A PETITION TO GENERAL MOHAMMADU BUHARI LED INCOMING GOVERNMENT TO REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY

I wish to call on all good citizens of this great country Nigeria who are genuinely concerned about the state of our nation and willing to make impact, no matter how mega, to bring positive change to our economy and standard of living; to rise up and REMOVAL OF SUBSIDY from the incoming administration of General Buhari by signing this petition.

Together we can petition General Buhari, The National Assembly and The APC Government to kindly destroy this stronghold before it destroy our today and tomorrow.

What is subsidy?

I will use online definitions, as those are readily available to you.

1.    A subsidy is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (or institution, business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy.^[1] Although commonly extended from Government, the term subsidy can relate to any type of support - for example from NGOs or implicit subsidies. Subsidies come in various forms including: direct (cash grants, interest-free loans) and indirect (tax breaks, insurance, low-interest loans, depreciation write-offs, rent rebates)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2.    A benefit given by the government to groups or individuals usually in the form of a cash payment or tax reduction. The subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public.

Whether subsidies are positive or negative is typically a normative judgment (says wikipedia).

In this case and from experience, it is obvious that FUEL SUBSIDY in Nigeria is more negative in effect than it is positive.

While subsidy is neither bad nor good, it can be badly applied as in the case of FUEL SUBSIDY in Nigeria due to the following reasons.

What has Fuel Subsidy does to us?

·         It is taking our work abroad

·         It is preventing our refineries from working

·         It is enriching the rich

·         It is eating up our tomorrow

·         It is preventing Nigeria from growing

·         It is promoting corruption

·         It is causing Nigerians pain

·         It is wrongly applied

·         It is holding Nigerians and Nigerian Government to ransom

It is taking our jobs abroad

One of the evils of subsidy is that it is promoting unemployment in Nigeria. Fuel subsidy encourages our crude oil to be exported abroad, refined abroad and be transported back (most of the time not by Nigerian owned vessels) to Nigerian; as if all the above is not enough, the guy who brought the oil (who is possibly the exporter and refiner) is paid subsidy (to say thank you for making so much money from our oil?), and thereby encouraged to ensure this trade continues for life!

With subsidy regime, the oil marketers have more than interest in ensuring that the trade continues. In other words, they have reasons to ensure that our refineries never work; and by implication, all the jobs that our refineries can bring to Nigerians are exported abroad only to pay subsidy for bringing the oil back without our jobs! Our jobs are exported abroad to develop other nations while we are dying of unemployment.

As a Nigerian if you need your job back, you need to sign this petition now and call for removal of this FUEL SUBSIDY.

It is preventing our refineries from working

A marketer can pay as much millions as needed to sabotage (blow off, vandalize, shutdown) a working refinery to ensure that payment of subsidy to his bank account continues.

How much does it take to bribe security officers to leave (excuse themselves) from a strategic pipeline so it can be vandalized and ensure that crude oil is stolen or does not reach the refineries? N100 million? N200 million? Chief Olusegun Obasanjo spent so much to ensure refineries are working, but the more he pays, the more the refineries are sabotaged, until he was tire of repairing, he then lamented that the amount used annually in repairing refineries is almost enough to build new ones, so what is the need for repairing? You will agree there is no need as long as someone still has the need (subsidy) to sabotage.

So if you need you need your refineries to work, you need to sign this petition now and call for removal of this FUEL SUBSIDY.

It is enriching the rich

Who is actually benefitting the most from subsidy? How many cars do you have to fuel? How many houses do you have to power with generators? How much of fuel do you actually use per day compare to the “big guys”?

From the subsidy, many in position of power are highly enriched while you and I are highly impoverished. The longer this goes on the wider the gap between the rich few and the poor masses.

It is eating up our tomorrow

The money that should be circulated by way of job creation, industrial development, infrastructural development etc is being used to subsidize consumption instead of production. Thousands of graduates turning out of our Universities year in year out have nothing waiting for them in term of jobs and we have millions more coming from primary and secondary schools, amongst which my children and yours.

If subsidy regime continues, we will soon have all the money in few pockets and nothing left to continue the NIGERIA PROJECT. If care is not taking, we will all become the slaves of the few highly enriched in the society because there will be nothing on ground for us. Our tomorrow is being mortgaged and ravished by the so called FUEL SUBSIDY, N200 billion more to go. But you and I can say enough is enough now by signing this petition.

