Opinion
FAROOQ Kperogi needs no introduction. He throws mud at HE Peter Obi at the slightest opportunity by mostly twisting tales and riding on propaganda without burrowing deeply into whichever issue he is hinging his attacks on. He just fired in his column on The Tribune, *Notes From Atlanda* the above referenced on July 1.
While Kperogi must be supported by progressive Nigerians for his very laudable defense of the masses in this very critical policy of subsidy removal, directing his shots at the Labour Party presidential candidate for a policy he did not initiate neither implement is akin to cutting one’s hair in his absence.
Let us face facts – REMOVING SUBSIDY the way and manner this government has done is over killing the masses that are evidently on their last knees. When the World Bank said that over four million Nigerians have been thrown into poverty within just first six months of 2023 and that more 7.1 million would join if the petroleum subsidy removal is not managed well, keen and diligent Nigerians believe that the global institution had underestimated. And that is the tragedy on our doorsteps if this government insists on removing subsidy in their heartless and crippling style. Facts!
But hey, why would Kperogi and his horde of attack colleagues lampoon PO when he is not in power yet and did not in any way initiate, articulate, plan, introduce and execute subsidy removal? The former governor of Anambra State had repeatedly said that even though he would have equally removed subsidy, that he would have done it differently by putting alleviation policies in place first.
Before we go further, why didn’t Kperogi dwell deeper into what happened to the one month money from subsidy removal since the last government budgeted subsidy till end of June? Going by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Refinery Authority, NMDPRA estimate, Nigeria’s daily consumption of petrol is 66.8 million litres. Since it is a country of lies and deceit, let us do our arithmetics from this information supplied by NMDPRA in September of 2022.
Here we go:
If pump price jumped from N184 to N520 per litre on subsidy removal, it can only be logical to conclude that the government has been subsidising by N336 (520 – 184) per litre. So, in a day, is N336 multiplied by 66.8 million, which is approximately N22.5 billion. Now multiply further by 32 days (from May 30 to June 30). That is nearly N720 billion, almost three quarters of a trillion naira! What happened to this huge sum? That is what this government has already fleeced from the people just within a month in office. If this much was saved from subsidy, what impact did it make on the poor masses? Apart from increasing the take home of political leaders to 114%, who else has benefitted apart from same subsidy criminals?
Now, going to PO…Kperogi even lampooned Dr Ngozi Okonji-Iweala alongside, simply because the Director-General of World Trade Organisation, WTO always speaks highly of Obi…his campaign promises did not stop at insisting he would remove subsidy. He equally said money saved from that would be diverted to funding education, health, fighting poverty and other infrastructural development, not stuffing the insatiable appetite of old brigade politicians. Note that PO is not going to embark on removal of subsidy because he wants the masses to suffer. Rather, solely because subsidy is adjudged the biggest fraud perpetrated against the Nigerian people by a cabal of very few!
If education becomes free, and healthcare becomes very affordable, the adverse effect of transportation and inflation can be positively compensated. We cannot hide on the pretence of subsidy being beneficial to the masses and then legalise fraud that is instead impoverishing the same people. Any honest and transparent government can use the gains of subsidy removal to make Nigerians smile. And this is what PO represents. He promised to remove subsidy, but it is not his fault that whoever that is copying that policy did not also copy the details of implementation.
And coming to the writer’s insinuation that the man battling in court to retrieve his presidential mandate did not know what he was promising, let us take a trip to Anambra State…
As governor, Obi, through his Anambra Integrated Development Strategy, ANIDS, developed all sectors of growth simultaneously, but any keen observer would have noticed that he had special love for education. Yes, the ThisDay Newspapers’ winner of the Governor of the past Decade loved and loves education dearly but he also had same deep love for the other sectors that are functions of the Human Development Index, HDI – which are Health and Poverty Alleviation (which improves per capita income).
On his first love, Education…he pumped and pumped money into this sector. But after two years without getting appropriate results, he decided to take the only route to assured success – return schools from government to original owners (missions).
His governing council battled him at State Executive Committee, SEC meetings. He stood alone but gradually started winning converts by explaining and re-explaining his strategy. The major fear was that education would become costly and difficult for the poor to afford.
But when Obi eventually had his way, he not only handed schools back to missions but he also paid teachers’ salaries, funded the schools to every dime of building, renovating, equipping with computers and internet facilities, as well as providing boreholes, generating sets, laboratory equipment, school buses and every necessary facility for conducive learning. And significantly, quality education was affordable to his dear people.
The office of the Accountant General disbursed maintenance funds directly to principals of schools without any government-erected toll gates of corruption. The respective schools received funds at appropriate times and the missions judiciously utilised the funds while they healthily competed amongst themselves for excellence. The result was moving from number 26 to number 1(one) in the country’s education rating of states.
PO similarly tackled Health. When he came to this sector, the doctors, alien to honest and progressive reforms, went on strike. When they realised that the man they were dealing with meant well after interacting and negotiations, they returned to work. The result was winning a ‘Bill Gates’ prize of $1 million in Health, which he put in as 50% of the total funds used in constructing 10 quality health centers across the three senatorial zones in the state. He did so in other sectors while astonishingly achieving the eight goals of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.
So PO has been there to initiate and implement difficult policies and succeeded because of honesty in initiation and transparency in execution. Nigeria’s petroleum subsidy removal will not be any different.
So Kperogi should wait for Peter Gregory Obi to be sworn in as president and then critique him on any of his policies instead of attacking a man based on the blatant failure of another.
Nigerian masses will laugh last because the man they voted for will regain his mandate and strictly deliver people-oriented governance.
Finally, somebody should please show the attached video to Farooq Kperogi and then remind him that PO used a convoy of not more than five plain vehicles throughout his eight years in office. Certainly, Kperogi does not need to be taught the huge difference in intention and approach to public service.
***POEM is a support group of Labour Party presidential candidate
A.
– July 02, 2023 @ 14:01 GMT |
Tags: Dr Ngozi Okonji-Iweala Farooq Kperogi Peter Gregory Obi POEM
