They won’t stop feeding us — Femi Adeoti Column

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FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN

Ours is a weary, wild, weird clime. When a government is dying off
like ours. It intentionally throws up some sort of disgust.
Abhorrence, revulsion and aversion trail in its footsteps.
That is the way we opt to be wrongly wired. It is our choice. We asked
for it. And we got it in good measure.
Aberration has become a thick and large part of us. It’s our normal
way of life. We won’t see any flaw in that. No abnormality.
Now, they are bolder in their desperation. Their recklessness has no
near duplicate. They keep on surging and forging ahead with monumental
carelessness.
They are emboldened. Their past shoddy deals are the required impetus
they need. They are encouraged by their tawdry and cheap feats. Their
deadly exploits spur them on.
COVID-19 lockdown was a feast for them never to forget. Not in a
sordid hurry. The poor us were ravaged. We were literally plundered,
shattered and debased. The pandemic gave us more than a bloody nose.
For them? Oh, the exact opposite was the case. They made maximum use
of it. They explored and exploited. They turned it into a great
harvest. And they did it dastardly.
***We moaned and groaned, they clapped and danced. We wailed and
whined, they hailed and praised. We lamented endlessly, they jumped
for joy exceedingly: As e dey pain us, e dey sweet them. Wicked souls
all!
In that awkward manner, they smiled in and out of their banks. They
didn’t care a hoot. The end justified the means. But we wore long
faces, watching, helplessly. We licked our deep wounds. Pity.
The reason they seek a devilish repeat performance of that era. They
long for a come-back of that bad time. And mother luck smiles on them
again. Imagine! They found a ready comfort. The endless fuel subsidy
removal became their willing tool.
Remember the evil they did to us during COVID-19 lockdown? Yes! They
are thirsty for it one more time. No pretence. No make-believe.
Desperate is not the word. It’s an understatement. They mean it, for
they’re mean!
See what they unleashed on us during the pandemic. Quite unkind of
them. No feelings. A sampler out of a legion:
They claimed to spend N500 million to feed 382,765 school pupils in
124,589 households. And in just four months, fantastic! Each take-home
ration was valued at N4,200.
A household was assumed to have three children. Fortunate pupils in
Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states were the rare
beneficiaries.
In August 2020, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Farouq, was
called out. She was forced to give account. She struggled through her
own breakdown: “The meal costs N70 per child. When you take 20 school
days per month, it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month.”
She laboured on: “Three children would then eat food worth N4,200 per
month. That was how we arrived at the cost of the ‘take-home ration.’
“The agreement was that the Federal Government would provide the
funding while the states would implement.”
That is as far as her strength could carry her. All the same, she
strived hard. The booty must go around, she insisted. And the plunder
did touch their targets.
In all of these, government never built a single hospital. They never
bothered to make even a remote attempt. They concentrated on sharing
and sharing alone. It’s understandable.
They found a testifier in one of them. He is Clem Agba, Minister of
State for Budget and National Planning. His boring testimony in April
2021:
“The government set out to improve health infrastructure by building
molecular labs in 52 federal medical centres and teaching hospitals
across the country.
“Others include provision of isolation centres, paying hazard
allowance for health professionals, providing personal protective
equipment for security agencies and hospitals to continue their
operations supporting agencies like the NCDC, NAFDAC to play their
roles in combating this pandemic.”
What a winding account! They recollected their sweet experience of our
COVID-19 ordeal. The wickedness they perpetrated rang loud and clear.
It reverberated in their shallow memory. They are evil in thoughts,
actions and inactions. The reason they are bent to do worse.
So? Up in arms against us again. They reverted to fuel subsidy
removal. They chose to worsen the evil they did us in COVID-19
lockdown.
Fuel subsidy removal is the tool they need. It is at their easy beck
and call. Indeed, in reckless abundance. That’s our plight. The
process is in earnest. As it was during COVID-19, so it is now.
Help, they won’t stop feeding us. They fed us with lies and falsities.
They are at war to feed us again. They label it subsidy palliative.
Whatever sense that makes to them.
The bill is huge. And they are equally ferocious. The bigger the sum,
the deadlier they are. We are at risk. They are on the prowl. They
hold us tightly by the jugular. We can’t breathe!
They insisted they fed us with N500 million at COVID-19. The largess
is larger this time around. A massive $800 million is at stake for
grabs. And these characters will vacate office next month. They are
simply indifferent to our plights.
They used N500 million to feed 382,765 pupils. They did it in four
months in 2020. Now, with $800 million, we’re expecting improved
miracles from them.
They plan to dash out a whopping $800 million. Ten million Nigerian
households will be splashed with N5,000 each. They tag their targets
“vulnerable Nigerians.” And they are 50 million, that’s their
thinking. It’s deliberate.
Daily Trust report came handy here. And it’s instructive: “The amount
is N50 billion per month and reaches N300 billion with $800 million
(N371.6 billion at CBN N464/$1 rate) World Bank loan to fund the
project.”
Their fervent acidic prayer: That the Herculean task be subdued. They
vow to do that between now and May 29, 2023. What a tall dream! Worst
still, they have not even started. They are waiting anxiously on the
National Assembly. To “play ball”?
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed,
explained: “Once the parliament approves it, we roll. We have also
been doing preparatory work side by side along the approval process.
She sauntered further: “The initial design is to disburse cash
transfers of N5,000 per month per household for a period of six
months. Whether this is enough is an assessment that we are
undertaking with the transition team.
“If it’s not enough, the country has to raise additional resources to
be able to cover more people, extend the period or increase the
amount; whichever is finally negotiated upon.” Stark implication; the
bill may climb up.
Her jaundiced optimism: “When the subsidy is removed, there would be
additional revenue that would now accrue to the Federation Account.”
It’s the same shameful odd, old song. It is from the pit of hell.
Nothing innovative. Nothing creative. In Nigeria, they insist that
bizarre wonders must not end. They want to make us “wonderers in
progress.”
Are you still wondering? Fuel subsidy removal is their most prominent
recurrent decimal. They sing it night and day. They are never tired of
it or embarrassed. Stranger than fiction!
The same subsidy President Muhammadu Buhari had angrily detested. He
swore it never existed. The subsidy he never believed in. That same
fuel subsidy was their cash cow. It held sway while this turbulent
regime lasted.
Buhari’s stance in 2011. Just before he happened to us: “Nigerians are
being deceived on the issue of fuel subsidy.” How? He should know the
best, anyway. He responded promptly:
“The Federal Government takes out fuel for refining, only to come back
and talk about removing the subsidy. That is nonsense and an attempt
by a clique with(in) the PDP-led government to siphon the proceeds to
be realised from the removal of oil subsidy.”
He continued the onslaught in 2015. Throughout his electioneering, he
sang to high heavens: “Fuel subsidy is a fraud. There’s nothing like
fuel subsidy.” He was restless and restive.
But he was hunted and haunted by his past. The very words he vomited
from his own mouth. Barely a year in office, 2016, he began to recant
profusely. His Minister of State for Petroleum, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu,
did that perfectly on his behalf:
“There is no provision for subsidy in 2016 appropriation. As of today,
the PMS (petrol) price of N86.50 gives an estimated subsidy claim of
N13.7 per litre, which translates to N16.4 billion monthly. There is
no funding or appropriation to cover this.”
By his reckoning, they would save N16.4 billion every month. That
remains our misery till date. Why? Nearly eight years after, they are
still humming the same crude song: Fuel subsidy.
Let this music stop forthwith. This particular beat must not go on.
No. Not beyond May 29, 2023!