It’s Suicidal Incompetence! Nay, It’s Genocidal Corruption! Nay, Well, It’s Both! Well …

EXPRESSO–PRESIDENCYWatch》》

By Steve Osuji*

From fantastical to genocidal corruption: Former British PM Gordon Brown famously described corruption in Nigeria during the Muhammadu Buhari era as fantastical. But today, under President Bola Tinubu, corruption in Nigeria has become genocidal.
This column avers that President Tinubu and his close cabal have become genocidally corrupt. They are viciously sending the mass of Nigerians to their early graves without qualms. In just one year, millions have been shovelled into poverty, millions are dying of hunger and sicknesses daily,  millions more suffer mental health-related ailments, and millions have become homeless.
Our president and people around him don’t seem to give a damn. All they are focused upon the crass looting of the commonwealth.
They are also very inept with it. They produce nothing and add no value to the economy. They are mere grubs, consuming, wasting and frittering!
But it seems the chickens have come home to roost. As we say in Yoruba, they have carried their sacrifice beyond the mosque.

Finally, the bottom is falling off Nigeria’s matter. Everything seems to be unhinging! President Bola Tinubu’s blissful (suicidal) incompetence now mates with uber genocidal corruption.
Suicidal incompetence is now crossed with genocidal corruption. Result: social upheaval!

Unknown to Nigerians,  this president has lost control of nearly everything, but the economy, in particular, is in disarray. The economy is finally out of President Tinubu’s hands. Nobody knows what’s to come next. Few struggling Industries will finally shut down; Nigerians hitherto at the precipice will now either take the plunge or fight back.

BETWEEN BAD GOVERNANCE AND HEADLESS GOVERNMENT.
For ten days from the first of August, Nigerians protested acute hunger and bad governance. The dust has yet to settle, and arrested protesters are still in detention; suddenly, the federal government chose this time to increase the pump price of petrol by about 40% – from about N620 to about N900.
When rumours broke about the imminent hike, late last week, FG denied any such move, claiming ignorance of the oil ministry’s knowledge of any such increment. But by early this week, the state oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) made it official.
Yet a six-week-old petrol scarcity persists, a situation NNPCL claims is due to a $6 billion unpaid backlog incurred from imported fuels.
Ironically, NNPCL had declared a N3.3 trillion operating profit for the year ended 2023  without highlighting such a huge deficit.

DANGOTE FORCING CHANGE. Meanwhile,  the same day NNPCL hiked the pump price, the newly built Dangote Refinery told the world that its petrol is finally ready for the market, but according to the company,  it has to wait on NNPCL and the government to determine the next steps concerning pricing and distribution.
NNPCL had also vowed that the Port Harcourt Refinery which had been undergoing repairs in the last four years, would deliver petrol this month  – unfailingly,  after several missed production targets.

After President Bola Tinubu announced the end of the petrol subsidy from the inauguration podium on May 29, 2O23, the price of petrol was immediately increased by over 150% (from N190 to about N450). One would think the market would have been fully deregulated and fuel importation liberalised. But NNPCL continued to be the sole importer of petrol, holding the industry by the jugular.

SIX BILLION DOLLARS DEBT AND MALTA CONNECTION. But the real story is that NNPCL is said to be pandering to embedded interests in the government and owns refineries in Malta and all such places.  A case of classic conflict of interest. Perhaps $6 billion is needed to pay off the offshore refinery as Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries kick in.
With Dangote refinery supplying most of Nigeria’s fuels, the benefits are enormous. Nigeria should make huge forex savings, there should be a bit of transparency in the utterly opaque operations of the NNPCL. Round-trip would end, quantity and quality of products can determine, while so-called subsidy or none thereof would be made plain.

This must explain the current quagmire. The new pump price has been announced, yet there is no supply.  The country has been at a standstill since Tuesday.  Nigerians are at the nadir of their existence roiling in the mire of poverty, acute hunger and lack.

SEEMS LIKE GENOCIDE: While all these went on, President Tinubu was in faraway China attending a demeaning, imperialistic annual Afrca-China conference. It is a gathering Nigeria ought to have shunned years ago if she had had a proper leader. When was the last time any Chinese leader visited Nigeria’s shores? Of course, they are too busy for such a waste of time!
But yearly, Africa’s leaders go on a jamboree to China because most of them are seemingly jobless and don’t have their heads screwed right.
Before China, Tinubu had visited Equatorial Guinea and France all in a space of one month.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s economy continues to sink; the populace is being poured into the dungeon of poverty by tens of millions. All human development indices are dropping sharply: inflation roars ahead with food prices at their highest. But taxes and tariffs are reviewed without notice. Nigeria has become a house of sorrow. And now,  the worst energy crisis Nigeria has ever faced has ensued, with petrol prices raised beyond the reach of the people.

This looks like mass annihilation, a slow genocide against the people. What’s going to happen now? The solution is simple and uncomplicated, but will Tinubu allow common sense to prevail? Will he allow Dangote and Port  Harcourt refineries to take off and retrieve Nigerians from the current hellish situation? Will he curtail his interests and allow fuel prices to crash drastically, giving Nigerians, and indeed, the economy, a breather? Or would he insist on the high-wire, corruption-driven ecosystem that portends a cataclysmic upheaval? Fingers crossed.

#voiceofreason

Feedback: steve.osuji@gmail.com
▪︎ Osuji, a veteran media professional, was an editor at The Guardian, Thisday, NewAge and an editorial board member at The Nation.
▪︎OSUJISTEVE/05.09.24