By Victor Otuya
The Federal Government just announced a 70,000 naira transport subsidy for labour, and even at that, Labour is still insisting on 500,000 naira minimum wage. While this may be cheering news calling for celebration in some quarters, to the other, it is an awesome development aking to a hangman noose aimed at the neck of these groups.
To be honest, In a country where the price of petrol has jumped from 195 naira to over 1,000 naira per litre, and the transport fare from Sapele to Warri that used to be 500 naira few years ago, now costs above 2,500 naira, any talk of subsidy sounds like a relief. But for those of us who live among the people; who sit with the unemployed, the widows, the artisans and the vulnerable in Delta State, we must ask ourselves a hard and honest question: Is this not another noose on the neck of those who are already struggling to survive?
The federal government says the subsidy is for labour. That statement alone exposes the fundamental flaw in our social welfare thinking. Who is labour in Nigeria today? Labour, in the official sense, is the organized workers: the civil servants, the person who already has a salary, already has employment ID card, and already has a place in the formal employment circle. But what about the over 40 million Nigerians who are unemployed or underemployed? What about the millions of young men who ride okada from morning till night because there are no jobs? What about the market women, the fishermen in the creeks, the farmers in the rural villages, the hairdressers, and tailors who have never seen a payslip in their lives? Are they not Nigerians? Are they not the most vulnerable who truly deserves the social welfare package?
A policy that targets only those who already have jobs to pay for transport to their places of employment while ignoring those who have no jobs to go to is not social justice. It is social discrimination. It widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. It tells the unemployed Nigerian youths that they are on your own.
To interrogate the economics of transport subsidies in a non-productive economy only suggests that the government at all levels is paying people to move around. And moving around to do what? That is the fundamental question that I still found difficult to provide answers? In an economy where factories are closing; where companies are leaving Nigeria for Ghana and other Africa countries; where our own small businesses can not survive because of lack of power, what is the economic value of moving around? We are subsidizing circulation without production. It is like buying expensive fuel for a car that has no combustive engine.
The experience of the past has taught us bitter lessons. Nigerians are not suffering from amnesia. We remember the fuel subsidy era, which allegedly gulped over 10 trillion naira in a decade with nothing to show except billionaire subsidy thieves. We remember the COVID-19 palliatives that were locked up in warehouses while the people starved. We remember TraderMoni, MarketMoni, N-Power, and all the other well-intentioned schemes that became political tools in the hands of politicians. The question is not about intention; it is about delivery. How will this 70,000 naira get to the real labourer in Nigeria? Through what database? Through what transparent system? If we do not have a credible social register, this money will, as usual, end up in the hands of political loyalists, while the true labourers and the vulnerable get pictures and press releases.
There is also the issue of dignity. A Nigerian worker does not need a subsidy palliative to enter a bus; he needs a living wage that makes the palliative unnecessary.
The real solution to high transport cost is not to give people money to pay the high cost. The real solution is to bring the cost down. How do you bring transport costs down? The government must fix the refineries. When we refine our own crude oil in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, petrol prices will naturally come down. Then the roads must be fixed. A journey from Lagos to Benin takes three times longer today because of bad roads, and that time wasted also implies high fuel consumption. Then, the issue of power should be resolved. When there is power, artisans can work in their shops and do not need to travel far. The government should also support local production. When we produce what we eat in Delta State, for instance, we may not need to transport tomatoes from the north to the south at exorbitant cost.
This subsidy approach will only create a new class of economic prisoners. Imagine a worker whose salary is 70,000 naira and who receives another 70,000 naira for transport. What happens when the government stops the subsidy? He will immediately be unable to afford to go to work. The government has not empowered him; it only created a dependency that invariably enables the government to tie a noose around his neck that can be re – tightened at any political will. That is not economic freedom but economic enslavement.
The government must also consider the psychology of the unemployed Nigerian graduate who sees on television that Labour is getting 70,000 Naira extra. The unemployed who have been searching for a job for five years gets nothing. What does that do to his faith in the Nigerian project? It breeds frustration, anger, and the feeling that Nigeria is for those who have someone at the top. This frustration is the fuel for the japa syndrome, internet fraud, crime, and hopelessness that landed many vulnerable citizens at the mercy of insurgency recruitment merchants who exploit their vulnerability to make them agent of death. Today, a policy that does not consider the unemployed youth is a policy that mortgages the future of a country that is still struggling to survive.
Yes, we agreed that our civil servants are suffering, and they deserve every help they can get. But they are already seated at the table even if what they are eating is the crumb that fell from the master’s table. But not everyone has the privilege of sitting at the table. Those sets of people also deserve a meal if it is just a crumb. I am strongly against a policy framework that continually makes the unemployed and vulnerable invisible. If there must be a transport subsidy, let it be universal – let it be through a drastic reduction in petrol price for all Nigerians, not a selective payment for a few. Or, let that same 70,000 Naira be converted into an “Unemployment Transport and Skills Grant”, where an unemployed persons are paid not just to move, but attached to a skills acquisition centre to learn a trade. In that case, the money becomes an investment and not an expense.
Today, Nigeria is at a crossroads. Our leaders should not continue to build economic policies for those inside the system while ignoring the millions outside. The 70,000 Naira Transport Subsidy for Labour, as currently conceived, is well-intentioned but ill-targeted. It risks becoming another slogan, another noose that slowly chokes the hope of the unemployed and vulnerable who are already gasping for breath. Let the government rethink this. Let them look at the street, not just the office. The real labour force of Nigeria is not only in the secretariat but in the streets, the markets, the creeks, and the farms. Until we carry them along, no subsidy will save us.
God bless Nigeria.
Victor Otuya, a journalist, wrote from Asaba, Delta State . He can be reached on: otuyavictor7@gmail.com
