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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, August 13, 2004.
Petroleum: Lies of a rollover
Government
By Lanre Banjo
The government of my country,
headed by General Olusegun Obasanjo, waters the seed of deceit, lies,
fabrications, destruction of life, and it is a rollover government for
the world powers. The result is the germination of fruits in the image of
Nigerians who are made and programmed to cherish lies, hate,
self-destruct, grow in corruption and see themselves as subhuman to the
other race. This is why
nothing works and nothing will ever work in Nigeria, and real progress
would continue to elude us.
A government that ignores its talents and spends
heavily and in an imprudent manner to look for a ghost called foreign
investors when it has foreign missions whose job is to sell the country
to all and sundry, in my pet view, is a good-for-nothing government. A good government should focus on
its people so that they can be made marvelous in the eyes of others who
would be excited to visit the country. A government that dribbles its
citizenry so much to the ground would end up dribbling itself. The powers that are using our
elected and appointed officials as pawns, and accord them international
status which simply means obedient traitors, would dump them later in the
future. Saddam Hussein is a
living example. Those using General Obasanjo to make our people destitute
through unjustifiable increase in the price of oil and privatization of
our heritage would eventually say, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we got
him.”
So that they would not think that we are all fools,
there is a need to expose their lies by making public the price of oil
and other welfare programmes obtainable in other countries. The average
pump price of the lowest grade 87 octane unleaded per gallon in any of
the 50 states of the United States including the District of Columbia and
other Federal territories is $1.83 per gallon, while the highest grade 93
octane averages $1.95 per gallon. Factored into this price are the
following:
� 7.65 per cent for
Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes;
� Sales tax which
ranges from 5 per cent to 9 per cent per gallon depending on the State;
� Unemployment taxes
which is 2.7 per cent of the first $9,000 paid to each employee annually
in the District of Columbia;
�
1.9 per cent of the first $8,000 paid to each employee annually in
the State of Maryland
� Federal
Unemployment Taxes which starts from 0 .8 per cent;
� Cost of health
insurance for employees working at the gas station; and
� Workmen
compensation in case of injury on the premises.
Yet on the average, the starting salary for a petroleum
station employee is $7 per hour depending on the State. When our Government lies that the
price of oil in the United States is equally increasing, those Nigerians
who are interested in being informed need to know the composition of the
price of oil per gallon and the welfare programmess factored into the
price in the United States.
For the information of the readers, a gallon equals 4 litres, so
Nigerians can now multiply the price of oil per liter by 4 to make it
comparable with the price of oil in Nigeria.
The government of General Obasanjo is pushing for N50
per litre, which is N200 per gallon. At the unofficial rate of exchange of $1 to N135, a
gallon of petroleum would cost Nigerians $1.48. This price is devoid of the welfare programmes of the
enviable governments of states and federal of the United States. United States purchases crude oil
from Nigeria and where there is an arm-length transaction, there should
have been a mark-up, which should be advantageous to Nigerians. The country is also blessed with
oil, which is reserved for strategic reasons with a ploy to control
others’ reservoir of oil with its marine, if need be. The President of Nigeria punishes
Nigerians for his horrible incompetence instead of Nigerians punishing
him for his lackluster performance. Such would be the case of a society who is deaf
to voice of reasoning and to whom inane reasons are often tendered to
economically stifle them after taking money and material things for
votes.
Various reasons being proffered by our government to
increase the price of oil are just too lunatic and can only be tendered
to despicably uninformed citizens.
It proves that the evil deeds of our rulers towards citizens are
just as natural to them as their breathing. They all have pastors and Imams. They go to various Churches and
Mosques and they say they love God.
How can they love God they have never seen and hate and suffocate
their bothers and sisters they see every day? I have engaged in discussion with some Nigerians in
the oil industry to familiarize myself with their thinking and the
rationale behind the constant increase of oil price. Some urged the
privatization reason and some argued that it is very expensive for
government to subsidize at source, in addition to the preposterous reason
of oil bunkering which General Obasanjo is determined to continue
punishing poor Nigerians for.
On the issue of subsidy at source, I hasten to say that
the Europeans and their descents worldwide, kill at source for oil. It is a matter of fact. The war in Iraq is about oil.
Facts emerging after the war have proven that beyond reasonable doubts. Only God knows how many people
have been killed and only God keeps account of how many heads of state or
presidents have been overthrown or killed because of oil. OPEC is a creation of these same
people for the same reason of getting free oil. How many European countries endowed with oil belong to
OPEC? This was why Pa
Obafemi Awolowo, of blessed memory, said that if he ever became the
president of Nigeria, he would pull Nigeria out of OPEC. OPEC is a case of masters telling
their slaves what to do. Have we ever ventured to have them form
“Organization of Aircraft Manufacturers” so that we can dictate how many
to produce and how much to sell them? The United States, with its military colossal strength
is always ready to use that strength in any country to protect its
national interest and that interest, when it comes to Nigeria, is our
oil. So when Nigerians say that the World powers do not subsidize at
source, I just look at them as either fools or profoundly selfish rich
who do not care about the downtrodden. To buttress my point, I reproduce below
the article published in the Washington Post on June 28, 2004.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Okonjo Iweala announced
recently that there is a windfall from oil revenue. The Vanguard of Monday, July 12,
2004 announced that such windfall might add up to N610.2 billion. The Daily Independent of
the same day announced that Nigeria earns N434b from oil sales, so what
is the need for increasing the price of oil to suffocate the masses of
Nigeria. Look around the
country, there is no development to write home about, electricity is
still epileptic, water, not in various houses and telephone does not work
well. One thing is certain, the eminent, the wealthy and the highly
placed are running a tragic risk in their cruel and insensitive neglect
of the poor and the downtrodden.
I often wonder what the Nigerian
Labor Congress (NLC) stands for.
During the 2003 elections, they worked closely with General
Obasanjo to ensure that he succeeded in rigging himself in. NLC did not
deem it fit to educate its members on the electoral process, and
discourage them from receiving fake scholarships, wheelbarrows and other
material things from candidates. In an event solely organized for General
Obasanjo, he told them that he would increase the price of oil. Now they
are acting like fowls. With all the dues they collect, one would expect
them to have a research department that would focus on how much per
litre, oil is sold in all the Arab countries, and the social programmes
in these countries, including West Gaza where Palestinians have been in
war since its’ creation. Perhaps these labor people get rich from strike
or perhaps God keeps them alive for the whips of General Obasanjo.
•Banjo was a
gubernatorial aspirant on the ticket of the National Conscience Party
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