Indications have emerged in Abuja on why President Goodluck Jonathan hurriedly removed subsidy from petroleum products on January 1, 2012.
An investigation by our correspondent showed that the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party and some politicians insisted that the subsidy must be removed early in his regime.
The leadership of the party, led by its acting National Chairman, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, was said to have mounted pressure on Jonathan to remove the subsidy on time before another general election.
The party’s fear, according to sources within its hierarchy, was that if the subsidy was not removed on time, and with the expected protests that would follow it, it was capable of affecting the fortune of the party at the next general elections.
Nigerians were surprised to wake up on January 1 to the news that the Federal Government had removed the subsidy, which the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, had said a few days earlier that no date had been fixed for.
Maku had said after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on December 22, 2011, “No take-off date has been announced for subsidy removal.”
It was learnt that it was based on the assurances of the government that made the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Austin Oniwon, to announce that the take-off for the subsidy removal would be April 1, 2012.
Oniwon, at an event of the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, said the removal would take effect on that date when the life span of the current budget would come to an end.
His words, “I think what people should really look out for is that in the 2012 budgetary proposal, there is no provision for subsidy. And if there is no provision for subsidy, it will be illegal for the government to implement subsidy. We believe that when the implementation of the budget takes off, deregulation would then take off with it.”
However, the PDP bigwigs were said to have mounted pressure on Jonathan to start the implementation of the policy on time.
A member of the National Working Committee of the party said, “Do you want us to start the implementation when the election is coming? Yes, people would say that if we have just finished election, but it is better we do what we want to do now to enable us to settle down on time.
“There is no way such a policy would not have a ripple effect, and we expect opposition political parties to capitalise on it and make the policy a political tool.
“So, we asked the President to do what he wants to do now so that whatever the opposition political parties and the civil societies want to do could be done on time.
“We know that before we start talking about election now, Nigerians would have forgotten about the issue and we pray that the policy would turn out to be beneficial to the country.”
Efforts made to speak with the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Alkali, on the matter were unsuccessful as calls made to his cell phones indicated that they were switched off.
However, an official of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak for the party, said the PDP was right to decide when to remove the subsidy.
He said since subsidy removal was part of the party’s manifesto, even though it was not used during the campaign, the party, in conjunction with the Presidency, was at liberty to implement it.
The Chairman of the Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, however, said the position of Jonathan on the oil subsidy was quite different from his campaign message and the party considered it deceptive.
Asked to reconcile the support the party gave to Jonathan during the campaign and election and the present position of the party on the fuel policy, Nwanyanwu stated that the party had no regret in supporting the President as he appeared the best at the time the party supported him.
He said, “Our party finds it difficult to believe that the same President, who went round the country during presidential campaign, promising Nigerians better life ahead, is now busy imposing draconian economic policies, whose socio-economic consequences on the nation would be patently unbearable.
“Mr. President hardly needs any reminder that in the present circumstance of our beloved country, petroleum subsidy removal is a banana peel that his government should not make the mistake of stepping on.
“Nigerians refuse to accept the lame excuses being given by the government as an explanation for the failure of our four refineries to operate optimally, efficiently and deliver on their mandate, despite the huge resources expended to build and maintain them over the years.
“It is even more incomprehensible how the country failed to build new refineries in the light of enormous resources accruing to the government from various sources in many decades.
“This is why the Labour Party joins our dear compatriots throughout the nation in calling on the FG to consider the more progressive option of embarking on renewal and modernisation of our crippling and dilapidated infrastructure, such as railways, roads, electricity, water, housing, educational and health institutions, in order to rekindle the lost confidence and trust of Nigerians in their government.
“Nigerians have been robbed so many times through unfulfilled promises and dashing of their hopes by governments.”
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