By Douglass Anele
By speaking in vague generalities about spending N250 billion annually on fuel subsidies, the federal government is creating the impression that it has something to hide, perhaps to protect big-time oil marketers that have been patronising top government officials and the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The argument that funds that will accrue to government after the removal of fuel subsidy will be used to address problems in critical sectors such infrastructure, education, health etc. is disingenuous; it is the same hocus pocus or shibboleth late Gen. Sani Abacha used when he introduced a petroleum tax, without commensurate improvement in social amenities and infrastructure.  To further demonstrate federal government’s ideological bankruptcy, incoherence and mixed-up approach to policy formulation and implementation, the minister of power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, at the 17th Economic Summit announced a three-year subsidy of N100 billion in the price of electricity for the poor when the planned hike in electricity tariff is implemented.

The questions that flows logically from that include: what yardstick would the government use to determine “the poor”? What is the guarantee that the current administration or a future government will not change its policy later and remove the subsidy on the same grounds as the ones now used to justify removal of fuel subsidy?

Anyway, the idea is gaining ground that government’s obdurate refusal to jettison its strategy of removing fuel subsidy is due to the fact that, having wasted available scarce financial resources, Jonathan and his lieutenants are running from pillar to post to raise easy cash in order to avoid bankruptcy. That idea must not be dismissed off-handedly, for there is some credible information that Nigeria’s foreign reserves have declined considerably since Jonathan became President.

It seems that Mr. President is not serious about curtailing wasteful expenditure and instilling prudence in the management of the nation’s finances.

During periods of financial difficulties, responsible and responsive leaders take concrete measures to reduce government’s expenditure and minimise waste by reducing the size of official bureaucracy and the salaries, allowances and other perks of office attached to top political positions in their respective countries. For instance, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti, has given up his emoluments both as the Prime Minister and finance minister to encourage other Italians to make sacrifices for the good of their country.

Thus, patriotic and sincere political leaders through leadership-by-example encourage compatriots to tighten their belts and make sacrifices for the common good, thereby lending weight and credibility to whatever policies they introduce to address the problem facing their various countries. In Nigeria, the situation is entirely upside down, because Nigerian leaders see themselves as a special breed to be spoilt and over-pampered with the human and financial resources of the country.

President Jonathan, like others before him, has repeatedly charged Nigerians to tighten their belts because the economy is in a terrible state, so that “all hands will be on deck to rescue it.”  Nevertheless, there is no report anywhere that our President and his motley crowd of ministers, special advisers and assistants etc. have made, or are planning to make, the same kind of sacrifices he has been calling on Nigerians to make to pull the country out of the present economic black hole.

As I always argue repeatedly in this column, if physical appearance, especially physiognomy, is used to gauge the degree of seriousness with which a leader approaches the task before him or her, one can safely conclude that President Jonathan and virtually all top public office holders at the moment, including members of the legislature, are having a ball.

Collectively and individually they do not look like people really bothered about the worsening existential predicament of our people.

This is a dangerous development, considering the possibility of violent revolution by the underclass abolishing the unjust oppressive system that had kept them down for too long. Going back to the fuel subsidy conundrum, if Jonathan is serious, the first step he ought to take is to launch an in-depth, comprehensive, investigation of the modus operandi of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, paying particular attention to the joint partnerships it has with multi-national oil companies, allocation of oil blocks and execution of the Turn Around Maintenance regime which has proved ineffective in making our refineries function as they should.

Sometimes, I wonder whether the President has asked, and attempted to answer, the simple question: why is it that our refineries for more than three decades do produce enough refined petroleum for domestic consumption? I strongly believe that Jonathan, like most Nigerians, knows to some extent the problems of our oil sector, especially the gargantuan corruption that has characterised the system from A to Z. However, he is unwilling and, hence unable, to confront the vicious cabals responsible for the rot in the system. Probably he belongs to that cabal or relies on them for his political ascendancy and survival.

Therefore, rather than confront the vampires sucking away the lifeblood of the country, our President is willing to increase the prices of petroleum products and compound the sufferings of compatriots who stood for hours in the sun to vote for him in the last presidential elections. In otherwords, President Jonathan is willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of the ninety-nine percent who are barely surviving on less than ten percent of the country’s wealth to pacify the one percent controlling ninety percent of Nigeria’s resources.

It is a classic case of what the German philosopher, Georg W. Hegel described as “the cunning of reason” in history that Jonathan who initially was part of the ninety-nine percent and who ought to do all it takes to improve the living conditions of the underprivileged class is now the instrument for further pauperisation and humiliation of that very class.

Having escaped the dehumanising gravitational pull of chronic poverty, President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have forgotten the bitterness of walking for miles to school without shoes. What a shame!! Concluded.