BY;
JESSE ABAYOMI OLOKE
29/02/2024
Revolutions in whatever guise don’t come easy . Either medical revolution, economic revolution, military revolution, industrial revolution, and many more.
Late president John. F. Kennedy did said at the alliance for progress congress on the 13th march, 1962, that, ” those who made peaceful revolution inevitable will make violent revolution inevitable.
In a revolution, a decision will have to be made that could either make or mare the issues being contested.
Revolution either peaceful or otherwise, ushers in a new concept, a new idea, a new regime, a new philosophy, a new mentality and a new attitude.
No great Nation that has evolved without a radical revolution in all spheres of life without a history of a revolution in diverse field.
In the history of the French, the revolution that started with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, became a turning point in the history of the French.
They were face with wars, and the peasants were facing serious hunger. Infact, the statement credited to the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie Antoinette that the people were complaining of hunger and had no bread, she was quoted as. Saying – “let them eat cake” , this statement is believed to be one of the reasons that that infuriated the peasants and led to storming of the Bastille.
The plethora of events that brewed out of the many crises that followed, chatted a new course for french growth and industrialization.
In Britain, the industrial revolution began in 1760 largely with new development in the textile industry. Great Britain became a powerful empire because it was the birth place and the leading force in industrial revolution, which was a cultural and economic shift from home base production, traditional agriculture and manual labor to a system of factory based manufacturing that included complex machinery.
The American revolution was an epic political and military struggle waged between 1765 and 1783 when 13 of the Britain’s North America colonies rejected it imperial rules.
In all the aforementioned Great countries that dominates the world today. They had their years of total rejection for existing order that do not open opportunity for development.
For a farmer to harvest a big and enticing yam from his farm, he must first clear his field, plough his ridges, then plant a piece of yam which in turn decays in the soil before bringing out a new big yam. Please note, while all these is going on, the farmer remains patient with hunger in his tummy while waiting for about six months germination period before he could harvest his product.
The Americans, the British and frenchs, all had their period of reformations , and today they are better off.
In 1988/89 , when General Ibrahim Babangida became head of state, he wanted to take an IMF loan, but the condition given by the international monetary organization was for Nigeria to remove subsidy on petroleum. General Ibrahim Babangida together with his team of economic led by chief olu falae, wanted so badly to collect the loan, but Nigerians rose up just as it has always been before now, to oppose subsidy removal. A national debate was instituted , and at the end General Ibrahim Babangida harkened to the voice of the people, he never collected the loan, but introduced an economic revolution called Structural Adjustment Program (SAP).
WITH this program, General Ibrahim Babangida introduced stringent fiscal policies like removing a percentage of the subsidy to raise or save money for governance. To cushion the resultant increase in petroleum products, various other policies were introduced like purchases of thousands of buses shared out to state for mass transit with reduced fare. Nigeria has not recovered from that epical decision.
Late General sani Abacha stepped in and removed 5percent of the subsidy and established a petroleum Trust fund where the money accrued from the 5percent removal are saved. Through PTF, many projects were executed across the country.
At various times successive governments down to General Buhari removed various percentages of the subsidy. But, none among these leaders has that tact, temerity, boldness and resiliency to remove the monster and bedrock of corruption called subsidy.
Then came, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who acted as if, all he came to do as an elected president is to remove that monster.
The first, policy statement he made after inauguration was announced the removal of petroleum subsidy.
That decision is nothing short of a revolution.
It remains one of the greatest revolution and much greater than Obasanjo agricultural revolution of 1978.
As said at the beginning of this write up, no country develops without taking a revolutionary decisions that will shake the very corporate existence of that nation. The revolution could be violently pursued, while some could be intellectually pursued.
No doubt, there are some shortcomings in the system adopted by president Tinubu to palliates the Nigerian masses who are at the recieving end. For example;
* Increasing allocation to various state government is not a good and well thought out plan as most of these money end up being embezzled.
* Paying extra wages over a period of time to civil servants does not help either, as the relief is only temporary
* Distribution of rice and grains is out of focus too. The effects of the subsidy removal is all encompassing, hence what happens to other high cost commodities like drugs, transportation, building materials and so on.
President Tinubu could have instead;
* subsidize agriculture heavily by encouraging mass production of foods.
* Subsidize education by investing some of these money in Education
* Subsidize drugs production to curb the present astronomical rise in prizes of drugs.
* The excess money gathered or saved by removing subsidy could be saved in a dedicated accounts as late General Abacha did, and thereafter used in balancing the economy.
The future will expose the deficiency in the present system because, there are high level of corruption to be expected in the sudden surge of funds into the hands of the variously corrupted fingers of our state governors.
Fact must be said, president Tinubu acted well by removing the subsidy for once. We have long been manipulated by various regimes with the subsidy pandemic. Let the monster be killed while we know where else to face in our economy.
This subsidy removal revolution remains a great TINUBUNOMICS economics policy that will be a point of discussion on our table for a while. It takes a bold heart and attitude to confront it while others, soldiers inclusive, have maradonically avoided it for a long time. It has finally come home to roost.
Let’s be patient like that farmer that plants a yam and patiently waits for it to mature for harvest.