It is preventing Nigeria from growing

Imagine how much jobs five refineries or more can create for Nigeria. Imagine how many by-products of Crude oil can be produced in Nigeria.

Some or more portions of our crude oil (or its by-product which is available only from the refinery) is used in production of the following:

Bearing Grease	Motor Oil	Solvents	Diesel fuel
Football Cleats	Ballpoint Pens	Ink	Floor Wax
Insecticides	Boats	Upholstery	Sweaters
Fishing lures	Nail Polish	Bicycle Tires	Sports Car Bodies
Perfumes	Golf Bags	Dresses	Tires
Shoe Polish	Tool Boxes	Cassettes	Dishwasher parts
Transparent Tape	Petroleum Jelly	Motorcycle Helmet	Caulking
Clothesline	Antiseptics	CD Player	Faucet Washers
Soap	Basketballs	Curtains	Food Preservatives
Shoes	Purses	Vitamin Capsules	Antihistamines
Footballs	Deodorant	Dashboards	Cortisone
Refrigerant	Panty Hose	Putty	Dyes
Linings	Rubbing Alcohol	Percolators	Life Jackets
Electrician's Tape	Shag Rugs	Skis	TV Cabinets
Paint	Epoxy	Tool Racks	Car Battery Cases
Oil Filters	Insect Repellent	Mops	Slacks
Hair Coloring	Fertilizers	Umbrellas	Yarn
Lipstick	Fishing Rods	Roofing	Toilet Seats
Synthetic Rubber	Ice Cube Trays	Denture Adhesive	Linoleum
Glycerin	Electric Blankets	Speakers	Plastic Wood
Dice	Fishing Boots	Tennis Rackets	Rubber Cement
House Paint	Trash Bags	Nylon Rope	Candles
Surf Boards	Roller Skates	Water Pipes	Hand Lotion
Shower Curtains	Paint Rollers	Shampoo	Wheels
Safety Glasses	Aspirin	Guitar Strings	Luggage
Eyeglasses	Awnings	Antifreeze	Football Helmets
Footballs	Ice Chests	Clothes	Toothbrushes
Detergents	Paint Brushes	Combs	CD's & DVD's
Tents	Sun Glasses	Vaporizers	Balloons
Telephones	Parachutes	Heart Valves	Crayons
Cameras	Dishes	Enamel	Pillows
Bandages	Artificial limbs	Anesthetics	Artificial Turf
Hair Curlers	Folding Doors	Dentures	Model Cars
Drinking Cups	Soft Contact lenses	Cold cream	Movie film
Ammonia	Shaving Cream	Fan Belts	Car Enamel
Gasoline	Toothpaste	Refrigerators	Golf Balls

Imagine we are refining in Nigeria and the industries producing halve the above in our country.

As of today more than 70% of the following (which can be produced in Nigerian refineries and make readily available) are being imported

Petrochemicals

Many products derived from refining crude oil – such as ethylene, propylene, butylenes, and isobutylene – are primarily intended for use as petrochemical feedstocks in the production of plastics, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, and other products. Some are also used as solvents, including benzene, toluene, and xylene.

LPG

Liquefied petroleum gas, consisting primarily of propane and butane, is used as a fuel and as an intermediate in manufacturing petrochemicals.

Gasoline

Different gasoline blends are produced as regular or premium grades in both summer and winter formulations. Additives are often used to enhance performance and provide protection against oxidation and corrosion.

Naphtha

A low-octane gasoline product used as a feedstock by the chemicals industry, as a feedstock for catalytic reforming, and in the production of hydrogen.

Middle distillates

Middle distillates are diesel fuel, heating oil, and kerosene.

Fuel oil

Many ships, power plants, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities use fuel oil or combinations of fuel oil and distillate fuel.

Bitumen

This low-value residual product of crude oil vacuum distillation is used primarily for road surfaces and in roofing materials.

Niche products

Niche products are produced in relatively small quantities and include base oils, biofuels, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME. These are commonly used as blending components for traffic fuels or in lubricants.

If you are producing cream, soap, paint, plastics, antiseptics, insecticides, balloons, combs, detergents etc, you must buy an imported crude oil by-product in which importation fee is been factored making it more expensive. This will in turn force you to either produce low quality or sell at high cost. You can be forced out of business or run at loss in trying to compete with same products from abroad. They are able to produce more and sell lower price because they have all these raw materials exported to them and readily available. The buy raw materials far less than you do and their economy is growing.

