The real subsidies are not for the poor, but the rich (2) -By Femi Falana

From yesterday, the piece continues, today, the narrative of how fuel subsidy has been used over the years to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor 14. N6 trillion unpaid ground rents by buyers of government properties On March 29, 2023, the Senate noted that since 1992, over two million houses across the 36 states and the FCT had been built and allocated to beneficiaries by the Federal Government without evidence of payment of ground rent on the properties. Consequently, the Senate set up an Ad Hoc Committee to recover over N6 trillion unpaid ground rents from property owners in the country. 15. Stolen crude oil valued at $29.17 billion A group of lawyers engaged by NIMASA confirmed that 60.2 million barrels of crude oil valued at $12.7 billion of crude oil was stolen and illegally exported to the United States of America between January 2011 and 2014. This has not been recovered. Also, the House of Representatives investigated and confirmed that undeclared crude oil worth $17 billion was exported to global destinations during the same period. The affected companies are known but government seems to lack the will to bring them to book and recover the sum of $29.7 billion being the value of the stolen crude. 16. Oil theft of N16.25 trillion The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, revealed that between 2009 and 2020 Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to oil theft. The security forces have not been able to stop the stealing and smuggling of crude oil from Nigeria. However, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd, TSSNL, a private company discovered pipelines through which crude oil was being diverted from a 40,000 barrel per day Forcados pipeline to the high seas for export. The indicted oil companies, including an IOC involved in this grand theft, are yet to be prosecuted. 17. Deduction of collection costs by FIRS & NCS The Federal Inland Revenue Service and Nigeria Customs Service are allowed by their enabling laws to deduct percentages of the taxes and duties collected by them as collection costs. Thus, the FIRS between 2016 and 2020 made N533.39 billion deductions, while Nigeria Customs Service withdrew N128.64 billion as cost of collection in 2022. The laws which allow agencies of the Federal Government to deduct collection costs are contrary and inconsistent with section 162 of the Constitution which provides that all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation shall be paid into the Federation Account. 18. Diversion of $6.065 billion approved for turn-around maintenance of refineries Between 1993 and 2016, successive regimes spent, through the NNPC, about $6.065 billon on the so-called turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation of the four refineries at various times. It is public knowledge that the turn-around maintenance of the refineries was not carried out. Therefore, the contractors should be invited by the EFCC and compelled to refund the said sum of $6.025 billion. 19. Investment in Dangote refinery and rehabilitation of 4 refineries The Federal Government has invested $2.7 billion in Dangote Refinery while the NNPCL will supply the refinery with 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Furthermore, government has awarded the contracts for the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt for $1.5 billion, as well as Kaduna and Warri refineries for $1.4 billion. We are compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress to monitor the ongoing rehabilitation and upgrade of the four refineries. 20. Special salaries for top public officers, security votes, and pension for governors Top public officers have illegally taken themselves out of the general salary structure. For instance, contrary to section 70 of the Constitution which provides that the salaries and allowances of legislators shall be fixed by the Revenue Allocation Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission members of the National Assembly are paid emoluments ranging from N13 million to N15 million per month. In addition to their salaries the 36 state governors are paid security votes running into hundreds of millions per month. The largesse has since been extended to all senior public officers, including heads of ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal and state governments, as well as local government chairmen. The security votes paid to senior public officers are about N241 billion per annum. As if such subsidy is not enough, state governors have been placed on scandalous pension of billions of Naira. But due to public criticisms, the Lagos State Government has halved the pension for ex-governors while the governments of Kwara, Imo, and Zamfara states have abolished the payment of the outrageous pension to former governors and deputies. We call on all other state governments to emulate the example of the aforementioned three state governments. 21. Diversion of dividend and feed gas of $33 billion by NNPCL Nigeria LNG Limited is jointly owned by Nigeria and the OICs. The 49% shares of Nigeria in the joint venture were paid for from the Federation Account in 1989. On March 29, 2021, former President Buhari disclosed that the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, had generated $114 billion in revenues, paid  $9 billion in taxes, $18 billion as dividend and $15 billion in Feed Gas Purchase to the Federal Government. However, rather than pay the fund into the federation account as constitutionally directed, the $33.9 billion dividend and feed gas was diverted by the NNPCL. 22. Diversion of trillions of Naira through fuel subsidy fund Notwithstanding the allocation of 445,000 barrels of crude oil  to NNPC per day for domestic consumption, it has been confirmed that the figures for fuel importation in Nigeria between 1999 and 2023 are as follows: *1999-2006 =N813 billion; * 2007-2009= N794 billion; * 2010-2014= N3.9 trillion; * 2015-2023= N11 trillion. … The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari, stunned the nation when he said that the Federal Government still owes the company N2.8 trillion in fuel subsidy payments. But the monumental fraud that has characterised the fuel subsidy scam has been confirmed by the Buhari regime. Thus, on March 27, 2022, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, publicly lamented the controversies surrounding the amount of petrol that the nation consumes daily; he said the subsidy regime encouraged criminal activities like smuggling, which in turn impact negatively on the nation’s oil resources. He said that: “I am told the figure sometimes rise to as high as 90 or over 100 million litres. I don’t know how that happens. At this rate, I have said if anyone is looking at a criminal enterprise, look no further than the fuel subsidy.” The criminal enterprise ought to be probed by the Bola Tinubu administration. Conclusion: It is crystal clear from the foregoing that members of the ruling class are heavily subsidised by the peripheral capitalist system while the masses are subjected to excruciating economic pains. We are therefore compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress as well as the progressive extraction of the civil society to mount pressure on the Federal Government to stop the dollarisation of the national economy, indiscriminate grant of duty waivers, theft of crude oil, gold, and other mineral resources and recover the nation’s looted wealth. In other words, these ‘subsidies’ should be recovered while the nation’s refineries are fixed so that the country can provide genuine subsidies that can make life livable in Nigeria. _•Falana, SAN, lawyer and human rights activist, wrote from Lagos