DR. Goodluck Jonathan, in exercise of his powers as President of Nigeria, decided to remove subsidy on petroleum products. A clear evidence of this act was the non-provision for subsidy in the 2012 budget estimates he sent to the National Assembly.

In fact, if there is any further doubt about the intentions of Mr. President on this matter, the announcement by the PPPRA on January 1, 2012 makes the point that subsidy on petroleum products in Nigeria is now history.

Expectedly, certain interest groups led by the Nigeria Labour Congress and some civil society organisations are up in arms against the federal government for removing subsidy on petroleum products. Their grouse is that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products harms the interests of the common people of Nigeria. The evidence they project for their position is that fuel, which now sells for N141 per litre instead of N65 the case before January 1, 2012, has occasioned astronomical increases in the cost of transportation and other goods and services to the detriment of the welfare of the common people of Nigeria.

No doubt, there have been increases in the cost of transportation, food items, etc, now that subsidy has been removed on petroleum products. However, the pertinent question to ask is whether the sufferings visited on Nigerians has anything to do with oil subsidy removal as a policy of the Federal Government or the misguided antics of the leadership of the labour unions and civil society organisations to encourage transporters, traders, etc, to take advantage of the increases in the pump price of petrol to inflict pains on their fellow citizens. The example of the hardship commuters from Onitsha to Lagos are being made to endure since January 1, 2012, as a result of the greed of transporters on that route to make outrageous profit demonstrates the efficacy of the point to be proved in this discourse.

Before the PPPRA announced the oil subsidy removal on January 1, 2012, a 14-seater bus from Onitsha to Lagos exhausted about 70 litres of fuel and charged each passenger N2,500 for the trip. At N65 per litre, the cost of fueling the bus translated to (70 litres x N65) = N4,550.00 while the trip cost the 14 passengers N35,000. In effect, the gross profit for the bus owner, driver and conductor for this trip from Onitsha to Lagos amounted to (N35,000 – N4,550) = N30,450.00.

However, with the increase in the pump price of petrol to N140 per litre, the cost of fueling the same bus for the Onitsha to Lagos trip now came to (70litres x N140) = N9,800.00. At the same old rate of N2,500.00 per passenger, the 14 passengers for the trip now collectively pay N35,000.00. What this means is that the gross profit for this trip based on the same old rate of N2,500.00 will come up to (N35,000 – N9,800) = N25,200.000. Interestingly, at both rates of N65 and N140 per litre respectively, the owner and driver of our 14-seater bus in question still make profits.

Even if the argument is that our transporters who ply the Onitsha to Lagos route must continue to make profits at the rates when the cost of fuel was N65 per litre, such a situation does not warrant the astronomical increase in the cost of transportation as we have witnessed since January 1, 2012. For instance, our Onitsha transporter could have added only N500 to the N2,500 transport fare to Lagos to bring it to N3,000 per passenger. At the cost of N140 per litre for fuel, the people involved would make a profit of (N3,000 x 14 – N9,800) = (N42,000 – N9,800) = N32,200, about N2,200 above their normal gross profit before the increase in the pump price of petrol.

Unfortunately, now that the owner and driver of our 14-seater bus in question decided to increase the fare for this Onitsha to Lagos trip from N2,500.00 to N5,000.00 per passenger on account of the increase in the pump price of petrol to N140 per litre, they now make an outrageous gross profit of (N70,000 – N9,800) = N60,200.00. Incidentally, the reason for this outrageous gross profit lies in the greed of the 14-seater bus owner and his driver to take advantage of the increase in the pump price of petrol to make a financial kill to the discomfiture of their fellow citizens. Now, rather than call out workers to protest the arbitrary and illogical increase in the cost of goods and services by transporters, traders, etc, that is visiting hardship on the people, the labour unions and civil society organisations prefer to misguidedly transfer their anger and aggression to the Federal Government.

As the scenario painted here over the plight of commuters on the Onitsha to Lagos route suggests, the incontrovertible fact is that the pain or punishment being inflicted on commuters has nothing to do with the government or the increase in the pump price of petrol to N140 per litre, but has all to do with the unpatriotic disposition of our transporters to greedily satisfy their selfish pecuniary interests. Therefore, the protests called by labour which took their unpalatable toll on the human and material resources of the country, the most commonsensical thing to do is for the people to retrace their footsteps and resume their normal positive activities in the polity because those at the vanguard of the opposition to fuel subsidy removal (NLC, etc) simply used the act to inflict pains on the people of Nigeria.

Mr. Nkemjika, an author wrote from Lagos.