June 13, 2010

PRESS STATEMENT

Subsidy: Mr CBN Governor is wrong

The attention of the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has been drawn to a comment attributed to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, calling on the Federal Government to remove subsidies on petroleum products. Mallam Sanusi, according to media reports, counselled government to take this clearly unpopular step because he feels the beneficiaries of the existing subsidy regime are members of an oil cabal and not majority of our people for whom subsidy was put in place.

Congress would not have bordered to respond to such a call since our position on subsidy, in particular and deregulation, generally, is well known. But a comment from the Governor of the Central Bank, which basically, is a key artery in economic and fiscal policies of our nation, and particularly from someone of Mallam Sanusi’s pedigree, commands response in order to put things in their proper perspective.

Why the NLC has consistently opposed the twin policies of removal of subsidy and deregulation over the years is principally because the arguments usually advanced by government only take cognisance of market fundamentals without due regard to the social and economic implications on majority of Nigerians, the supposed target of subsidy. We see Mallam Sanusi’s call, unfortunately, in the same light.

Perchance, the CBN governor is worried that the Federal Government is spending huge resources without commensurate benefit in terms of efficiency in products supply, distribution to ensure availability in every part of Nigeria. In other words, Sanusi perhaps might be concerned with the question of the huge resources that he claimed is being ‘wasted’ on subsidy but it is obvious that his concern is misdirected as he failed to connect the ‘wasted subsidy money’ to the failure of governance and irresponsible leadership.

Maybe Mallam Sanusi might want to take another look at the issue in the context of the following posers. Is it the responsibility of the poor, helpless and insecure Nigerian masses to check the excesses of a so-called cabal or that of the government with all its might symbolised in institutions such as the judiciary, the police and other security outfits as well as the core statutory agencies in the oil sector to ensure efficiency? Is it not simply an admission of failure or complicity of government if it consistently pushes the argument that a major economic policy such as subsidy is being sabotaged without the same government not seen to have taken any step to arrest such criminality? In a civilised society, governed by laws and codes of moral decency, are these shortcomings not sufficient for such a government to resign if it openly admits that it is incapable of handling certain miscreants (no matter how highly placed) manipulating a core policy against the overall national interest?

The NLC holds Mallam Sanusi in very high esteem. We believe he has a strong character, the competence and above all the integrity and patriotism to engage the cabal or mafia in the banking sector that have recklessly used shareholders and depositors’ money as they wished. In the light of Mallam Sanusi’s call to remove subsidy because of an oil cabal, it would have been, therefore, logical for him to have allowed depositors to bear the burden of the criminal appropriation of their capital.

We believe that what we need in the oil sector is the will, commitment and courage on the part of government to frontally confront the numerous challenges in the oil sector, the greatest of which is corruption. It is for this reason that the National Executive Council (NEC) of Congress resolved in its emergency meeting on December 15, 2009 that it will not accept increase in the prices of petroleum products in the name of deregulation; although Congress NEC acknowledged the urgent need for reform in the sector.

For the NLC as an organisation of labouring people, Mallam Sanusi’s call poses a terrifying challenge as it amounts to forcing Nigerian masses to drinking hemlock. The prevailing social and economic anomie marked by mass poverty of our people, we must admit, really began when the military under General Babangida embarked on policies that transferred government responsibilities to corporate individuals and market fundamentals. What the fate of the common man would therefore be if Sanusi’s advice is adopted by government is better imagined.

We therefore call on President Goodluck Jonathan to disregard the advice of the CBN governor or of any other group or government agency urging him to impose anti-people policies such as subsidy withdrawal and deregulation. This is not the time to put additional burden on the shoulders of already overburdened Nigerians.

Onah Iduh

Acting Head, Department of Information and Public Relations