Land · Capital · Isaac's House
A nation that owns the deposit but not the process is a tenant in its own economy.
Right now, the Nigerian Presidency and the private sector are debating whether to bring back petrol subsidies. The discussion is being framed as a choice between keeping government spending in check and supporting social welfare. One side says the government cannot keep losing money, while the other warns that rising living costs are becoming a serious threat for most Nigerians. But seeing this as just a debate about price misses the real issue. The subsidy is not a gift to the poor. Instead, it is a cost the government pays because it does not control the resources needed for its own survival.
When a country exports crude oil but imports refined petrol, it is selling its own resources and then paying extra to buy back the finished product. In this setup, the subsidy covers the gap created by not having its own refineries. The government ends up paying for what it has not built and calls it a subsidy. This situation is similar to what happened in colonial times, when colonies sent raw materials abroad to be processed and then bought back finished goods. The main difference now is that the global market, not a foreign empire, plays this role because the government has not built enough local infrastructure.
The argument between the government and the opposition is stuck on how much money should move through the system, without looking at whether the system itself meets the country's needs. In the 1970s, during the global energy crisis, countries like Brazil faced similar problems. Instead of just subsidizing expensive imported oil, Brazil started the Proálcool program and focused on producing ethanol at home. They shifted the issue from a budget problem to a question of what their land could produce for their people.
Now, Brazil influences global food and energy markets as it prepares to break its own record for fuel ethanol production, increasing from 29.58 million to 32.09 million metric tonnes. A country that does not own its refining capacity, storage infrastructure, and distribution rails cannot really set a fuel price. It can only negotiate a discount on a price set by others. When the government removes a subsidy, it admits it can no longer afford the discount. When the opposition demands the subsidy return, they are demanding a return to a subsidized dependency. Neither side is talking about the Granary, the systems and standards required to turn a raw deposit into a finished reserve.
We often see a similar pattern: people living off resources they did not create, arguing over who should manage what is left. Without a shared national vision, there is no agreement on what Nigerians deserve from the oil beneath them. Is oil just a way to fund the government, or is it a resource to build a better society? Without answering this, the subsidy becomes a risky part of national identity. People's sense of worth ends up depending on oil prices in London and the value of the dollar in New York.
Unless refining energy is seen as a matter of national control, not just business, the subsidy debate will never go away. To fix unstable fuel prices, the country must first take charge of the process. The real issue is not what the government pays at the pump, but what it has failed to build. The debate is not about petrol prices, but about who truly owns the resources.
Suggestions around what could be done
· The Ministry of Petroleum Resources: Reclassify all dormant refinery licenses as 'distressed assets' and open a bid window for domestic consortiums to take equity in exchange for immediate technical revitalization. · NNPC Ltd and the Ministry of Finance should put the Naira-denominated crude settlement arrangement on a statutory footing with a published volume schedule and a fixed term so that domestic refiners can raise capital against it. · The Nigerian Bar Association could design a model penalty regulation that attaches license consequences to non-delivery. The NUPRC could publish a binding DCSO compliance register naming every producer, its assigned domestic volume, and actual delivery, quarterly
Segun Jerome
Segun Jerome is the founder of Dadalowa, an education technology company operating in Canada. He also writes about Identity, Education and civilization development.