The 2012 spending proposal has no provision for the contentious ‘subsidy’. For a nation that earns so much from its natural resource with so little impact – the stage is set as usual for horse-trading. Any which way the pendulum swings, the people are the losers. The big question is, can Nigerians rally behind reason; ignore ethno-religious prejudices and frontally confront the comprador bourgeois elements who mortgage our common patrimony for the commissions they get from multinationals?
The answer is not far-fetched. The last elections were won and lost, not on issues, but sentiments. That explains why as a friend said recently, Jonathan promised fresh air, and now is set to take cars away from the roads! In times like this, you will relax and lobby your representative. But here, we are talking of an Assembly that is less than ten per cent representative of the people’s mandate. Those who stole electoral votes without scruples would feel no tinge of conscience negotiating whatever they can get from a bad situation and letting the madness pass. What I see is a situation where the legislature plays to the gallery, (as some of its members are already doing); making ‘notice me’ statements which would help the executive identify potential rabble rousers for settlement. Once they are settled, the pro-subsidy refrain would be deafening with the usual puerile arguments.
A few readers have asked for my position on the subsidy. Truth is that, no Nigerian has seen any subsidy except those who are in government and are looting the common patrimony. If you stretch forth your hand to give your child his meal and a dog snatches it, do you shrug your shoulders and go to sleep or ask the helpless lad to go after the dog himself? No. You trap that dog and give it the thrashing of its life. Government claims a subsidy, but the best way to see through the veneer of hypocrisy is the new state policy where governments launch kerosene-distribution projects with media fanfare. Extremely ridiculous and sadly so.
Kerosene is a by-product of petrol long relegated to the laboratories for experiments and modified as aviation fuel in nations with no crude or natural gas. Nigeria has both in abundance, but the ruling class lacks the conscience to make fuel available and contribute to desertification by making people resort to wood fire. Deadlines have been set and broken against gas flaring by multinationals operating our oil fields even under the ultimate Niger-Delta president, Goodluck Jonathan.
There is no plan by this Niger-Deltan to halt an environmental disaster as a legacy of the first ‘son of the soil’ to be president. But then, you don’t need a legacy if your loot is enough to assure an opulent lifestyle for your children in safer nations abroad. I’ve got news for Jonathan and his ilk, foreign nations are becoming increasingly hostile to foreigners – even those with stolen wealth to throw around. Their policies are alienating and the global economic climate is giving birth to extreme-right governments averse to immigration. In those countries, the citizenry are becoming ever more suspicious and intolerant of strangers. It is not only in Plateau that the native-settler dichotomy is a frightening issue. Only days ago, an Italian mad man shot and killed three Senegalese citizens who were conducting legitimate business. Right-wing groups make Europe an immigrant’s living hell and across the Americas, more and more deracinated immigrants are either being attacked or are behind bars.
It is sad that government claims its subsidy is stolen but has not tried any individual or company for this theft running into billions of dollars. If you amputate a limb that is not gangrenous, what would you do to a cancerous sore? Truth is NNPC books are never balanced. Nigeria has no record of how much it earns; how much it spends or on what? Not even under a Niger-Delta presidency. Even gold rusts here!
The budget earmarks 25% for security. Nigeria is in a state of war and the excuses are there – Boko Haram, Niger-Delta militancy, ethno-religious tensions and kidnapping. We have a security apparatchik that sleeps and is rewarded for its indolence. Intelligence gathering is nil, and money meant for that is embezzled with impunity. Security chiefs have come to realize that Jonathan does not have the liver to deal with them (for reasons which are obvious). 2012 is the year to reap bountifully from professional indolence. If we reward criminals with financial amnesty, why should criminality not grow?
Government point to what obtains in other countries. Nations which do not produce petrol sell the product at prevailing market rates – that is a quarter of the truth. These countries have functional public transportation (land, sea, rail and sometimes air). They have unemployment subsidy; free and functional public education; health and housing. They have relative functional security. What does Nigeria have? The FCT administration wants to charge parking fees– but it has no transportation system in place. It got away with the ban on Okada without providing a viable alternative. But, heh it is working on a grandiose Abuja skyline, a project that has no relevance to 70% of the residents. Misanthropic projects like these are replicated across the country. Good luck to the unions and hope that their leaders do not shortchange their members by getting rich on underhand deals while ignorant demonstrators are shot. It is sad to say, but this budget brings no hope – it is impregnated with recipe for chaos and disaster.
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