i've been kinda sad for a few days now...no, not like sad for the sake of it, but deeply inexplicably sad. infact, so sad i've begun to have weird dreams (no dream is really bad or good) which all culminated in a near-migraine yesterday that left me wearing dark shades for most of the morning in the office. so i woke up at 3 am this morning and lay on my bed staring at the ceiling and trying to decide for myself if i should focus and find out exactly what bothers me, or to determine for myself that i will have a good day and live happy just because...if it was that simple.
so on my way to work this morning as i sat in the quiet car, my mind went from my family to my job to the cases in court that i wish could all just end to my boss (amazingest boss ever by the way) and eventually perched on the issue of the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government - yeah, of all things for me to think of in trying to make myself happy.
you know, i am not very knowledgable in the economics of things and don't mean to sound blonde but seriously, how can a removal of fuel subsidy without an alternative make any logical sense. let me tell you what i see when i hear about removing of subsidy. the price of petrol at the pump will go up. when this happens, the public transport fares are normally the first to be hit which means that more than 60% of the working population will have to pay more to get to work. most of the packaged food is imported or smuggled which means that to transport them from the ports to the final sales points will increase in price. the seller has to recover the additional cost of moving the goods to her shop and this will go into the retail price of the goods. private enterprises will have to increase their running costs to power their businesses (cos the increase does not increase power supply by NEPA) and review staff salaries to accomodate the revised prices to everything...and parents will have to give children more money to school for transport and break time meals. the flip side is that my pesky neighbours will be forced to run their generators ONLY at night or for shorter periods (the peace and quite is worth the subsidy removal i tell you) and maybe some of us will no longer jump in our cars and zoom off to the barber shop 5 houses away or to buy moi moi at mr.biggs down the road.
but i read the other day that 3 former governors were arrested for embezzling sums in the billions of naira and it is a well known fact that our system of government is superbly expensive for a poverty stricken country. and so i'm thinking, it cannot be because the country is broke that they need to scrap the necessary buffer that was fuel subsidy. also, the savings they will be realizing is supposed to go into what exactly? power generation? political party election funds for 2015? PDP Board of Trustee pockets?
the thought of dropping my car to take public transport as a result of this subsidy removal made me shiver slightly - in a bad way. i recall my last coaster bus ride experience from abule egba to sango otta where a woman and a man stood up at the same time as soon as the bus got moving. usually in nigeria, medicine hawkers and bible evangelists struggle for space and attention during public bus rides and you are forced to listen to them go on till you alight from the bus...so as a gracious act, the man allowed the woman to take the floor and then she began in the strongest ibo accent possible. "my brothers and sisters in dey Lord. where shall you spend etanety? this is not ya home, this is not my home. we are but a visitor in this earth...this body is not my own, it is but a dirty soil. but i know my home is in heaven. but many of you in this bus, ya home is in 'hail faya' (wha'?)...HAIL FAYA my brother, HAIL FAYA my sista. ya'r a gyal wearing man trouser, HAIL FAYA, you're a man taking teyn teyn kobo from ya oga shop, Hail Faya, you're a young gyal following layabout in ya street Hail Faya". and on and on she went listing everything from internet use to gluttony with each sin more flambouyant than the last. amidst chuckles although other people just exchanged stares and adjusted to begin journey-long sleep or discussions for the rest of the arduous journey, i can't sleep on rides so i was stuck with the persistent reminder that i was likely to be in hell by sunset of that day. damnit.
after what seemed like forever, she eventually prays with us unsalvagable sinners and proceeds to get off the bus...at which the conductor asks her for money and she says something to the effect that she wasn't going to pay - maybe she feels he should be grateful that she saved him from hell (i bet that smelly singlet-wearing conductor with knife scar on his face owned 92% of the sins she listed). long story short, the driver asked him to let her off the bus and told her that she should check the bible if entering bus and not paying takes one to heaven o. valid point, i thought.
as soon as she got off the bus, the man stood up to commence his own show and began by saying "For those of us who have not gone to hell fire yet, i have this melecine to show you...it cures diahorea, chicken pox, poverty, illiteracy, AIDS etc". i guess the medicine doesn't cure stupidity cos every bus i enter, people ALWAYS buy these drugs again and again. Gaddamnit
so yeah, while the government may think it is doing the best for the country, and our opposition parties and labour unions sleep, we may all have unwittingly been sentenced to a future of collective hardship...
and maybe even hell faya. :)
See y'all around peeps
so on my way to work this morning as i sat in the quiet car, my mind went from my family to my job to the cases in court that i wish could all just end to my boss (amazingest boss ever by the way) and eventually perched on the issue of the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government - yeah, of all things for me to think of in trying to make myself happy.
