Renowned Columnist and Media Scholar, Prof. Farooq Kperogi has insisted, for the umpteenth time, that the sudden removal of petroleum subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a recipe for disaster which has resulted in the frightening dimensions of hunger and hardship being currently witnessed by Nigerians.
To Kperogi, no end is in sight at all for the hardship as the situation of things, if it continues this way, might cause a social implosion of an inconceivable magnitude unless the government urgently embarked on a U-turn in the economic policies introduced at the onset of the Administration.
He spoke while featuring as a Guest Speaker on the popular monthly interview discourse, Boiling Point Arena, a programme streamed via Zoom and transmitted live on a radio station, SWEET 107.1FM.
He was paired by another Discussant, Dr Titus Olowokere, an Economist based in Atlanta, United States of America. The programme is the brainchild of Dr Ayo Arowojolu, a Media Professional and Public Relations Strategist.
Kperogi, a professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at the Kennesaw State University, Georgia, USA, took a swipe at President Tinubu for taking Nigerians through what he called a “failed route” once undertaken by the then President Ibrahim Babangida when he pandered to the economic prescriptions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund via the Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP).
His words: “I have always been a consistent advocate for subsidies. I have lived in the US for two decades and I know that subsidy dispensation is indispensable to the health and growth of any country.
“I have been distraught by a manufactured propaganda that subsidies are bad. It’s one of the stupidest arguments I have ever heard in my entire life.
“When you remove subsidy from day one, and devalue your currency, It doesn’t matter who vied for the office and won the election, you are going to get the same exact result we are getting today especially considering that we are an import dependent country.
“Even World Bank and IMF stylishly admitted to errors for taking Nigeria through Structural Adjustment Programme that have taken us to nowhere. Since then, it has been same tactics, same rhetorics. As a country we have been going round in circles for several years.
“There is really no light at all at the end of the tunnel. So long as this policy will continue, there’s no hope at all for Nigeria”.
Kperogi said further: “There has been a recurring decimal. When Jonathan was in power, everybody thought that was the worst government ever until Buhari came into power who gave the semblance of an ungoverned Nigeria. Now, under Tinubu, we have seen a trend whereby Nigerians enjoyed better under Buhari. With Tinubu, Nigerians have never witnessed this dimension of hardship before. The rhetorics will continue even with Tinubu’s successor. Things will never get better”.
Justifying his insistence for subsidies to Nigerians, he argued that even highly industrialized countries like America subsidizes fuel consumption for their citizens because of the absence of a well developed public transportation system exactly the way it is in Nigeria.
According to him, the Tinubu government failed to address the real issues but pandered to what he called “palliatives economy” which has gulped collosal amount of money.
“No amount of money can bail Nigerians out of hunger. The amount that govt spends on palliatives is like penny wise, pound foolish. People who sit in the comfort of their luxury cannot really connect with what benefits the people and how their needs can be better met”, he stressed.
Kperogi added this: “People in power are still living as if nothing has changed, living in luxuries. They have not made one ounce of sacrifice and people are dying daily. If Tinubu is saying there’s corruption in the oil sector, why not fight corruption?
Government must recognize that certain class of people in Nigeria can never survive without subsidy”.
A frontline traditional ruler, the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Oba Prof Saka Matemilola was the keynote speaker at the event in his capacity as Chairman, Boiling Point Council for Royals and Elders.