PERHAPS one of reasons why we are afraid of the removal subsidy is because want our finances not to be affect. We believe in the status quo, we want to continue to spend our little hard earned money on cheap fuel, and I think it is not unusual with humans. Why pay more when we can pay less? — but if we dare to look at the issues intellectually, economically, on the long-term rather than the short-term of it, we find out that there is no sustainability in what will surely come one day no matter how long we delay it.
In our simple economic evaluation, the issue of forgone alternative(opportunity cost) must be considered. We must identify with that which we prefer, ideally. Are we taking subsidy to forgo entirely endless collection of things to better our lives?
I am not a profound supporter of this sudden total removal of subsidy(even when it is said that the 2023 budget didn’t capture it) but it is on this fragile consideration, things being equal, that I tend to transiently support it for the securing of other alternatives that the fund for it can get us – especially the masses. So when they take away what we used to pay for subsidy, which runs into trillions, we must demand what visible profit comes to us – both on the short and long terms. If they take away our joy momentarily, what will they replace it with permanently?
Without the profits of subsidy which allows us to get fuel at the rate which we used to comfortably get it, we must question how many quality schools, roads, airports, hospitals, infrastructures…that can be built in its stead. The fear on the lips of most Nigerians has always been that if subsidy is not being paid, the savings will find their ways into private vaults by strangulators in government, and strangely, our sacrifices will be in vain. Isn’t that part of the reasons why we have tried to fill every moment of time with voices against its removal however intelligent, dull or trivial our arguments against its removal have been? We want to be sure that we are never left in the hands of crooks who will remove the payment of subsidy and then take flight with what is being saved.
At the moment, the choices are no longer ours.
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