VANGUARD EDITORIAL
MANY analysts have blamed President Bola Tinubu for the hardship that hit the country over his statement on the immediate removal of the vexatious fuel subsidy hours after he was sworn into office. Tinubu had expressed his delight that the Muhammadu Buhari regime had announced a July 2023 date for the end of subsidy payments on fuel.
The sum of N3.36 trillion was budgeted for the subsidy payments covering the period January to June 2023. Unwittingly, Tinubu mentioned the subsidy removal, merging of the naira exchange rate and other measures as the highlights of his government’s intended economic reforms.
That statement threw the country into chaos, as fuel queues sprang up nationwide. Filling stations locked their gates to protect their business from the uncertainties of the subsidy removal. Many of them resorted to selling to black marketeers. Petrol prices shot up to between N600 and N2,000 per litre. The situation was akin to Buhari’s bungled “currency reform” which led to the banks starving customers of their money earlier this year.
Buhari, Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have not shown enough empathy with the people with regard to the place of petrol and gas in their lives. Due to poor power supply and lack of adequate rail and water transport alternatives, the average Nigerian depends on petrol and gas for commutation and power supply. These petroleum products are the last resort for livelihoods and must be handled with utmost care by well-meaning governments.
However, the leaders of the parties that eventually became the APC played politics with the petrol subsidy issue. They mobilised protests across the country to ensure its stoppage by the Goodluck Jonathan government way back in January 2012. Former president, Buhari, claimed subsidy was a “scam”. But he continued with the policy throughout his eight years in power, leaving the nut for his successor to crack.
