On January 1, 2012, in his New Year address, President Good luck Jonathan announced the removal of fuel subsidy. The move was intended to lift the burden from the shoulders of the Federal Government in order that the much-needed funds would be freed for infrastructure; and also to deregulate the downstream of the oil and gas industry, thereby stirring up interest from investors.
The policy raised the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), from N65 per litre to N141 per litre overnight, and this did not go down well with Nigerians. On Channels television, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwala, stated that if nothing was done to stop the subsidy regime, it would increase domestic debt drastically.
Also, in an interview with the BBC, then CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido, told the world that Nigeria spent $8 billion on fuel subsidy in 2011. A political analyst, Garba Sani, also noted that between 2006 and 2011, the country had spent a whopping $23 billion on subsidy
Even though the economics of the policy was impeccable, on January 2, 2012, protests broke out in major cities, like Lagos, Abuja, and Kano; and later spread to other major cities. By January 5 the major unions, NLC and TUC threatened to begin on January 9 indefinite strike, warning to shut down every aspect of the economy, including the airports.
The protest eventually metamorphosed  into what is now remembered as Occupy Nigeria that was supported by Nollywood stars and popular musicians.
By the second week, Nigerians in Diaspora were already protesting in South Africa, Belgium, and the IMF headquarters in Washington DC. The protest that eventually spread across the country and the Nigerian High Commission in London and South Africa was to compel the Federal Government to reinstate fuel subsidy.
One major argument at that time was that fuel subsidy was the only benefit accruable to the ordinary Nigerian from our collective oil wealth. Others argued that negotiations were still ongoing at the time President Jonathan made the announcement on New Year’s Day.
President Jonathan was called all manner of names.  The Vice President of NLC, Issa Aremu, commented that the President had shown himself as someone who could not be trusted.  The opposition speculated that people in government would fleece any Kobo saved from the subsidy removal. While protesters in Lokoja in Kogi State blocked the major link road between Southern and Northern Nigeria, ex-militants in the Niger Delta blocked the Port Harcourt – Warri Highway; and others called for revolution.
At the Gani Fawehimi Memorial Park in Ojota, Chairman of Joint Action, Dr. Dipo Fasina, stated that the struggle for the liberation of Nigerians from bad governance just started. He went further to call for a revolt to remove President Jonathan from office.
However, there were a few people, like Prof. Akin Iwayemi, who supported the policy, blaming the stunted growth of the downstream oil and gas sector on the overbearing influence of the government. Others who supported the policy asserted that the subsidy only benefitted the rich and the middle class. Yet, others claimed that subsidy was a ruse to empty our national treasury, an avenue for massive corruption and waste.
After many negotiations with the NLC and TUC, the price of PMC was brought down to N97. But President Buhari elevated the price to N165 per litre and everyone was happy, even though doomsday was not eliminated, but postponed, and the ghost of 2012 has remained with us; and in the light of current economic realities, it appears the proverbial chicken has come to roost.
In the past ten years, there have been several indications that the Occupy Nigeria protest against subsidy was only a political stunt by the opposition. Even Prof. Yemi Oke noted that the agitation at that time was a political arrangement and game that had backfired.
As adults, we know that every lie has a short lifespan, and in the case of the fuel subsidy, it was barely ten years before all the lies against President Jonathan began to show signs of cracks as the national budget became bloated due to the subsidy component.
Today, even the Minister for State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, had confessed that there is a whole criminal enterprise within the subsidy regime, further claiming that he did not know the actual amount of fuel consumed in this country daily.
In the same vein, Clement Isong, Executive Secretary of Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria, is of the opinion that Nigeria is subsidizing the whole of Africa. According to him, all our neighbours in Africa are buying PMS at the international price while here in Nigeria the price is less than half. The result is a criminal enterprise where no one, even in NNPC knows the litres of PMS we consume in the country.
The NLC has recently faulted the figure bandied by NNPC, especially as it formed the base for its estimate of N3 trillion for subsidy in 2022. Even Governor Fayemi of Ekiti State has called NNPC’s consumption figures as criminal. But, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has constituted an Ad Hoc Committee to investigate the volume of fuel consumed daily in the country.  .
Currently, the country is spending as much as N270 billion per month on subsidy; but unfortunately, only N443 billion was appropriated for fuel subsidy from January to June 2022, and if going by IMF’s estimate, we are yet to comprehend the full measure of the long term damage to our economy, especially if the current dollar exchange is thrown into the mix.
Now the whole nation is looking up to  Dangote refinery, which we hope would come up before the end of this year. But I am hoping that going forward, no political party would play the kind of unpatriotic role the opposition played in 2012.

By: Raphael Pepple