September 01, (THEWILL) – Dr. Reuben Abati’s recent commentary on the saga of renewed fuel queues that were largely absent in most of President Buhari’s two-term tenure and Buhari’s refusal to remove fuel subsidy towards the end of his tenure contained a major slip of the pen.
The main deficiency in the article, which somehow dimmed its value, was his failed attempt to suggest that a fuel subsidy booby trap was planted by the Buhari administration against his successor in office, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In Abati’s imagination, President Buhari’s refusal to remove the subsidy in line with assumed or real pressure from external sources and despite the provision of Section 205 (1) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), is akin to leaving “a booby trap for Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.
This booby trap theory is absolutely unfounded because there is no iota of evidence to support it. It is totally speculative. A conjecture, the worst type based on unworthy hearsay. Or it is just a slip of Dr. Reuben Abati’s pen, which recurs regularly in his analysis of major national events.
Dr. Reuben Abati and many Nigerians can recall that Buhari’s spokesperson, Malam Garba Shehu, in a June 2023 statement, said that removing the fuel subsidy close to the general election could have been detrimental to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The Buhari administration, in its last days, could not have gone the whole way because the APC had an election to win. And that would have been the case with any other political party that was seeking election for another term.”
Malam Garba added, “Poll after polls showed that the party would have been thrown out of office if the decision as envisaged by the new Petroleum Industry Act was made.”
But even a greater reason for the refusal of the Buhari administration to end the subsidy on fuel was to save Nigerians from the harsh outcome it could have on their well-being and the destructive effects it could have on the economy.
The Minister of Finance in the Buhari administration, Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna and other administration spokespersons said before fuel subsidy is removed, the government must have provisions to cushion its potential disruptive effects on the population.
Indeed, the Minister listed certain policy measures that would be in place before the Buhari administration contemplates subsidy removal: Availability of autogas (LPG) as an option or an alternative to petrol as fuel for vehicles; provision of effective and reliable transit systems to reduce use personal vehicles by as many Nigerians as possible
Other measures, according to her, were the introduction of monthly transport grants for poor citizens; enhanced domestic petroleum refining toward which the Buhari administration awarded contracts for the rejuvenation of the refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri, and economic diversification through agriculture, manufacturing and other viable economic activities.
Going by the authoritative explanations from Malam Garba Shehu and past Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, it was obvious that President Buhari’s decision not to remove the subsidy was, in a way, a strategic move to help Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate to win the election. So, this fact alone has logically debunked Dr. Abati’s booby trap speculation.
Dr. Reuben Abati has by himself given more reasons which did not support his slip of the pen supposition on a booby trap in his article.
“The Buhari administration played smart by stating that the removal of fuel subsidy could result in social upheaval and that the timing would be problematic,” he penned.
And in an instance of his often combative and less than circumspect style, Dr. Reuben Abati wrote, “On May 29, 2023, at his inauguration as President of Nigeria, Tinubu allowed his emotions to get the better part of him when he suddenly announced in his inaugural speech that fuel subsidy is gone.” Past Buhari had no hand in this.
In another cancellation of his own booby trap slip of the pen, the former presidential spokesperson wrote in his opinion article that, “There may have also been persons around President Tinubu who told him to take a step that would please the IMF and the World Bank, both of which had always argued that Nigeria could not sustain its subsidy regime.”
The former editor of the Guardian newspaper regarded the President’s decision to announce the removal of fuel subsidy as “an impulsive policy-making decision to please the Western crowd”.
He further destroyed his booby trap slip of the pen and false allegation against past President Muhammadu Buhari by linking President Tinubu’s decision on removing the fuel subsidy to “Tinubu’s populism, over-excitement and lack of caution”.
Dr. Reuben Abati once again exonerated past President Buhari from his unsubstantiated booby trap slip of the pen by saying this in his article, “Tinubu created a perfect storm by removing fuel subsidy and also abolishing the dual foreign exchange rate at the same time. It is simple common sense. Both moves were populist but the timing and the combination were wrong.”
So it is obvious that past President Buhari did not plant a fuel subsidy booby trap for President Tinubu, Dr. Reuben Abati should apologise to Nigerians for the big slip of his pen.
***written by Salisu Na’inna Dambatta
