Nigerians Must Swallow The Bitter Pills of Total Fuel Subsidy Removal in 2016 to Save The Economy!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER. A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 4. NO 123. 20th December, 2015.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32).

NIGERIANS MUST SWALLOW THE BITTER PILLS OF TOTAL FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL IN 2016 TO SAVE THE ECONOMY!

Corruption in Nigeria is a Hydra-Headed Monster that must be attacked and destroyed not by government alone but by all patriotic citizens who s ho uld be determined to resist the temptations and allurements of illicit monetary gains that could be manipulated to turn them into accomplices by unfaithful operators in the various sectors of the economy! Since the determine d effort by the new leadership to recover all stolen and embezzled funds by officers of past administrations, lots of billions of naira hav e be en recovered through probes and investigations while some were voluntarily returned into the Treasury through ple a -bargains. There was virtually no sector of the polity that was immune from the virus of corruption beginning with civil servants in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) , Security Agents, Legislators and the Academia, they were all smeared and the government needs vital information from all citizens in respect of the flood of laundered monies which are circulating and are about to drown the economy! It is no longer a hidden fact that FRONTING for money launderers have become the VOUGUE that turned many ordinary citizens into emergency millionaires in recent times but t he biggest head of the monster that urgently needed the full support of all patriotic citizens to be cut off and destroyed is the total removal of illegal payment of Petroleum Products Subsidy which had been the most daring robbery of government treasury since the turn of the new millennium!

THIS SUPPORT WILL TURN OUT TO BE BITTER PILLS, BUT IT IS OUR FERVENT BELIEF THAT IF QUICKLY SWALLOWED AT THIS OPPORTUNE TIME, NIGERIA NS WOU L D IN THE SHORT AND LONG RUN ENJOY FULL BENEFITS OF THE DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY UNDER A RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT BUHARI! We had always advocated that several, palliatives like the building of more Refineries and constant availability of the commodity including a reduction of the pump price should be put in place to cushion the hardships that would be encountered i f the subsidy were to be suddenly removed, but it seemed that such patriotic wish would hardly be realistic in the interim, b ut with the determined efforts of the new government to find a lasting solution to block all loopholes in the Petroleum Sector , we must now appeal to all Nigerians to face this battle for the survival of the nation against the predator OIL MERCHANTS who have lost all scruples for decorum and good conscience when it comes to material gains and possessions even at the expense of their fellow Nigerian s ! ADVOCATES of t he Change Agenda, the All Progressives Congress (APC), faithfully predicated their battle strategy on to tal elimination of the c ancerous corruption through probes and recovery of stolen or embezzled funds alone forgetting that everyone must be carried along to swallow the bitter p ills of blocking all avenues through which the heinous crimes were perpetrated in the past !

Nigeria is at a CROSS-ROAD as a nation and must meticulously and righteously decide which direction of the four cardinal points it should progress! APC had very good intentions for good governance which prompted the leadership through its flag bearer, President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), to:
1. Promise that “insha Allah”, Boko Haram terrorism MUST end by December 2015 without the hindsight of military strength in areas of artillery ammunition, logistics, financing and the dubious roles played by fifth columnists within the Ministry of Defence and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Office etc ; 2. That the massive corruption and impunity of past 16 years of People Democratic Party (PDP), governance would be wiped off in no time without taking into consideration that its kingpins would put up a vicious fight as now being witnessed in the National Assembly (NASS) ! 3. That a Social Contract Programme of Five Thousand Naira monthly stipend could be easily paid to the poorest and needy Nigerians without pre-knowledge of what the out-going prodigal PDP Government would leave in the COFFERS! 4. That PETROLEUM PRODUCTS (premium spirit-petrol- and kerosene), would flow freely to consumers without continuous payment through the largest corrupt drain pipe of the outlandish FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENTS which gulped about SEVEN TRILLION NAIRA in four years (2011-2015), according to recent World Bank Report on the state of the Nigerian Economy! 5. That the 2016 Financial Appropriation- Budget benchmark should still depend and predicated on US$ 38 per barrel of the mono-product crude oi l now selling for between US$ 34-36 per barrel in the international market by pre-supposing that market prices would improve in the that year ! 6. That the unpaid workers salaries of over six and eight months bequeathed by PDP failed administration would be wished away without a stiff fight by the aggrieved down-trodden people ! 7. That the over 70% of impoverished citizens who virtually lived from hand to mouth on less than N250 per day would not shout to high heavens and demand for the free-lunch promised through the social contract?