you know, i am not very knowledgable in the economics of things and don't mean to sound blonde but seriously, how can a removal of fuel subsidy without an alternative make any logical sense. let me tell you what i see when i hear about removing of subsidy. the price of petrol at the pump will go up. when this happens, the public transport fares are normally the first to be hit which means that more than 60% of the working population will have to pay more to get to work. most of the packaged food is imported or smuggled which means that to transport them from the ports to the final sales points will increase in price. the seller has to recover the additional cost of moving the goods to her shop and this will go into the retail price of the goods. private enterprises will have to increase their running costs to power their businesses (cos the increase does not increase power supply by NEPA) and review staff salaries to accomodate the revised prices to everything...and parents will have to give children more money to school for transport and break time meals. the flip side is that my pesky neighbours will be forced to run their generators ONLY at night or for shorter periods (the peace and quite is worth the subsidy removal i tell you) and maybe some of us will no longer jump in our cars and zoom off to the barber shop 5 houses away or to buy moi moi at mr.biggs down the road.
but i read the other day that 3 former governors were arrested for embezzling sums in the billions of naira and it is a well known fact that our system of government is superbly expensive for a poverty stricken country. and so i'm thinking, it cannot be because the country is broke that they need to scrap the necessary buffer that was fuel subsidy. also, the savings they will be realizing is supposed to go into what exactly? power generation? political party election funds for 2015? PDP Board of Trustee pockets?
the thought of dropping my car to take public transport as a result of this subsidy removal made me shiver slightly - in a bad way. i recall my last coaster bus ride experience from abule egba to sango otta where a woman and a man stood up at the same time as soon as the bus got moving. usually in nigeria, medicine hawkers and bible evangelists struggle for space and attention during public bus rides and you are forced to listen to them go on till you alight from the bus...so as a gracious act, the man allowed the woman to take the floor and then she began in the strongest ibo accent possible. "my brothers and sisters in dey Lord. where shall you spend etanety? this is not ya home, this is not my home. we are but a visitor in this earth...this body is not my own, it is but a dirty soil. but i know my home is in heaven. but many of you in this bus, ya home is in 'hail faya' (wha'?)...HAIL FAYA my brother, HAIL FAYA my sista. ya'r a gyal wearing man trouser, HAIL FAYA, you're a man taking teyn teyn kobo from ya oga shop, Hail Faya, you're a young gyal following layabout in ya street Hail Faya". and on and on she went listing everything from internet use to gluttony with each sin more flambouyant than the last. amidst chuckles although other people just exchanged stares and adjusted to begin journey-long sleep or discussions for the rest of the arduous journey, i can't sleep on rides so i was stuck with the persistent reminder that i was likely to be in hell by sunset of that day. damnit.
after what seemed like forever, she eventually prays with us unsalvagable sinners and proceeds to get off the bus...at which the conductor asks her for money and she says something to the effect that she wasn't going to pay - maybe she feels he should be grateful that she saved him from hell (i bet that smelly singlet-wearing conductor with knife scar on his face owned 92% of the sins she listed). long story short, the driver asked him to let her off the bus and told her that she should check the bible if entering bus and not paying takes one to heaven o. valid point, i thought.
as soon as she got off the bus, the man stood up to commence his own show and began by saying "For those of us who have not gone to hell fire yet, i have this melecine to show you...it cures diahorea, chicken pox, poverty, illiteracy, AIDS etc". i guess the medicine doesn't cure stupidity cos every bus i enter, people ALWAYS buy these drugs again and again. Gaddamnit
so yeah, while the government may think it is doing the best for the country, and our opposition parties and labour unions sleep, we may all have unwittingly been sentenced to a future of collective hardship...
and maybe even hell faya. :)
See y'all around peeps
Comments
Those things used to drive me crazy. After preaching, they would pass an offering bag. in the BUS! as if unbelievers are expected to contribute to the gospel.
That said, the subsidy removal is a necessary evil o IMO! the government at the moment spend a lot subsidizing petrol. this is money that should be used to finance developmental expenditure,
it might be hard initially but the forces of demand and supply would come to play and drive the price to the lowest possible and importers and marketers would need to derive strategies to remain competitive
let us keep our hands folded and watch it all play out
As for the fuel subsidy, sombory would have explain to my tired brain where the money would go if that subsidy is removed and the person berra not use "development" because it will not fly with me. It's been 51 years and our looter-irresponsible-tif leaders are still using good roads, portable water, basic health care etc for campaign. Roads are still being patched on a daily basis. shameful pple. I still can't get past Gobe's 19k dictionary (bulk purchase o!) It pains me that the same generation that enjoyed the young 9ja is the same killing and corrupting her. I also need to understand why we can not have our own functional refineries in this country.
I wonder how much we'll be paying for fuel if we didn't have oil in this country. And y are we using up so much fuel anyways? Why can't we find solution to our power issues too? As much as i'm an eternal optimist, it gets tiring jere.
Health, education, shelter, infrastructure..up in the air.
lmao. A book needs to be written on Lagos transportation. Its on a class of its own!