In crafting the title of this piece, the ten-year war between Troy and Greece came to mind. The epic battle saw the loss of great warriors like Achilles, Hercules and Paris. In the end it was the wit of the Greek Odyssey who made all the Greek soldiers hide in the Trojan horse which was dragged into Troy that gave Greece the day after a decade of struggle.

In reducing the price of Premium Motor Spirit otherwise known as petrol in street parlance from 97 naira to 87 by the Jonathan led administration, one wonders whether history is not surreptitiously repeating itself as man in his frailty learns the stories but never its salient lessons.

The price of crude oil in the international market fell by about sixty percent. When crude oil was $100 per barrel, the landing cost of PMS without subsidy was 125 naira per litre. Now that it is $44 per barrel, the landing cost is 65 naira per litre. Why was the reduction only by a mere 10.3%? Non-oil producing nations in the continent like Tanzania had a 16% slash and Zambia witnessed a 23% reduction.

As a result of the grossly irresponsible leadership, the benefit of the black gold has failed to trickle down to the hoi polloi who are always tossed from one palm to the other as sacrificial lambs. The price of petrol in Venezuela, an oil producing nation is between 2 and 3 pence. Saudi Arabia, the highest exporter of crude oil in the globe with reserves between 20% and 25% of the world reserves sees her citizens purchase the product at 8 pence. Libya which is the 9th largest crude oil producer sees her nationals buy it for 9 pence. In Kuwait, it is for 14 pence. In Qatar it is for 15 pence. Egypt, despite the crisis she passed through goes for 19 pence. In the Sultanate of Oman, it goes for 20 pence.

One wonders why the prices of diesel and kerosene were not also reduced to reflect the new price status. Kerosene sells between 120 and 150 naira when its landing cost is just 45.90 naira.

It would have made a whole lot of sense if a 50% reduction was done. In the United Kingdom, the price drop was 23.75%, In the United States it was 36.57% and 21% in Singapore. These are countries which do not produce a drop of oil. Singapore through the visionary leadership of Lee Kuan Yew saw the country transform not only from a third world to a first world nation but to possessing the largest refinery in the world.

It is a monumental and gargantuan shame that we import refined petroleum products when we are producers of the raw material – crude oil. Why are the refineries not working to optimal capacity despite the turn around maintenance routinely carried out on them? It is a well-known fact that government officials enter into contracts with oil marketers to massively import petroleum products to meet 90% of the nation’s needs. The greedy officials skim off huge contracts from the companies and cannot renegotiate the contract terms as a result of their compromise. These contracts did not also factor in the low prices. Getting the refineries to work would have been a solid achievement of the Jonathan administration. It would have insulated the nation from the vagaries of the international oil market and even from the local politics within the oil producing and exporting countries (OPEC). Let us cast our minds to January 1, 2012 when the administration gave the nation a New Year Gift in the form of an astronomical hike from 65 naira to 140 naira before the 97 naira compromise obtained at the expense of human lives lost in the needless struggle. This was a statement culled from the Federal Ministry of Finance: “Crude oil price is the same for all countries whether they are oil producing or not. It is an internationally traded product; the prices are not set by countries that produce it. Neither do oil producing countries get a discount in the international market for the production of this product. Furthermore, crude oil accounts for about 80% of the fixed cost of fuel. Other costs include depot charges, transaction costs, chemicals, spare parts, raw materials etc used in the turning of the crude oil into PMS.” Why have we been waiting for Godot for our refineries to work? Why do we transfer scarce foreign exchange to foreign refineries in smaller African nations simply because of our nauseating inefficiency? How Tragic!

The reduction which is touted as a political one in view of the forthcoming general elections coming up in a few weeks’ time should not necessarily be viewed that way. The reduction was bound to happen as the reaction of the falling oil prices was for it to take a downward trend locally. The only problem is that the ten naira decrease is too infinitesimal to the hapless masses of this ‘Giant’ nation. The effect is definitely not felt by the motorcycle riders otherwise known as okada riders, petty traders and members of the informal sector. Under normal circumstances, this reduction should lead to a concomitant decrease in the prices in other sectors of the highly battered economy. Sadly it won’t.

The opposition All Peoples Congress should go beyond its slogan of change to tell the beleaguered people of Nigeria how it hopes to tackle the crisis in the oil sector. So long as the economy remains a mono one, oil will be a crucial issue. It is sad that Buhari who has been a former minister for petroleum and Chairman of the now defunct Petroleum Development Trust Fund cannot come up with a sound economic policy thrust on how to clean the Augean stables in the behemoth that has metamorphosed into something worse than a white elephant project.

For now between the two candidates dangling drab manifestos before us, it is no difference between six and half a dozen.

Tony Ademiluyi

Views expressed are solely the author’s