuel.
Prior to that meeting, several key actors in government
had argued that Nigeria was spending a staggering sum of
N1.3 trillion to subsidize petroleum products; an amount
they claimed was unsustainable. In the town hall
meeting, this same argument was reechoed. The
government was no longer ready to throw away money
that should be for infrastructural development. They were
set to build schools, hospitals, refineries, railways, and
every good thing imaginable with the money. Nigerians
were advised to endure the pains which would be for a
brief period. After the pains would arrive pleasure.
That meeting was important to some of us, because it laid
bare the real sides of people who hitherto were seen as
populists. The Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, her
petroleum counterpart, Diezani Allison-Madueke and the
Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi were those
who came to represent the government of President
Jonathan. On hand to lend them support was the
governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, who
unwittingly demolished the remaining of the goodwill he
acquired during his years as NLC president, a goodwill
which was, albeit, acquired on falsehood. Many discerning
minds wonder why people still – at least up to that
moment – believed he was sincere while in NLC.
In all their arguments in favour of the insensitive
imposition of petrol tax on Nigerians, none agreed to
acknowledge the role official corruption played in
ballooning the amount paid for subsidy from the
appropriated N240 billion for 2011 to over N1 trillion.
Well-meaning Nigerians told the government in clear
terms to get serious with the fight against corruption and
block all loopholes through which money was leaking into
the ready pockets of the criminals. The Jonathan team at
that meeting created the impression of government as
one helpless institution that had been overpowered by
vested interests in the petroleum industry. Sanusi of CBN
achieved a new grade in rabble-rousing when he argued
that people smuggled fuel outside our borders because
our neighbouring countries were buying the product
costlier than we did, and that the difference in prices was
“big enough to bribe everybody from here to the border”.
In his grand plot to deceive Nigerians, Sanusi didn’t
accept that people are paid to man our borders, and that
it was an indictment on both government and those
people on the borders that criminals successfully smuggle
petrol out. He only took us to Greece and back, and then
threatened us with a combination of the Greece and
Italian experiences if we refused to take the punishment.
At a point in the debate, Okonjo Iweala told us to “help
them” catch the thieves. That was an embarrassingly
irresponsible line dropping out of the mouth of a senior
government official.
For Diezani, she didn’t know how many litres of fuel
Nigerians were consuming per day. But she knew we
needed to save over a trillion naira. Her arrogance in the
whole saga was particularly irritating.
Adams Oshiomhole in his debate was lacking in finesse
and sound logic. He told Nigerians that fuel was the only
commodity that hadn’t increased in price since 2007. That
was enough reason to jack it up. For Adams, the prices of
things must increase from time to time. I wonder where
he learnt that from. He even ventured into the ridiculous,
advancing the notion that Goodluck Jonathan was showing
uncommon courage by going for a decision as unpopular
as subsidy removal. To downplay on corruption, he told
us how Nigeria will go up in flames if state governors
were giving us the access to conduct post-budget auditing
in their various states. Those whose post-budget auditing
would stir up riots include Mr Oshiomhole himself, the
reformer. That was a new low for the Edo Governor.
Although that team of mischief left the debate thoroughly
defeated, and promised to “consult further” before
implementing their evil withdrawal of subsidy, they
refused to further consult with anybody, and went ahead
to stir an eruption that brought Nigeria to a halt, and
pushed the country very nearly off the cliff. To quell the
uprising, they deployed military might and ordered the
men to kill and silence protesters, bribed and or
intimidate NLC which has a history of sabotaging all the
struggles they have ever led since the Oshiomhole years.
The rest is sad history, but the outcome is the Farouk-led
committee’s report. What many suspected has been
verified by that panel: that the criminals are the same
people in government; and that they were desperately
pushing for the subsidy removal so as to free up enough
money for the sustenance of their greed and avarice.
The chickens have come home to roost, and here’s the
time to ask further questions. Where is team Jonathan?
Of particular interest is Diezani Madueke, the petroleum
Minister who, interestingly, is the head of the board of
NNPC, that corruption exploration and refining outfit. In
the heat of the brawl, she quickly assembled a group of
Nigerians with proven integrity, christened them a task
force and appointed Nuhu Ribadu its chair, all in a bid to
sell the image of a reformer. Yet Diezani is sitting atop a
government corporation that steals billions, daily, from
the same government of which Diezani is a key member.
Diezani was out to deceive the Nigerian people. And she
almost succeeded, but for the doggedness of many. Is she
still in this government presiding as a minister? Is she
waiting for Nigerians to take over the streets again before
she resigns and returns the billions in her possession?
Let’s assume Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala wasn’t part of the
massive stealing and was defending the policy based on
what she thought were legitimate figures. Now the truth is
out. What is the honorable thing for her to do? Is she
waiting to be reminded to tender her resignation
immediately and apologise to the Nigerian people for
making herself part of that wicked design to inflict untold
hardship on the long-suffering Nigerians? It will be to her
ultimate shame to continue in office now that it has been
ascertained that fuel subsidy removal has nothing to do
with unsustainability. Let us assume again that Mrs. Ngozi
wasn’t aware; now she knows, we expect her resignation
tomorrow if there’s any jot of guilt – or milk of mercy – still
left in her conscience.
Malam Sanusi was recently quoted as saying the entire
subsidy must go. He complained that “they” had not
saved anything yet from the one they removed. To save
enough, he is proposing a blanket removal. Well, I think
the stage is set for Sanusi to remove himself first. He
presided over all the illegal withdrawals from the CBN to
pay for non-existent subsidy. I had expected his letter of
resignation to be forwarded to the president first thing
Thursday morning as a way of apologizing to Nigerians,
and informing us of his lack of knowledge in the earth-
quaking stealing that characterized the subsidy regime. It
is possible that he is yet to study the report in full. I still
expect to hear, tomorrow morning, that Sanusi has
removed himself from the CBN. He needs a place in the
streets of Nigeria where he will learn that his statistics at
the apex bank are divorced from the realities on ground.
As for Oshiomhole, I expect Edo people to reward him
with an overwhelming rejection at the polls for the
shameful role he played in impoverishing Nigerians under
the guise of subsidy removal.
And just for a brief reason why these people should leave
immediately, here again, is the last line from the
paragraph I started with:
It is therefore apparent that the insistence by top
Government officials that the subsidy figures was for
products consumed was a clear attempt to mislead the
Nigerian people.
I didn’t say that, the Farouk committee report did. And I
believe it in its entirety.

Chinedu wrties for http://www.ekekeee.com
You can join him on Twitter for more direct engagement:
@ekekeee

#CONSENSUS 2015