WHAT WOULD THE OUTCOME BE?

Yesterday, the 9^th of January 2012, the NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress) proposed strike began to go against the pump price of petrol (PMS – Premium motor spirit). A lot of notable figures spare headed the protest with the likes of Wole Soyinka, Tunde Bakare, Bankole Wellington (Banky W) to mention a few.

On Saturday 7^th January 2012, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria gave a speech pleading to Nigerians to bear with him and his cabinet and also to give him time to implement policies and factors that would make life bearable.

He talked about bringing in diesel run buses, which would be handed over to transport managers in the 36 states of the nation, he also pointed out the economic implications if the subsidy on PMS is not removed.

All the points highlighted made sense, except for the fact that PMS is in more direct use than diesel, the populace depends on their single and two stroke engine generators to run their daily businesses in a country where electricity is a major problem.

How on earth would prices of goods and services not skydive when the basic cost to run small scale businesses which serves the need of the populace would increase, what happens to DVD/CD seller who needs light to power his system for advertisement, what happens to the fashion designer and hairdressers who uses electricity to power their machines, how would these translate on the price of other basic needs attached to direct usage of PMS, I wonder.

It is said that 300 Billion Naira was spent on subsidy during the democratic regime of Olusegun Obasanjo and today we spend close to 1.5 trillion Naira. To me, if this is true, is the government of the day not supposed to know that some people under serious covering buy the fuel in extremely high quantity with the government paying subsidy on the amount bought, store it and export it out of the country after a while, selling it at extreme profit (a process known as ROUNDTRIPPING), does this not point out the loopholes in our shipping and export system, which is also evident in the security arms of our dear nation, I wonder

To the best of my knowledge, I feel the government is not ready to face the reality of things, in my opinion, decisions that should be taken should be to put monitoring measures in place, accounting for all PMS produce imported, exported and how they are distributed. I feel the government should devise means for easy distribution of the product and I also feel that all arms of government involved in the petroleum sector should be properly audited and investigated, I suggest that all unnecessary expenses be cut down and methods should be fashioned out to use little resources to achieve high productivity, but the fact remains that it is just my opinion.

Back to the main issue, what do we expect to get from the ongoing strike, would the aim and objectives by the NLC and the good people of the nation come to pass?, time would tell, time would definitely tell.

As we go on in this civil course, I wish and hope our expectation is granted, but as the saying goes, “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride on them”.

Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde

President,      
Neff Business Concept