SINCE GOOD INTENTIONS WOULD NOT AMOUNT TO GOOD GOVERNANCE, ALL NIGERIANS SHOULD READ THE HANDWRITING OF PRESENT ECONOMIC REALITIES AND CO-OPERATE WITH APC MANAGEMENT TEAM TO SWALLOW THE BITTER PILL OF THE TOTAL REMOVAL OF FUEL SUBSIDY PA Y MENT ROBBERY INTRODUCED AS PARTY PATRONAGE BY PDP FOR THEIR CRONIES, ONCE AND FOR ALL IN 2016! This an opportune and most auspicious time to take this daring step in view of the fact that the international crude oil price is at its lowest ebb an d could still drop beyond US$ 36 per barrel in 2016! According to the Minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachukwu, his Ministry was poised to address all sectors of the UPSTREAM, MIDDLESTREAM, DOWNSTREAM AND THE GAS SUPPLY and reposition appropriately to arrive at a conducive price within the N87 and N97 Band! Without actually spil ling the beans, the Minister had indirectly advised Nigerian to brace up to embrace international regulated market prices from the incoming year! According to him two refineries will work at optimal level before they could be privatised while two new refineries would be built within the existing ones to ensure that much crude was refined in Nigeria to eliminate overseas import of refined petroleum products . In the proposed 2016 Budget, President Buhari voted N63.29 billion for payment of petroleum subsidy and N500 billion for Social Security but World Bank Lead Economist, John Litwack disclosed, during the launch of the bank’s third Nigeria Economic Report (NER), recently in Abuja, that the PDP Federal Government had spent US$35 billion ( N7 trillion), between 2010 and 2014 to sustain subsidy on petroleum products! WHAT ARE THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENTS INTRODUCED FROM THE OBASANJO’S ADMINISTRATION? The cost are grossly high while the benefits to the masses are infinitesimal compared to the gains provided through this avenue to higher echelon of the society in view of the fact that the entire process championed by government of PDP portrayed failure by misfits who could not faithfully manage assets and liabilities inherited from the MILITARY in 1999 diligently and with probity but squandered them in corruption and impunity and turned around to force the masses to pay for their deliberate and well-calculated plan of barefaced-robbery of the common wealth !
8. I magine a government which is the FOURTH LARGEST WORLD PRODUCER OF CRUDE OIL AND BLESSED WITH FOUR FUNCTIONING REFINERIES IN 1999 turning a round within three years of assumption of office to exporting her c rude oil overseas for refining thousands of kilometres away only for the finished products to be later imported back to the country at exorbitant prices which included transportation, freight charge s , refining costs, off-loading , demurrage etc, of which landing cost turned out to be highly prohibitive and had to be subsidised by the same exporter government! What in the name of GOD could be more wicked by a government which vowed packages of social contract benefits of dividends of democracy to its people whom it had turned a round to stab in the back ! IT IS THE WOR ST KIND OF INSENSIVITY IMAGINABLE ESPECIALLY WHEN THE CITIZENS ARE THE HEWERS OF THE WOOD, THE DRAWERS OF THE WATER AND ALSO THE TAXPAYERS!
9. It is common knowledge that all crude oil producing countries have put in place functioning refineries to serve refined petroleum products very cheaply as part of the welfare packages for their citizens except for Nigeria where the “butchers children only eat BONES”! Presently, premium motor spirit in those countries sell for less than TEN NAIRA per litre as against official N87 in Nigeria, because of the current international fall of crude oil prices! HAVE BENEFITS ACCRUED IN ANY FORM TO THE NIGERIAN POPULAC E SINCE THE SUSTAINED PAYMENT OF PETROLEUM SUBSIDIES IN NIGERIA? 10. 1.In all sincerity, a lot of benefits have accrued to the RULERS and all their cronies who purchase the products at same pump price and also shop in same markets for foodstuffs like the masses, but definitely not to the down-trodden masses who have to depend on PETROL and KEROSINE for industrial , cooking and lightning pu rposes in the absence of ELECTRICITY POWER and as a matter of necessity endure long queues and at times sleep in petrol filling stations to get the always scarce subsidized products ! O n 1 January, 2011, hundreds of protesters d ied from police gun shots when f ormer President Jonathan unilaterally “removed the so-called subsidy”, without a plebiscite!
11. President Buhari inherited the obnoxious “Greek Gift”, paid some “outstanding subsidy debts” and has purposed to spend more in the proposed 2016 Budget and the salient question on the lips of Nigerians is, “ for how long would we continue in circles as a nation; while would we be indecisive on the way forward in respect of the Change agenda?

IT IS NOW OR NEVER! Though we hear that Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has assured Nigerians that APC’s 2016 Budget would provide the panacea to all the myriad economic problems inherited from the past prodigal administrations through payments of unpaid salaries, monthly N5000.00 stipend for 25 million poverty-stricken Nigerians, primary schools free lunch for God-knows, how many millions with a DEFICIT BUDGET OF N7 trillion – which turns out to be the highest budget ever proposed by any Federal Government! Let’s assume that APC’s Economic Managers would scale through their plans for 2016 without blocking the DRAIN PIPES OF ILLEGAL FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENTS , would they also pursue the same economic agenda of going a-borrowing in 2017 and beyond? The answer is a capital NO! The only door that is open to President Buhari is to apologise to all Nigerian’s in his New Year message for the entire economic mix-up , ask for forgiveness, appeal for their support to remove the repulsive fuel subsidy once and for all! HEAVEN WOULD NOT FALL BUT NIGERIANS WOULD BE BETTER FOR IT if only the Labour Unions would sheath their swords and counsel the workers to bear the CRUNCH once and for all! Nigeria will survive under this righteous government in spite of “bad belle people”! Amen. [Proverbs. 14:34].
Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord.

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If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations. I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com .