Those who claim they subsidise our fuel have not said anything since we entered the new year. They had promised to cut the “subsidy” by 50 per cent from January 1.
Of course, we know why they have suddenly become dumb: the fall in oil price. If we were enjoying a subsidy when the price of crude was $120 per barrel, common sense dictates that the subsidy, if it existed, must have gone by the time the price came down to $70.Today it is less than $50.
But they still made allowance for “subsidy” to the tune of perhaps N980 billion in the 2015 budget. And our lawmakers have not removed a dime from their N150billion annual budget, as they debated it last week.
Time and again, we have proved that fuel subsidy never existed. It is money embezzled – money used to campaign for elections, buy private jets, charter aircraft, marry new wives, buy yachts in Italy, refresh Swiss banks and purchase arms for “militants” and “insurgents”.
No government could be crueler than Nigeria’s.
If the Nigerian masses still value accountability, they must let the phantom subsidy go once and for all. Let treasury looters stop hiding behind “subsidy” to loot scarce resources. Let the pump price of petrol rise to N200 per liter; it must still come down as the forces of demand and supply lock horns.
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