Chief Athan Achonu is the Founder of Project Nigeria, a civil society organisation that promotes good governance. In this interview, he says as an alternative to fuel subsidy removal; the federal government can explore government to government import of fuel, while it builds refineries. He also spoke on other issues. CATHERINE AGBO was there for LEADERSHIP
What is the position of your organisation on the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government?
What we are saying is that there should not be any issue of subsidy in this country because we produce this crude oil and we can have refineries all over the place. It is sad that there is speculation that there are some underhand dealings in the importation of petroleum products and nobody has been prosecuted and it is easy for government to phase out the people who are bringing this product and do government to government purchase so that while they are doing that refineries are being built all over the place and before you know it there will be refineries everywhere.
Let us take the example of what happened in the telecommunication sector, that is what we foresee will happen in the petroleum downstream sector, where we will have a lot of refineries first of all, we will have different grades of petrol at different prices and then the big ones can start exporting and millions of jobs will be created.
That is what deregulation is all about. Nigeria has suffered a lot. We are supposed to have made multi millionaires out of this our natural resource but what do we have? We pay freight for crude oil to go out, we pay insurance for the product as it is going out and when it is coming in we pay transport, we pay insurance and no Nigerian shipper is carrying this product. We are using our natural resource to create jobs and wealth in other countries.
What we are advising government to do is to create incentives immediately for emergence of mini refineries all over the country.
But the way the government is handling it is bringing untold hardship to the people. What should government have done?
There is no right way for subsidy because the cartel benefitting from it will not allow it.
You know this issue has been on a long time and even the military could not do it. No president from Babangida till now was able to solve this problem. But the point is that there shouldn’t be this problem in the first place. Government can create a policy that will generate these refineries and before you know it we are exporting refined products and nobody is talking of subsidy and we are selling at the right prices.
In business, it is difficult for one to do 110 per cent increase. Don’t you think gradual removal would have been a better option, while the refineries are getting ready?
The subsidy issue should not even arise as far as Project Nigeria is concerned. There shouldn’t be any increase at all. The argument has been that the subsidy rose astronomically but government can scrap this set of importers, import directly government to government. The Kolade committee for instance can be asked to be in charge of importation of this product direct, no middle men, while refineries are being built and by the time the refineries are completed, there will be no issue of subsidy because if they allow the owners of these refineries to use the marginal oil fields that we have they will produce petroleum products at very cheap prices.
But is deregulation a step in the right direction?
Of course! It is the way forward. That is the only way Nigerians can benefit from this our natural resource and millions of jobs can be created out of the resource and millionaires will also be made. Do you know the businesses that will spring up around refineries, jobs that will be created and other things? The effect is unbelievable but like I said, it is the right policy framework that can solve this problem.
Nigeria is a fantastic country. There is no kind of mineral resource we don’t have but why are we poor, why do we have millions of unemployed youths? And you know this subsidy we are talking about when withdrawn goes into the federation account, states will take their share and local governments will take their share.
Jonathan cannot go and tell a governor how to invest the money that accrues from this removal; he can’t tell a local government chairman either but a government can tell a local government chairman.
Nigerians have said removal of subsidy is a good thing but they have condemned the timing and many of them are on the streets protesting. What would Project Nigeria advise to get the people off the street and allow government do what it wants to do?
It is a very tough one. I am not privy to what must have informed the decision but there is no time that they have tried to do this in this country that there was no protest right from the time of Babangida. So long as there are people making money out of this, there will never be a right time. They will fight it because they have the resources and instigate the public against the government. As far as I am concerned, it has created a lot of hardship and suffering.
I believe labour also knows the facts and know that this subsidy should be removed. Probably, what they don’t want is the manner it was removed.
What does Project Nigeria think of the present security situation in the country?
We do not know what is happening actually and I don’t have security information on Boko Haram but government should equip the police thoroughly. In fact we need to retrain our police men and motivate them. I visited a police man in Akwanga one day and the man was living in a one room apartment. He used bed sheet to divide the room, the children sleep on one side of the bed sheet and he sleeps on the other side.
There was a stove at a corner and this man is armed. He is probably guarding a governor who has a large entourage or a minister and he sees the way they are living. So how can he be dedicated to his work? You transfer him and he doesn’t know whether his family is safe because they don’t have any accommodation. So how can these people fight crime, how can they fight Boko Haram? People are sponsoring these things and they can even offer them more money and they turn and become Boko Haram. So government should look at the structure of security organisations in the country, the calibre of people that go into it and also provide adequately for them so that they can do it well.