By Emmanuel Aziken
It was surprising how one of my colleagues regaled some of us last Monday of the advantages in removing the alleged subsidy in the prices of petroleum prices. It was an echo of the same arguments used by previous administrations of how the removal of the alleged subsidy in the price of petroleum products would be used to revitalize infrastructure, including railways, improve the road network and yes, lead Nigeria to El Dorado.

Some of us may have been taken in with the arguments first marshaled by the World Bank trained team that superintended the Babangida economic agenda. But after then, I didn’t need any prophet to point out the sophistry of Nigeria’s governments. Indeed, I have since vowed that that governments of Nigeria shall not blind my eyes with such arguments.

The emptiness in the arguments for the removal of the alleged subsidy is found in the lack of imagination of the proponents. While they have flooded the media with figures of how subsidy is costing the government more than N1 trillion per annum, they have refused to answer some specific questions.

The first question is how much does it cost to produce a liter of petrol? The government claims that the landing cost of a liter of petrol is about N140 per liter. Good, but what is the cost of producing a liter of petrol in Nigeria? It is an issue administration officials have shied away from. The most they say is that the country’s refineries are not working or producing at an optimum level? Then whose fault is that?

After spending hundreds of billions in Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) for the refineries, the nation’s four refineries remain at best, epileptic. Why? Whereas the refineries are not maintained, the same government continues to sustain a bloated budget for the maintenance of redundant personnel and top management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

The best lunches, the best aircraft and the best housing facilities are available to the staff and top management of a quango that is generally known for its inefficiency. The inefficiency of the organization to the consternation of most Nigerians is reflected in its inability to even monitor the amount of crude exported by the producing companies.

It is no more hearsay that the oil exporting companies are the ones who tell the NNPC officials the amount of crude they are channeling from the export terminals.

The Angolan national oil company which started business many years after the NNPC has done better in all respects. One recent report has it that Sonangol, the Angolan national oil company made a profit of $3 billion in its commercial activities last year and is increasingly making forays into other profitable ventures even in Portugal, Angola’s former colonial power.

Regrettably, the NNPC cannot even give an account of its own trading figures. The megalomaniac tendencies of the corporation as reflected in its executives keeping permanent presidential suites in five star hotels in Abuja is only a reflection of the delusions that have crippled wise management in the corporation.

Even looking beyond the gross incompetence of the national oil company is the deliberate effort to overlook the principle of comparative advantage. Every national economy has an advantage in one area or the other. Nations tend to harness their advantages to the purpose of using same to boost other sectors of the economy.

The European Union has over the years given a good chunk of its budget on subsidies. Last year, the EU spent over 39 billion Euros, well over 40% of the European Union budget for the year on subsidizing agriculture.

The United States despite its leading role in promoting capitalism similarly spends a significant amount of its budget on subsidizing farmers. The subsidies by the EU and the US government aim to keep their workers and their national economies in business.

So, given the advantage nature has given us in oil, why is it that it should not be subsidized to help us boost our economy?

Rather, government is determined to sustain its inefficiencies. The profligacy of government should not be on our shoulders!