It is promoting corruption

Okonjo Iweala claimed in 2011 that the amount of fuel claimed to be brought to Nigerian daily (and demanded subsidy on) is far more than what we are consuming. This means that some people are been settled (bribe) to manipulate the figures along the way. Too much money in few hands is more than able to corrupt government official to suppress Bill, Policies and other government activity that is capable of making Nigeria better. Do not doubt it if you heard that NLC was settled (bribed, motivated monetarily, mobilized or whatever English is used to colour it) to fight against subsidy removal in 2011. The allegation as well that some marketer export the subsidized products to our neighboring countries to sell for more profit after collecting  subsidy from Nigerian Government.

Otedola versus Faruoq is prominent among the corruption issues rocking around subsidy. FUEL SUBSIDY may not be the origin of corruption in Nigeria but its contribution to corruption cannot be overlooked.

It is causing Nigerians pain

Various pain has FUEL SUBSIDY inflicted on good people of Nigeria; typical is the ongoing scarcity of fuel that has seen Nigerians sleeping in various Filling Stations in other to buy fuel. Imagine the pain of finishing your University degree and no job for you. Consider the pain you fill when you hear how much money is missing in NNPC, the pain you feel each time you are reminded how much crude oil we produce and how much we are suffering as a Nation. The pains you feel when infrastructure that are supposed to be there are not there. The pains you feel when you hear that the marketers are causing fuel scarcity because of fuel subsidy.

We can put a stop to this pains by ensuring that subsidy issue become a dead issue in Nigeria by petitioning the government to remove it.

It is wrongly applied

Fuel is a consumable product, one that is consumed every day and by millions of people. Even if the subsidy amount is N5 per litter and 20 million liters is consumed per day, that will be N100 million every day that breaks in Nigeria. One wonders how sustainable that will be.

Then, imagine that such amount is plunge into Cocoa production and processing, Cassava production and processing, Rubber production and processing etc.

The point is that subsidizing production has far more reaching effects and makes more economic development sense than subsidizing consumption. Subsidizing production will have chain of positive effects while that of consumption ends with 1 consumer. One you consume 10 litres of fuel, the subsidy is gone for life, you have to be subsidized tomorrow again. Subsidy on production will be periodical while that of consumption is every day.

Subsidize Cocoa production by given farmer loan, access to better seedlings, fertilizer; Subsidize Tractors and other implements that can be used for years. Establish processing plants with such money and create employments. Enough jobs can be created by establishing processing plants for all our agricultural products, our mineral resources etc. Refinery is one of such plants. It is been reported that there are illegal refineries (small scale I guess). Rather than arresting and prosecuting them, organize register and license them, regulate them, monitor them and empower them so they can create jobs for other. Study their technologies with the view of improving, standardizing and multiplying them.

We can assume that the introduction of FUEL SUBSIDY was well intentioned at the time, but looking at it today it has become ineffective.

It is holding Nigerians and Nigerian Government to ransom

We have seen at various times how subsidy issues have shaken us and our government. The beneficiaries have made efforts to make us belief it is in our interest but they lied. It is a way to hold us down, ensure that our refineries are not working and no job created thereby. It is a disguised way to enrich the privileged few and impoverished Nigerians. It is a way to hide away corruption and embezzlement of our money from the public view.

They made us feel that we cannot survive without the subsidy; that the price will go up that we will not be able to avoid it but they lied. The law of demand and supply will apply just like in telecommunication – more marketers will come with competitive price until we hit the lowest of the low in matter of 3 to 4 years. And once we start refining locally, the market will be saturated that filling stations will be advertising and begging us to buy – like MTN, GLO and the rest are doing today.

There is no denying the immediate effect on our pocket today, but the gain will eventually overtake the pains.

For this and more reasons than can be pen down, I am calling on you to join me and make the biggest change in our struggle for a better tomorrow.

Join me to call on the incoming APC Government, General Buhari (President Elect), the incoming 8^th National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, remove FUEL SUBSIDY and embark on building of our refineries immediately. Put a life sentence penalty on saboteurs of refineries and oil thirft.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria

God bless the government and

God bless you.

General Muhammadu Buhari The Nigerian National Assembly APC - All Progressive Party