Fuel Subsidy Removal

By Obumneke Ejimnkeonye Okafor

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: Since GEJ muted the idea of removing fuel subsidy, many Nigerians were happy with the intention and were waiting to see it done. There are things we expected to see before removal of fuel subsidy. Have those things been done?

It is easy to copy in an exam hall, but it is difficult to explain how you arrived at your answer if you copied it from someone’s work.

In Nigeria, a salon buys petrol regularly for its power generator. Same applies to all shops and all small businesses. Homes are not leftout because only few areas in Nigeria get 12-hour power supply daily.

Removing fuel subsidy without uninterrupted power supply increases cost of running small and medium businesses to about 100%. This simply means that cost of everything will go high and there will be inflation. One can only guess what will happen to our already battered economy.

Nigeria’s minimum wage is N30,000. There are few or no cheap houses for low income workers in most states in Nigeria. With N30,000 monthly salary, workers struggle to pay rent. Where are workers expected to get money for increased cost of transportation as they are struggling to pay rent? How do we expect to end corruption in Nigeria?

Right things should be done along with removal of fuel subsidy. Then things will cushion effects of subsidy removal. The things include uninterrupted power supply from national grid, cheap mass housing schemes by state and federal government, fixing of bad roads with provision of effective mass transportation system, linking of interstate and intercity with railway and provision of speed trains, etc

Nigerian leaders should start doing things properly. They should learn to apply the right steps that will lead to the desired results. Removal of fuel subsidy without cushioning the effects is like copying the answer to a problem without applying the right steps.