SINCE the announcement of the removal of subsidy from petrol by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the subsequent hike in pump prize of petrol, Nigerians have expressed the loudest silence over it. It is often said that silence is golden, however, in this case Nigerians are feeling that their leaders don’t recognise, acknowledge, or have refused to understand their plight, yearning and aspirations, hence the expression of loudest silence. Silence is the loudest sound there is when words do not adequately express thoughts to deaf ears. The loud silence speaks through the hurt of the people, especially when it’s too painful to talk about. The loud silence is for the leaders to know that they’ve been hurt and that they are not even sure if the leaders are aware or even care. When something is loud it ought not to be silent. It is therefore paradoxicalto know that Nigerians are expressing loudest silence over the excruciating hardship, poverty and suffering the nation’s leaders have subjected them to in recent times with the redesign of the naira note, removal of fuel subsidy and hike in the prize of petrol, without a corresponding plan or strategy in place to ameliorate the effects of the policies on Nigerians.
However, in Nigeria people are silent about so many things. For example bad road network, epileptic electricity supply, poor quality education, poor health care services, corruption , authority stealing, the redesign of the new naira note, the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, insecurity, unemployment, the removal of fuel subsidy and the attendant hike in prizes of petrol twice within the first two months of Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. These have attracted the loudest silence from Nigeria citizens home and abroad. The policies of government past or present are very loud, but not loud enough to have positive impact on the citizens.For example, we have heard of sure-p, trader money, school feeding programme, students’ loan etc. These policies did not have significant impact on the citizens, rather the money budgeted for these programmes went into private pockets.
With regards to the removal of subsidy and the double hike in the prize of petrol, it seems nobody or group is tackling government on the need to cushion the harsh effect of the policy on the people. The Labour Unions are silent, the traders unions are silent, the transporters are silent, the students’unions are silent, the workers are silent, the civil societies are silent, traditional and religious leaders are all silent about it.
Anyway, lot of noise has been made about the fuel subsidy since the democratic dispensation started in 1999. Some regarded it as a scam and a calculated way for the cabal in the petroleum industry to embezzle the nation’s resources to the detriment of other Nigerians. They said there is nothing like fuel subsidy. Even if there was fuel subsidy some few individual in position of authority were using it to enrich themselves to the detriment of the entire people. During the subsidy regime petroleum products were scarce and prizes were increasing from time to time, until the coming of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29, 2023 when he announced the final removal of subsidy from petrol. Consequently, the pump prize of petrol was fixed at between ₦511 and ₦530 per litre depending on your location in the country. With the removal of subsidy it was expected that it would bring an end to prize hike and scarcity of petrol in Nigeria. This was not to be as Nigerians were welcomed with another prize hike on 18th July, 2023 barely after two months of the removal of subsidy by President Tinubu. This time it was raised from ₦511 to ₦617 per litre. Again Nigerians received it with the loudest silence.
According toThomas Jefferson, if you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.Silence is the loudest sound in the universe, because it’s the only thing that makes you stop and look around. The wise are afraid of silence especially when coming from the people who believed that you mean little or nothing to them. Metaphorically, if you describe something as loud, you dislike it because it is unpleasant. Nigerian leaders by their action and policies are making the citizens to dislike them and declare them unpleasant. Loudest silence in this scenario means that there is a lot that the people want to say about a difficult or awkward situation that is not being said or they are not allowed to say.Silence is loud when everyone is holding back their tongues for some reason, and nobody willing to break the silence yet.This creates and builds unvoiced tension between the citizens and the leaders. When silence is said to be loud, it usually means that something was left unsaid, because words were unnecessary. It could cause a gap in the discourse or rapport between the leader and the people. This is not good at all for any administration or leader. It could make an administration to be completely disconnected from the people it is supposed to govern. Once the people lose confidence in an administration or government it is very difficult to win such confidence back.
Therefore, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should act fast by putting concrete and pragmatic measures in place to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal and the attendant hike in prizes of petrol which have resulted in the high cost of goods and services across the country. The current market forces have made the salary of every worker (public and private) to become worthless.
Consequently, workers salary should be reviewed upward in order for them to be able to contend with the prevailing market forces. Importantly, the Federal government should assemble experts to help design appropriate strategies to revive the nation’s economy which is in poor state. If the Nigeria economy is revived then the Naira can compete favourable in the international market. It also means that the purchasing power of the Naira would be high and the standard of living of the people would be improved.
The idea to borrow ₦500billion from the World Bank and share among Nigerians and those holding political offices will further plunge the country into more debt. Besides, the ₦8,000 monthly proposed to be shared to vulnerable and indigent Nigerians is not the solution to the hardship facing the people. ₦8,000 is not enough to take anyone out of the poverty line. One is sceptical that the programme may go the same way of sure-p and trader money that did not get to the desired people. Instead the Federal government should invest the money in meaningful ventures that will provide jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerians.
The President, Vice President, Senators, Members of House of Representatives , Ministers , Governors and other top government officials already have far more than other Nigerians in the budget in the form of salary, allowances ecetera. Therefore, they should be exempted from the borrowed money. Government should not appear to be robbing the poor to satisfy the already rich Nigerians. These sets of leaders should be seen to be making sacrifice for the revival of the nation’s economy, rather than taking from it to make the already bad economy worse.
Finally, the loudest silence a leader will ever experience is the silence of the people he is leading who have decided that the leader means little or nothing to them.
- Dr Agbama writes in from Benin City, Edo State.
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