[dropcap]I[/dropcap] wish congratulate President Buhari for finally summoning the guts to remove the fuel subsidy; this was my ONLY advice to him after winning the elections. Yet, I noticed he kept playing the convenience game as his minister kept playing the Indian Dramendra film of price modulation rather than fuel subsidy removal.
As expected, our ever willingly gullible set of some Nigerians kept applauding this intellectual fraud as Uhuru – claiming “prices has come down rather than go up”. It is amazing how the average Nigerian enjoys being deceived and even more crazily deceiving himself
One year close to being sworn, the president has finally listened to what so many influential economists and bodies like The World Bank, IMF, and other have told him. The petrol subsidies have to go.
This is also a justification for leaders like President Goodluck Jonathan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and others like me that supported the removal of the subsidies way back in 2012. I refused to join any strikes and rallies at Ojota and Falomo in Lagos for those 8 days. I openly made it clear that I would not be joining the opposition sponsored rally and any show at the time that ended up unravelling as hatred for Jonathan.
To those that called us thieves because we simply supported a sensible government policy at the time, you should be honourable enough to apologise to us; and you should be magnanimous enough to admit that you were wrong in 2012 and you also be bold enough to accept that your lies against GEJ as being “callous and willing to kill the poor for doing so” were damn right evil!
To the future, I also congratulate Aliko Dangote ahead of his possible rise into the Forbes Top 5 or 10, in the next couple of years – all things being equal, this announcement shows that his incoming 600,000+bpd refinery was a fantastic business idea. It was well calculated and it shows that he foresees the future.
Aliko Dangote also proves that only a tiny 1% of the world will continue to control the entire global economy and the rest of us 99% continue to fight for things that don’t exist.
I recall how Dangote and fellow billionaire, Femi Odetola paid $750 million, about 10 years ago for the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries owned by the Nigerian state controlled oil corporation, NNPC. I also recall how the Nigerian labour movement, backed by the know-all civil society groups – insisted the deals must be cancelled by then President Musa Yar’Adua. Dangote collected his money back and set his sights on bigger fish, while Nigerian continued to suffer under the weight of a dysfunction oil economy.
Now, Dangote is positioned to be the “one man” who provided the entire consumption of fuel for Nigeria. Not only for petrol, but for diesel, kerosene, and gas for our power plants. Call him a monopolist, label him a demon, I don’t care, I admire men like Dangote for their willingness to turn their backs to the world in a bid to aim for the impossible. Truly, Aliko Dangote is a man after my heart.
Let the petrol flow, in the interim, may Nigerians have the fuel they need to run their homes, lives, and businesses and hopefully, Ibe Kachikwu, our minister of state for petroleum would finally sleep better now free from the daily lies he had to tell Nigerians over the last year.
Favour Afolabi is a political commentator who runs fbablogs.
The opinions expressed in this mail are solely those of the author.
