Removal of Fuel Subsidy: A Crisis of Trust By Abimbola Lagunju

It has not yet dawned on the Nigerian government that, trust between the governed and the government is a prerequisite for acceptance of any government policy. It will be an understatement to say that there has never been any mutual trust between any government in power, military or “democratic” and the Nigerian people. Not that Nigerians are a skeptical lot, but over and over again, all the governments that have been in power in this country have betrayed in big and small ways whatever trust people had vested in them. The Nigerian political class has not shown or done anything to gain the trust and inspire confidence in the people. And Nigerians have been forced by these circumstances to choose between being perceived and treated as naïve and being outrightly skeptical. Many have chosen the latter.

Unfortunately, this fact is lost on the Nigerian political class that prefers to see Nigerians as naïve and treat them as such. Nigerian politicians tend to think that winning at a ballot confers a blanket trust. – a license to invent and sell lies as truths. They employ those that they refer to as “spin doctors” to say everything but the truth. Spin doctors! And these individuals revel not only in being called “spin doctors” but also in selling anything but the truth. Truth has become a rare commodity in this democratic dispensation.

There are many versions of truth to any event in Nigeria, and in most cases all of these versions are outright lies. Truth sometime is found in the streets in the rumor web, and very often, every Nigerian borrows or develops his own truth of the same event. And indeed, our political class has invented truth-twisting vocabulary to perfect their deception. “Arrested” by an anti-corruption agency has now become “invited” by the same agency in the Nigerian political vocabulary. “See them” means “corrupt them”.  “Situation under control” means nothing is being done. Haba! We do not know what to believe anymore. And the Nigerian press does not help in elucidating the truth – they report all the versions of fictitious “truths” using the twisted political vocabulary without any criticism or analysis.

Good governance, security, anti-corruption war, generation and constant supply of electricity, creation of employment opportunities for the youths, improvement of infrastructure and the economy have all become declarations of good intentions on the pages of newspapers. It is not unusual to read a sentence like “How to generate employment in Nigeria – by a Minister” or another like “Nigeria can reach great heights if….by a Party Chieftain”.  Just a fleeting inspiration and after their speech, they do nothing. And that is, if they wrote the speech in the first instance. Nigerian politicians in the position of power have learnt not to do what they say, and indeed to do the contrary of their declarations. Road are tarred on the pages of the newspaper. Electricity has been so much generated on the pages of newspapers that we should be exporting the excess by now. Our politicians have poisoned the polity and have made lies and half-truths a way of life in almost all the spheres of Nigerian life.

With a long history of betrayal of trust, how does the government think it can sell any of its policies and particularly the most recent one on the removal of oil subsidy to a skeptical nation? The chances are slim. There are many doubts about the over-flogged so-called benefits of this policy. Dr. Leonard Karshima Shilgba in a recent article posted on Saharareporters asked “what has the Nigerian government been using the annual savings from sovereign debts to do in the past 5 years? If the federal government has nothing to show for the debt cancellation or “forgiveness” five years after, why should Nigerians trust that same government to use whatever savings from fuel subsidy?” There is a serious crisis of trust.

But there must be a way forward – the government must work for the people and somehow a bridge must be made between the governed and the government. The people have already given out the contract and must find a way to for these employees to work for them.

A possible way out was inadvertently advanced by a group of northern senators as was reported by the Nation Newspaper on 8th October this year. The senators conditioned their support to the Bill on removal of subsidy! As reported by the Nation, “The conditions are: the government should account for past fuel subsidy and publish the names of those who have been benefiting from it in the past; and the government should come up with concrete plans or agenda on what it will use the funds gained from the withdrawal of fuel subsidy for.” Conditioned support!

