Not a few Nigerians will forget President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in a hurry. He came to the throne of Nigeria in Abuja amid social media-induced popularity and got booted out through the instrumentality of the same social media. He was booted out with the innovative Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and the card-reader.
Two weeks to departing Abuja for his village in Otuoke, Jonathan’s infamous administration chose to inflict on Nigerians, perhaps as a way of punishing every one, a most excruciating agony. Three basic and vital needs of life – electricity, water and petrol – were forced out of the reach of Nigerians.
Without electricity, people who have for long been the providers of their water could not energise their pumping machines; so, there was no water in the house. Electricity, which had for long been epileptic, became comatose. And because of the massive fraud in the so-called subsidy nonsense, petrol disappeared from gas stations and people were compelled to purchase gas at exorbitant prices from black marketers.
Nigeria has never known this kind of triple agony in its whole life.
Perhaps, Jonathan and his team simply chose to inflict pain on Nigerians, and they did so in a big way.
But we are tempted to be generous to Jonathan in the aspect of this fuel scarcity and say that the problem, though worsened by the fraud of oil subsidy, did not start with him. General Olusegun Obasanjo, who foisted Jonathan on Nigerians was himself the Minister of Petroleum for eight years! Certainly if he had succeeded in laying a solid foundation in that sector, ensuring that our refineries were performing at optimum capacity, instead of sadistically jerking up pump prices, we would probably have not been in this mess.
Be that as it may, Jonathan had five years to right whatever wrong Obasanjo might have committed in that sector. After all, a government is voted into power to solve existing problems and prevent oncoming ones.
I had to go to Victoria Island in Lagos last week where I was inducted as a patron of the Toyin Ajani-led Junior Chamber International, Victoria Island Chapter. It was a most harrowing experience for me. Guests complained of the bitter pill they had to swallow from the hands of roadside black marketers of petrol. Curses were rained on Jonathan and his family as well as his roguish ministers.
It was really not the best way to vacate office and hand over to a successor. And I am not sure if Jonathan is having any peace of mind as we speak with our pen. To make matters worse, the man continued to make reckless last minute appointments while sacking people he thought betrayed his long-term agenda.
Nigerians should not be made to go through this nasty experience anymore. It is worrisome that the world’s fifth producer of oil and which is also the world’s sixth largest exporter of crude oil has no single refinery working at optimum capacity. It is a shame that Nigeria continues to shamelessly send its crude oil abroad to be refined and then sold to Nigerians at exorbitant prices. This is the only oil-producer that goes through this humiliating cycle.
The new government headed by Muhammadu Buhari must tackle this nauseating scenario head-long. Professor Tam David-West and fiery Pastor Tunde Bakare, two great incorruptible Nigerians whose voices carry a lot of moral authority, have submitted that there is actually nothing called oil subsidy. What exists, they argue, is sharing of money at the highest level by those in power and their cronies who roam the corridors of power. This must stop. It must stop today. If any marketer believes that he or she is owed money, they should go after Jonathan at Otuoke or pursue rosy-cheeked Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala anywhere she is.
In the short term, anybody who wants to import petroleum to sell should be allowed to do so, but government should not contract any one to import fuel.
Refineries must be made to function again, while private investors must be encouraged to build small and medium refineries across the land, so that in no distant future petrol will be as readily available at affordable prices as mobile telephony.
I am yet to see any economic sense in awarding oil blocks to private individuals. As a country that derives its sustenance from a mono-culture economy, it beats my imagination that some powerful billionaires are awarded commanding heights of our single product. Let all oil blocks revert to the federal government, while government empowers our Naval forces to effectively police and prevent all leakages.
This is a government brought to power on the platform of a Cry-for-Change. That change must begin in all sectors of our national life, especially in the petroleum sector. There is no need to dwell on the scarecrow that rode roughshod on our oil ministry and whose arrogance, impunity and alleged massive fraud had brought Nigeria to her knees.
As Jonathan departs our presidential chair and cools off at the creeks, it is our prayer that Nigeria does not again witness the kind of tomfoolery that had choked it these past five years. It has been a nightmare. And nothing accentuates that feeling more than the agonising manner Jonathan waved Abuja ‘goodbye’!
Honestly, I am just about recovering my breath after our great Jonathan fouled the air surrounding preparations for my 70th birthday.