SEVERAL reasons have been advanced to justify the withdrawal of petroleum subsidy by the government of Nigeria. Those reasons came from several quarters and innumerable to quote. But the ones I found most important and worthy of quote are the ones by the President, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu. In an interview published in the Punch newspaper of 31st July, 2023, he said; “the trillions of naira yearly spent to sustain the subsidy were meant to better the healthcare and transportation sector, schools, housing and national security among others”. He was also quoted by the Premium Times newspaper of 12th June, 2023 to have said; “It is one decision we must bear to save our country from going under and take our resources away from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements”. As appeasing and appealing as those words are, our experiences in the last one year have not lent credence or given hope to the actualisation of the betterment or an improvement in any of the sectors mentioned. Rather, everything that was promised to improve through the money saved from the subsidy withdrawal has gone worse and our resources have only changed from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements to another.
To supposedly alleviate the multi-dimensional poverty that has bedeviled over 70 percent of Nigerians as the consequence of the subsidy removal, the federal government awarded N35,000 monthly to the workers under the employ of the Federal Government, while workers on the employments of the state government got far less than that. Unfortunately, we have been so impoverished and made to starve so much that we cherish the wage award, as inconsistent as it is, like a life jacket in a capsizing boat. Though the beneficiaries of the wage award are a minority of the working class, the government wants the Nigerian workers to be obsequious towards it for its “benevolence” towards the Nigerian workers; though the wage award that can hardly sustain any family for three days considering the level of inflation in the country now. The government should know that the Nigerian workers are not beggars. We do not need charity. What we need is remuneration that is commensurate to our toils as it relates to the market prices. The working class generates the wealth of the nation; and as such deserves to live decently from the wealth generated.
While the prices of almost everything have gone up by over 200 percent under the watch of this government in the last one year, civil servants’ salaries have remained the same. The government is not oblivious of the hardship it has brought upon Nigerians, but it is too callous and insensitive to know that same blood that runs in the bodies of the political office holders, also run in the bodies of other Nigerians. Otherwise, how can we rationalise the millions awarded to the political office holders as palliative as against the meagerly, miserable and inconsistent palliative given to other Nigerians? When it is about them, too much is too little; but when it is about us, too little is too much. The effective distribution of the national wealth to alleviate poverty can only be achieved through the civil servants. Businesses thrive where the civil servants are well paid. It is when they are paid beyond what can only feed them that they can patronize other businesses. He who does not own a car or cannot fuel his car will not patronize the mechanics. If you can barely feed your family, you won’t patronize the ice cream seller for your children. The huge amount of money being paid to Nigerian politicians, unfortunately constitutes the greatest destruction to our economy. It saps our economy of the much needed fund for infrastructural development and industrialization towards alleviation of poverty. They don’t put the money into any productive venture in Nigeria to can create job for Nigerians.
They make the money dormant or take it out of the shore of Nigeria for investments. It is now a status of aggrandizement for Nigerian political office holders to own properties and investments in foreign countries like Dubai, Bahamas and Switzerland. They preach patriotism to us while they are milking our nation to comatose. It is time now to take our resource from the stranglehold of those few unpatriotic elements to the hands of the Nigerians through the working class people; who can be guaranteed to spread the wealth for national growth and poverty alleviation. Salaries adjustment for Nigerian workers is long overdue. Whether subsidy withdrawal or not, substantial salary increment for Nigerian workers is a matter of necessity and urgency for better redistribution of our wealth. The middle economic class has been nonexistent in Nigeria for more the four decades now. We have been having the supper rich, who are mostly politicians at the high economic class and the rest of us, the poor at the low economic class. We have to fight for the reinstatement of the middle economic class through a commiserate remuneration of the working class people. While the Nigerian political office holders are the highest earners in the world, Nigerian workers are among the lowest earners in the world. Fighting for a living wage for Nigerian workers is a fight for the sustainability of our nation.
If we don’t fight this war and be determined and resilient to win it, our resources will remain under the stranglehold of the few unpatriotic elements and our nation will go down.
- Rabana writes in from Minna, Niger State.
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