There are four things to glean from the conditions demanded by the senators. Firstly, they are demanding that the government tells the truth, nothing but the whole truth on the “what”, the “who” and the “how” of current oil subsidy. This simply means that simple truth is elusive within and among the Nigerian political class. Secondly, the senators are claiming that contrary to what the “spin doctors” of the government are claiming as the potential benefits of the removal of the subsidy, the government has not really done any homework on how they will go about the use of the funds they intend to liberate by the removal. According to the Nation newspaper, one senator, “who spoke in confidence, said: “Some of us are against the withdrawal of subsidy because the government has no concrete plan in place to cushion the effects of the policy.” Thirdly, whenever truth escapes from its confinements, it comes in an anonymous form from the Nigerian political class. None of the senators who bared their minds on the Bill wanted their names to be associated with the newspaper story. They preferred to be anonymous. They made telling the truth to look like a crime. Fourthly and finally, Nigerians can indeed begin to condition their support and trust in any government policy. This will be a new development in the relationship between those entrusted with governance and their employers, the people.

In addition to the two conditions posited by the senators on the removal of oil subsidy, I will like to add some more and I invite the readers to add theirs too. Like many other things shrouded in mystery in our country, we have no idea how many vehicles the Nigerian state at all levels of government, legislature, judiciary and parastatal institutions has. We will like to know. This is condition Number 1. We will like to know how much of tax payers money is used to fuel these vehicles. This is condition number 2. We will like to know how much the tax payer will have to pay to fuel these vehicles when the subsidy is removed and what percentage of the gains of the removal of the subsidy does this represent? This is condition 3. The same for generators – Condition 4. We will like to know by how much the increase in the travel expenses of our ever-travelling government officials and legislators will eat into the purported gains of the removal of the subsidy – condition 5. We will like to know how much will be left for “the development of the economy and opportunity for the greater number of people.” This is simple mathematics and we will like to know. And we will like to know whose idea this is anyway? World Bank or home grown? And finally, what if the white elephant idea fails and dies a couple of years into implementation? Which zoo-keeper is going to answer?

Democracy is defined as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It says “for the people” and not against the people as Governor Rotimi Amaechi will like us to believe when, of the removal of the fuel subsidy, he said, “We must learn to take very difficult decisions…” For the avoidance of doubt, we do not, at least here in this country, elect people to make life difficult for the citizenry. Our democracy is a young one, and if it will survive, it is not the people that must make the sacrifice; it is those whom we have elected into power.

And what sacrifice are we asking of them? Simple truth, transparency and good governance.

Is this too much to ask?

The Politics of Shoes in Nigeria By Abimbola Lagunju

Recently, at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual awards dinner in Washington, D.C, President Obama charged the Black leaders to remove their bathroom slippers and put on their marching shoes. Marching shoes? The Obama shoe-speech represents a conundrum for the Nigerian political space. Ah! Did the black leaders come in bathroom slippers to the dinner? Or have they been seen in their tailor-made suits slopping their way in their bathroom slippers along the corridors to the chambers of the Congress? Marching shoes ke? Did he mean matching shoes and bag? Or mashing shoes?

We have no marching shoes in Nigeria. Where on earth do we want to march to? Here, we talk of matching shoes and bags. This is a Nigerian specialty – ask any young Nigerian girl. She will gleefully reel off to the pleasure of her parents, which shop in Ibadan, Abuja, Kano or Port Harcourt has the best Italian and Spanish matching shoes and bags for women. And the men, in order not to be left behind wear matching shoes and wallet; and recently matching shoes, suits, wallet, wrist-watch strap and fedora hats.

In our environment, the political rulership (civilian and military) does not like marching shoes. Indeed they abhor it.  Why on earth will a well-paid politician want to wear marching shoes? He will be the laughing stock of his colleagues. And any Nigerian senator worth his salt does not want to be out-dressed in the haut couture parade of the National Assembly and Abuja nightlife. After all, he is the plenipotentiary ambassador of his constituency in the Federal Capital Territory and must exhibit the impeccable matching dress sense of his community. He does not need to march to anywhere. He has already marched from his village to Abuja. He has arrived! Political vision on our shores is not about marching! It is about outdoing your colleague in wardrobe wealth, where delicate matching accessories and lots of spare change are fundamental.

