Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Understanding the Struggle

And how did you, Okwy Okeke, miss the fact that the anti-subsidy critics who argued that subsidy did not in fact exist (at least not nearly to the extent of the numbers being bandied around by the FG) have been vindicated by the report of the fuel subsidy probe? Have we, the uninformed critics, not been proven right that what exists is a system of fraudulent payments, false import declarations, and round-tripping bazaars that benefits only a few favored oil industry players and their government and political allies? I am shocked and appalled by the escapism of your post, and by its inexplicable removal from the facts of the $7 billion dollar subsidy scam. Even Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is now doing the backslide, asserting that the revelations discredit the case for so-called subsidy removal. Is "subsidy removal" not simply the legalization of a corrupt regime of fuel importation?

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 11:53 AM, Okwy Okeke <okwudili98@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Many at the beginning of the year were up in arms when the FG attempted deregulating the distribution and sale of pms, though many if not most economists that were not seized by the frenzy of the day argued that the average man on the street would benefit in the long run.

At the risk of sounding like a bull-horn for the FG, I wrote in this space that deregulation was the way to go, unfortunately, we ended up with a leg in the world of deregulation, and the other outside of it.

Given our import dependence, the common man may have seen material savings (Naira has traded for N160/$ for several weeks now, ~7% appreciation from its November 2012 value), and more importantly, the reduction of rent-seeking activities by government cronies.

Opposition is the check a democracy needs to be on its toes, then, we need informed and sophisticated opposition (keyword: informed).

Okwy

 

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We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah

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