Oil Price Increase In Nigeria - Healing A Nation By Killing It

The Nigerian Federal Government has just approved an increase in the prices of oil products by about 35% to =N=65 (about 50 cents US or 28 pence in The UK), in response to the steep increases in the price of crude oil in the international market.

Now this may seem like no big deal if you’re reading from the UK for example, where petrol (or gasoline, as the Americans call it) already costs as much as 99 pence, but when you compare Nigeria’s Gross per capita income of $391 with the $33,940 of the United Kingdom, you see that the effects of these increase would wreck a much greater damage on the average Nigerian than it would the average Briton. However, when you put the facts stated above within the context of the fact that Nigeria is the seventh largest exporter of crude oil in the world and the government could easily use part of the huge extra revenue its presently getting from the presently high oil prices to cushion or subsidize fuel prices for the Nigerian people, you may begin to understand why I’m so angry.

I took part in the BBC World Service programme “Talking Point” last weekend and wasn’t very surprised to find out that quite a few countries have refused to increase the pump price of oil products, preferring instead to absorb these increase via higher subsidies. This is because these governments fear that these increases would have a hugely negative impact on the quality of life of their people, and what is a government in power for, if not to make life easier and better for the people who put it there?

I agree with President Obasanjo when he says that certain sacrifices must be made to repair the damage done to the Nigerian economy as a result of many years of misrule and mismanagement. What I would like him to know however is that many Nigerians may not live long enough to enjoy the long term benefits of his many policies and actions, especially this recent increase in fuel prices. How do you tell a hungry, dying man who you just made hungrier and closer to death that you are hurting him because you love him, that in the long term he will thank you? I don't think he would appreciate your rhetoric. Not at all.