Hello Friends,
We apologize for the long silence. Many of us have been occupied with
our jobs and businesses that it became too tough to keep in touch. We
have been forced back however, by the recent affront of the Federal
Government on Nigerians concerning the removal of fuel subsidy.
It was clear from beginning what Youth Intervention Team stands for.
We set out to be different from the regular NGOs. We will not be
scared of demonstrations if it gets to that. And from the look of
things presently, that might be our last option.
The True Facts Of Subsidy DebateThe most worrisome issue about the much trumpeted fuel subsidy is the
unwillingness of the Federal Government to engage in an open debate
about it. Apart from their usually lame, “It is unsustainable”
argument, every other thing about it is opaque. The following
questions have been avoided by the Federal Government:
1. How many litres of fuel do Nigerians consume per day? How is the
data collected?
2. Of all the litres we use, how many are imported and how many are
produced locally?
3. Why are our refineries not working? Why do we pay NNPC staff
heavily without Nigerians getting value for their money?
4. Why did we budget N240 billion for 2011 subsidy payment and then
spent N1.3t between January and November? Who approved the extra –
budgetary expenses?
The Lies The Government Tells
1. Subsidy is unsustainable: How much do we lose to corruption in just one year? The FG granted customs duty waivers worth over N150b between January and August this year, for the importation of palm oil. That is money we should have used to build roads. How many former governors has this government tried of corruption? Yet we know EFCC accused about 32 of them. How much does a governor in Nigeria earn compared to his counterpart in the USA, Australia, Canada, UK, or even Ghana? Corruption and excessive cost of governance is unsustainable. Subsidy is!
2. The poor doesn’t use fuel: Nigeria has failed in providing means of
conveying people from one place to another. That is why we have okada
everywhere. Okada in Nigeria are in their millions. And they all use
fuel. Also there is no electricity. Many Nigerians use generator. The
ones the poor use are the fuel-powered generator.
3. Subsidy removal will not affect the prices of things in the market:
Another lie from the government. Because past governments have refused to diversify our economy, our life revolves around fuel. Once the
price of fuel increases, every other product in the market flies up
with it.
4. Government will invest the proceeds from subsidy into the
development of infrastructure: The same government which cannot tackle corruption in NNPC, Customes, Immigration and Police CANNOT also be trusted to invest the money.
Do you also know that NNPC cannot account for 65,000 barrels of crude
oil per day? Now that is worth N939m.
Our Role
We will need to massively start mobilizing people. Talk to people to
register on this site. Go to Nairaland, Sahara Reporters, and other
online forums to invite people to
www.yitnigeria.orgWe will soon come out with fliers and text messages. We will also be
formally registering YIT Nigeria as an NGO.
Please come up with your suggestions on how to achieve these goals we
have outlined.
We will be expecting to hear from you,
Sincerely,
The Interim Amin Team,
YIT Nigeria
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