AS a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, one of the things I found particularly striking was the determination—and obvious sincerity—of organised labour to challenge unpopular government policies. After all they also speak for the poor, powerless and voiceless majority of Nigerians.

The irony, of course, was that despite their strong resolve to protect what they perceived as the best interests of trade unions and the larger society, government, almost always had the last say.

The cycle was predictable: A government agency would submit a proposal for a particular policy direction it wanted government to embrace and implement. The policy would work its way through the highest echelons of government and end up being adopted by Nigeria’s highest policy making and implementation body – the Federal Executive Council. On the face of it, the policy may seem geared towards improving governance or perhaps freeing up or generating funds, which government would then use to improve the lives of the ordinary citizen. Why then would anyone criticise such well thought-out policies?

From the position of government, the questions usually were: why would anyone go on a strike to protest what in essence was a fool-proof decision in the common interest? And by the way, who gave Labour the moral imperative to take decisions on behalf of millions of other Nigerians and force them to take to the streets, when as far as government was concerned, the proposed policy was in the greater interest of the entire country, and the facts and figures were crystal clear?

In retrospect, and from my observations when I was later deployed to the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications, I realised that the major challenge was that of communication breakdown. It was clearly a challenge about government/public communications, or the lack of one. Government had hundreds of information officers in its employ to communicate with, and explain government policies and programmes to the public. However, the same government was not utilizing this large pool of expertise it has, to constructively engage with, and communicate government policies to the wider public. Rather, government seemed to prefer some faceless organisations to do its bidding. So there was an understandable suspicion of government. Although we initiated schemes to retool information officers in the nuances of their jobs, that there is such confusion surrounding government proposal to remove the subsidy on petroleum products indicates a gap still exists.

As far as I am concerned, the plan to remove the subsidy remains a proposal. Today, I am, like most other Nigerians, afraid of the potential hardships we would face were the prices of petroleum products, especially petrol, to go up drastically. From all indications, it seems the Federal Government is fully determined to remove the subsidy on petroleum products, and expectedly, another epic battle with Labour is looming. The battle lines are drawn and the country is gearing up for what may be the biggest confrontation over economic policy in many years. But should we go down that route again? What is clear is that government could have managed the situation better. Authoritative facts and figures of the actual cost of subsidy are hardly ever made public: not much is known about the actual quantity of fuel imported, the cost of importation, distribution pattern within the country as well as the actual amount spent to augment the cost of the pump price for consumers. All we get to know is when a certain amount of money is declared as having been spent on subsidy. How it is spent has never been explained, and so the larger public remain rightly sceptical of government’s intention as far as the petroleum subsidy issue is concerned. At any rate, it was recently revealed at the National Assembly that the Federal Government has overshot this year’s budget on fuel subsidy from the N240 billion provided in the 2011 Appropriation Act to N1.3 trillion as at August 2011. The figure represents an extra-budgetary spending of over N1 trillion, representing an increase of about 700 percent. This information did not come from the executive arm of government. How were these figures arrived at? Should the fact that neither the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, nor the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, have come out to refute these figures make them authentic? Why is government not engaging with the Nigerian people on these issues?

As one who has been on the other side, I think that things can, and must be done differently: On one hand, there is a proposal by government to remove the subsidy on petroleum products consumed in Nigeria. On the other, there are threats of strikes and promises of mass action led by Labour and civil society. And the whole cycle begins again, as we continue to go round and round. Is there an air of inevitability to the imminent confrontation?

Dr. TIMIEBI KORIPAMA-AGARY , a retired Federal Perm Sec. is the national coordinator , Initiative for Peace and Industrial Harmony.