Subsidy removal: Best option out of Nigeria’s economic woes - Kaave

Ambassador Chive Kaave, the immediate past Nigerian ambassador to the Republic of Argentina and the Carib­bean, is a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftain and former gubernatorial aspirant in Benue State. He tells AUSTIN TULE in this report that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products is the only way out of the present economic woes confronting the country.
To Nigeria’s former ambas­sador to Argentina and the Carribeans, the sub­sidy regime was a fraud, adding: “It is very unfortunate that it was the marketers that were making huge sums of monies from the subsidy regime.

 “Most of the petroleum prod­ucts been sold in neighbouring countries are heavily subsidised by the Nigerian government, but were diverted owing to sharp practices by some oil mar­keters. I think we have to show some understanding here.
“To me, the meaning of subsi­dy is getting a particular product to the end user at a price lesser than the actual price, but here in Nigeria, the situation was differ­ent, you found out that it was the major marketers that were actu­ally enjoying the subsidy at the detriment of the end users.
He felt that removing subsidy will open up the market and sooner than later, the oil busi­ness will be controlled by the forces of demand and supply. He added that in the recent past, Ni­gerian bought petroleum prod­ucts, especially petrol at prices higher than the current rate.
He said: “It will interest you that since that removal was an­nounced, the prices of petrol have not been the same so to me, I think we should embrace it, it is the only way out of the logjam.
“I think the President is some­body who has a good knowledge ofthe petroleum industry; he was a Minister for Petroleum at less than 45 years of age and be reminded he supervised most of the refineries that were built in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna and all the depots that you see scattered around and today, he has assured Nigerians that these refineries are going to work and once we have them working, and I am also aware that multi billionaire Aliko Dan­gote too is building a refinery and so we have them on and we stop importing fuel, the average Nigerian will be happier for it.
The former Attorney-General and Justice Commissioner in Benue State agreed with presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari’s emphasis on using the Chinese yuan for payment for transac­tion of business with China, say­ing China as the second biggest economy in the world today will benefit Nigeria more than the United States of America and other European nations.
He explained: “The Chinese economy which is a miracle of success of the socialist policy, emerged from Mao Tse Tung, the leader of that revolution and today it is rated as the second strongest economy in the world.
“The Chines economy is lend­ing to the American economy, the Chinese economy is almost going to surpass Europe so, try­ing to demonise the Chinese economy will be like reviving the cold war. We should be able to make our choices, depending on what serves our interest best.
“If going to China will help us develop industrially better and cheaper, why not? Our depen­dent on Europe and America since independence has created in us a dependency syndrome, we are not self-reliant in any­thing, not in food processing, not in agriculture and it has made us importers of every gar­bage that exist, from garbage cars to garbage tooth picks to garbage perfumes, all kinds of luxurious items that add no val­ue to our economy, why should we continue importing items instead of developing our indus­tries that can generate employ­ment for our teaming youth?”
Baring his mind on the ram­paging Fulani herdsmen, who have continued to wreck havocs on the North-Central and now South-East and South-West zones of the country, Ambas­sador Kavee submitted that in­stead of a bill to grant grazing zones, which according to him was not going to be feasible, gov­ernment should rather compell cattle owners to acquire lands and build ranches.
He opined that is the only solution, as practised in other climes.
He said: “The Fulani herds­men/farmers’ clashes had lin­gered on for over 30 years and the genesis of this crisis has to do with the time and method of animal husbandry, beginning from the time of Uthman Dan Fodio, about 200 years ago.
“Nigeria as a country has less than 20 million herds of cattle. In
Africa, we are not even among the first seven; Sudan has 38
million, Ethiopia has 34 mil­lion herds of cattle, so how did these smaller countries manage their larger herds of cattle with­out conflicts?”
he said though the country is not among the top 10 cattle rearing nations in the world, it occupies the unenviable posi­tion of the second country in the world with cattle rearing related conflicts.
He said: “The simple solution is this: the Nigerian government should address the Fulanis as a people, teach them how to man­age cattle in ranches. The people who own these cattle are the wealthy class in the country, sen­ators, top military officers, serv­ing and retired, retired Heads of State among others.
“They should be able to ac­quire land, fence them, sink boreholes where they don’t have enough water, and grass for their cattle and not free grazing.
“Free grazing is not feasible, the land and the grass is not paid for but the loss of lives becomes unbearable, so we cannot continue.
He averred that government must encourage owners of the cattle, especially the well to do among them, to lead by example and establish ranches and rear their cattle, not on the roads, streets and so on, as the practice is in Nigeria.
He said: “In Argentina where I served for over three years, you will not see one single cattle stray on the road in any town or village and when you see them, they are put in the railway head­ing to the abattoir and onto your table.
Advising the Benue State gov­ernment on security challenges confronting the state, he said: “The government granted am­nesty, but I think the amnesty has not fully worked, it needs to be reviewed and readdressed and anybody in possession of arms should be made to face the full wrath of the law.
“Illegal possession of arms is a very serious offence before the law, and so I would advise that security agencies should be em­powered enough to go out and carry out a thorough search with the view to recovering all illegal arms in the hands of young peo­ple, nobody should be spared.”