And our security service men do not have the couture finesse of our politicians. They cannot afford matching shoes, wallets and bags. They wear mashing shoes. These are not necessarily iron-studded punk shoes; neither do they have the brilho of Gestapo boots. Indeed, in many cases, they wear what Obama advises against – bathroom slippers in all shades and colors. These made in China, or made by Shina the corner cobbler, which have in most cases seen better days, contrast sharply with whatever uniform they are supposed to complement. The more the contrast, the more ominous their dark power. Mashing does not require any vision; neither does it require any finesse. Mash is smash, and any shoes will suffice. And crush they do. Police mash citizens, soldiers crush civilians, navy smash women, Airforce harass villagers, police pound soldiers, and soldiers squash the police. Very often, our politicians temporarily put aside their matching designer outfits and wear mashing shoes to deal with their opponents, real and imaginary. And our judges wear mashing shoes when sentencing small time criminals, and don matching attires with big time political thieves and corporate economic saboteurs.

Nigerians happily alternate between matching paraphernalia and mashing shoes. When in a small or big dispute, a Nigerian says, “I will deal wit you”, he means he will change his matching shoes and suit for mashing shoes to pound his opponent into submission physically or spiritually. And this does not have anything to do with the level of education or qualification. When it is time to display their mashing shoes, it may be difficult to differentiate a motor park tout from a doctor, a pastor, an engineer or a university professor. And the Nigerian womenfolk are not to be underestimated in the display of raw mashing power. Their mashing shoes have sharp stiletto heels.

Known as a nation of mashing and matching shoes and suits, foreigners living in our midst have learnt the trick of deft switching of mashing and matching shoes. They keep their marching shoes, which brought them to our country in the recesses of their wardrobes and join in the mashing fray. The staff of big and small embassies in Nigeria smash and crush visa applicants and information seekers physically and electronically. Telephones are either not functional or unanswered. Their e-mail addresses which are largely 419 addresses do not function – mail enquiries are not answered. And if ever the telephone is answered or the mail replied to, it comes in the form of crushing and smashing rudeness. Those, who have had to stand in long queues in front of some of these embassies or in their unwelcoming reception halls to be interviewed or to obtain information know first hand what it is like to be pulped under the mashing shoes of these foreigners.

And in the evenings, when the embassy officials and our rulers are done with mashing and smashing, they don their matching shoes and suits and invite each other to dinner. While the embassy officials are discreet about the victims of their mashing, our rulers spill the beans on each other - Who is mashing whom? Who has the best crushing boots? Who is funding the pulping boots? They have no limits. They talk to show their appreciation for the invitation. They feel privileged to be wearing the same matching shoes and suits with their hosts, even if just for a few hours.

Nigerians working in factories and companies owned by foreigners in Nigeria have a long experience of being crushed under the shoes of these “investors”. The Nigerian Labour Inspection Units at different levels go barefoot when on inspection visits to these factories and companies and leave with matching shoes, bags and suits or their equivalent in Naira or foreign currency. And these inspection units do not leave the factory of company premises without polishing the mashing shoes of these foreigners. The Nigerian worker does not have any hope for respite. They learn with time to resign themselves to their fate of forever being something under others’ shoes.

Nigerians living abroad or just visiting barefoot or in designer wears are not spared from their hosts’ mashing boots. The crushing boots hound them as they seek to make enough money to buy matching shoes, suits and bags to outdress everyone at home on their “glorious” return. They are pulped for the smallest of unintentional misdemeanors for which other nationals may get a slap on the wrist. And not surprisingly, many of them will happily give up their Nigerian nationality to obtain acquire the nationality of their host countries. They think (and they may be right) that this new nationality is a passport and visa to escape the vicious mashing boots set to crush and smash Nigerians in many countries of the world.

Nigerians are victims of shoes in their country and abroad, because the leadership is yet to learn that marching shoes are better than mashing and matching shoes and suits.

We can only hope that President Obama will, sometime soon, accept to visit Nigeria to speak about shoes. He must however remember to bring along some marching shoes for our politicians and compel them to wear them. We have had enough of matching shoes, bags, belts, babariga and suits.