There’s so much buzz in Nigeria right now about returning to the petrol subsidy regime. I say to myself: here we go again.
We always think policies will fix things. I disagree. Nigeria’s fundamental challenge, from Independence till date, has never really been about policies.
Almost every policy has some advantage and the potential to succeed. The one constant that determines whether a policy succeeds or fails is fiscal management. Since Independence, Nigeria’s real problem has been how to manage public resources to deliver the greatest benefit to the people. No matter what policy we pursue, if we don’t fix this, we’ll keep doing what we’ve always done: fetching water with a basket.
Tinubu’s twin policies of so-called subsidy removal and so-called naira float have failed to deliver real value to Nigerians. I’ve done the analysis, some of which my followers on this page have already seen, and there’s more coming. The result is always the same: Nigerians’ quality of life was better in 2023, when Tinubu took office, and best in 2014, before the APC took over through Buhari.
The easy answer now is, “Let’s return to the subsidy regime,” whatever we choose to call it. But that would mean we still haven’t learned the real lesson.
Why did these policies fail? The answer is clear: corruption, waste, white elephant projects, and the management of public resources to benefit oneself, political associates, and cronies, all in pursuit of narrow political objectives. The general term for this is fiscal indiscipline. Any return to the subsidy regime, without fixing this, will only produce misery on a greater scale.
There is one man on the horizon who has proven, as a state governor, that he can fix this vice. We all know who he is. He is the one figure who can finally break the cycle behind our coups, our presidents, and our worsening misery with every transition of power. We replaced Jonathan with Buhari for this same reason, only to discover we’d jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Let us draft in Peter Obi to change the story of governance in Nigeria. Let us bring in the man who has shown the competence and character to manage public resources honestly and efficiently, and finally end this cycle of jumping from the frying pan into the fire with every new government.
Published by Chuks Nwachuku
