The Federal Government of Nigeria is planning to stop paying fuel subsidy by May. They have been prolonging the plan to stop paying subsidy and increase the price without affecting the livelihood of Nigerians across the country. Once the Federal Government stops paying subsidies petrol prices are going to step up to 800 naira per 1 litre of petrol, yes 1 litre will be 800 naira.
The current petrol price is 185 naira per litre and by May it's about to be 800 naira. I can't begin to imagine the kind of hardship this country is about to face when the price goes up, and no one is going to escape it because petrol price determine the affair of the economy. Nigeria is still going through inflation, poverty is on the high side and unemployment is also on the high side.
Transportation costs will be on the high side when the price of fuel increases, people may end up spending their salary in a month on transportation just to get to work. Prices of goods will also increase because it will be expensive to transport them to where they are needed and not all the roads are good, the transporter will consider the cost to repair his vehicle and this influences the decision to increase the price of transportation.
Once fuel prices increase, food prices will go up so high that the common man will find it a lot more difficult to buy, even currently a lot of people are finding it difficult to eat two square meals a day because of the hardship of the country's economy. The current price for a cup of rice is 600 naira, once the fuel price increases the price will probably be 1000 naira or even more if the seller is greedy.
Nigerians have always adapted to change each time the government increases the price of fuel, but I fear this time would be different and many people won't accept the huge price of petrol. Riots may occur and insecurity would probably increase in the country. The Federal Government are so bent on oil production because of the money they can steal from it, they are other means to get clean energy to explore and reduce the use of petrol in the country.Nigeria spends 400 billion naira monthly on fuel subsidy, if calculated in six months the government spends 2.4 trillion naira on fuel subsidy, which is a lot of money, and will have crude oil but no working refinery to process the crude.
Nigeria is just going backward, nothing is working right because of the caliber of corrupt politicians in power with no interest for the people. Let's see how the government makes its move in the coming months and hope for a reasonable change in fuel prices.
