By Chukwudi Emeyazia
The Federal Government of Nigeria has made a subtle revelation to Nigerians: come July 2023, they should be prepared to pay a higher price for petroleum motor spirit, also known as PMS.
The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, told journalists on last Friday in Abuja during a public presentation that the Federal Government has been borrowing to subsidize fuel.
She further said that the federal government can no longer afford to sustain the subsidy program. The 18-month subsidy program contained in the 2022 budget will elapse in June 2023.
The administration of the present administration will cease to exist on May 29, 2023. Though experts are saying that whoever becomes the incoming president has a huge sum of debt to inherit, Earlier on, the Debt Management Office (DMO) told the public that the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving behind a debt sum of 77 trillion naira (N$) for the incoming president.
In the past, the Federal Government tried to remove the fuel subsidy, but the fear of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other unions made the Federal Government retreat. It will be recalled that in 2011, the government of the then president, Goodluck Ebelechukwu Jonathan (GEJ), tried to put an end to fuel subsidies. But later deserted such an idea after several days of civil unrest, both by opponents and civil societies.
The poverty rate in the country is very high, as a lot of young people who are employable are unemployed. The debt ratio is huge, and about 80% of the total budget is required to service the money borrowed. With this huge debt profile, Nigerians cannot afford to get it wrong come the 2023 elections, as they must elect a leader who is very prudent and Solomonic in governance.
With the removal of the fuel subsidy in July 2023, I foresaw crises looming. Already, the country is plagued with a huge threat of insecurity both in the North and the South, and the upcoming elections seem threatened. Recently, INEC chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu said that the spate of insecurity in the country is a threat to the peaceful conduct of the 2023 general elections. With these multiple layers of problems that are daily ailing the country, the future is very oblique, as the majority of people are enmeshed within the poverty level.
The eventual removal of fuel subsidies is a civil war that must be averted with the right policy by the incoming administration. because the past seven and a half years have been turbulent moments for Nigerians under the APC-led national government.
Chukwudi Emeyazia writes from Lagos.
He can reached via echuqudi@gmail.com
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