This week, we publish the above titled piece by a guest columnist. The content, as avid readers will observe, is in consonance with what we have preached in this column for several years.

The phrase, ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’, SWF, may sound like ‘big grammar’ to the average layman, who, with little education, represents the critical mass of our population.

The issue of fuel subsidy has generated so much indignation all over the country. The reason for the heat is obvious; Nigerians readily remember the immediate hikes in the price of virtually every product or service as petrol prices climbed from less than 20 kobo/litre in the early 1980s to the current regulated price of N65/litre.

In spite of former President Obasanjo’s intimidating presence, his attempts to deregulate the pricing of petroleum products (particularly P.M.S./petrol) hit a brick wall. Consequently, the value of subsidies has steadily increased from less than N100bn a year to over N1,000bn, and may exceed 20% of the proposed 2012 budget according to media reports.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has been unusually silent on the widening gap between the official exchange and the Bureau de Change (BDC) rates of the naira to the dollar.