Nigerian Entrepreneur

I was in a jolly mood celebrating the goodness of God over me and my family when I heard that the Federal Government of Nigeria has carried out its resolve to remove the controversial fuel subsidy! Henceforth we are not to buy Petrol at prices dictated by market forces. That piece of news saw an instant increase of 117% in the pump price of Petrol.

Since the public debate started, I have not been able to make up my mind which side of the debate to join. Sincerely speaking I couldn’t vote for removal of subsidy non removal. After listening to several public, private and expert speakers on the issue, I was more confused than before. Not that I possess a low IQ, but for the fact that each party were presenting facts and figures that do not agree.

I didn’t realize at first how serious the whole issue is, until about three days after when I started noticing the actual effect of the removal of fuel subsidy around me. The cost of transportation went over the roof. Several people that travelled to their remote villages to celebrate the holiday were stuck in the villages because they could no longer finance their trip back to the cities due to the sudden increase in transport fare.

When the labour union called for a strike action to protest the increase, I knew there was going to be trouble. The fuel stations shut down and there was immediate scarcity of fuel. At first, instead of buying petrol at N65 per litre, I bought at N80 per litre a day before the strike. As at today, eight days into the strike, I had to buy at N160 per litre. Some friends told me they but at N200 per litre.

Weighing the options all over again, I guess the issue is not choosing between removal or retaining fuel subsidy. The real issue is, what is wrong with our leadership? Why can’t we have honest men and women as leaders? Why all the corruption? It is only in Nigeria that thieves are celebrated and given honorary awards. It is time we say no to corruption and corrupt men and women wasting our resources and inflicting hardship on the masses.

I vote for removal of corruption in Nigerian government. In my humble opinion, that is the solution to the controversial Fuel Subsidy.

Tags: Corruption, Fuel Subsidy, Occupy Nigeria

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2012 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Nigerian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.