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Fuel hike, a failing system and the craven silence of Nigerians
By John Ewah
I thought acquiescence had died but here it stands before us, as we lay defeated, in quiet submission, unable to steel ourselves to face the monsters who defend the gates of our subjugation.
Nigeria, a poster child of systemic corruption, a menace of a country, a quintessence of what a sovereign state should never aspire to, has become the playground of a selected few.
The people who gave credence and rise to the current administration have all been rendered mute, as a result of their complicity and lack of foresight.
They have been weakened by their mistakes and flawed choices, and consternated by the series of unravelings in a government they had thought was progressive in ideology.
This has given rise to a nihilistic existence, marked by a resignation to fate, as many are unable to project purpose in a country seemingly devoid of any? For a people may resonate internally with the purpose of their existence, in a world they perceive, has one.
The government operates as one without direction and the citizens are left at its mercy, yielding quietly to their circumstances.
It raises serious concerns when a country that exports crude oil, allows global market forces determine the price of its own product, locally refined for internal consumption, and unable to do anything about it.
Not long ago, the United Arab Emirates exited the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a move that has enabled the emirate exercise control over its own crude oil sale, maximize output, while also reevaluating its strategic alignments and foreign policy autonomy.
Granted, the current Nigerian government does not have the courage or wherewithal to make such a move, or maybe it does, but economic gains and selfish interest have blinded the leadership from treading the path.
Why then has the government not been able to subsidize petroleum products consumed internally, or sell crude at lower rates to local refineries, while offsetting the debts from the excess proceeds derived from the global oil price hike? A hike that has been consistent for the past 7 months.
No loss whatsoever would be incurred by the government, and petroleum products would sell at fair prices within the country, thereby easing the burden and inflation precipitated by rising fuel prices on Nigerians.
At the time president Bola Tinubu announced the removal of petroleum subsidy in May 2023, the average global brent crude oil price was $75 per barrel.
Since February 2026, when the US-Israel war with Iran began, the price has oscillated between $100 dollar and $120. The excess proceeds should be able to subsidize internal consumption, until the situation returns to normal.
However, the government, playing on the ignorance of a huge percentage of the populace, has gone silent on the subject, in order not to stir reactions or entertain questions about the rationale behind its irrationality and lack of public sympathy, even as the citizens suffer in the agony of economic hardship caused by rising fuel prices.
At N1,400 a litre, the populace have said nothing. No muss, no fuss, not a single cuss. They are suffering and smiling. Whether the silence is predicated on the people enabling the rise of the current government to power, and as such, have become ashamed to speak up in condemnation of the government’s policy stance, or whether it is born out of sheer weakness, acquiescence or nihilism, leaves me hazy. And then I ask — Am I or the others going crazy?
The citizens seemed to have been completely ground down, that they are unable to notice when the government practically disregard them.
Whatever the reason might be, Nigerians have all become accomplices to a failing system that has refused to place the need and welfare of the citizens at the vanguard of its economic policies.
Three weeks ago, the Federal Government through NNPCL, decided without an iota of shame, to reduce the price of PMS by sixty six naira (N66) in NNPC fuel stations. Now, it expects transporters and motorists who intend to purchase, for instance, 20 litres of fuel, to queue up all day at NNPC, so they may obtain a N1,320 relief.
This is how jobless the government now sees the populace. And Just yesterday, NNPC increased the price of fuel again.
It is like Dostoevsky said, our tolerance has reached a level where even the intelligent ones are not allowed to think or speak, in order not to offend imbeciles.
When you consider it carefully, the current administration is making a total mockery of Nigerians and it needs to stop or be stopped.
John Ewah is the publisher and chief editor, Horse’s Mouth News
