There has been so much clamoring from the government and her agents that the removal of fuel subsidy is long overdue. I would like us to review their reasons and see the wisdom or folly therein; below are their justifications:
1. A cartel profits from it: If the federal government knows of the existence of a cartel that is milking away the subsidy and cannot take measures to stop them or put controls in place to mitigate such leakages, then the federal government has failed. Many allude to the fact that the cabal is very powerful; but there is only one Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria! The president should wield this power given to him by the constitution; Obasanjo, in all his errors, was a C-in-C indeed. Why punish the generality of Nigerians to stop a small cartel?
2. Nigeria is subsidizing almost the whole of West Africa Fuel: They say that since our fuel is always being smuggled out of Nigeria, we are wasting our subsidy on other nations. This is laughable because fuel is not being smuggled out of Nigeria, it is being “SHIPPED” out of Nigeria! I worked at Maiduguri for a while and I know that people use tankers to ship fuel out of Nigeria; that is not smuggling but shipping. But here is the question: whose duty is it to stop this smuggling, sorry shipping? Why should the govt use the excuse of its failure as justification to remove subsidy.
3. Fuel is comparably too cheap in Nigeria: Well, this depends on which country we are comparing Nigeria with (we must also compare the minimum wage in those countries and their per capital income with Nigeria). If we are to compare Nigeria with any country, it should be an OPEC or some other major oil producing nation. Is there any OPEC nation that imports refined fuel? Is there any OPEC nation whose refineries are comatose? How much do these OPEC nations sell fuel to their citizens?
4. It will free up money for infrastructural development: What has happened to all the monies budgeted for infrastructural development in the past? What about the monies that had been freed up in the past when subsidy was reduced? The Lagos-Ore-Benin road has been in a sorry state for more than a decade and there have been budgets year after year for road maintenance and construction. By the way, since Diezalen Allison Madueke wept on that road and said “The Fed Govt owes Nigerians an apology”, it has been almost 5 years now and the road has even grown worse.
5. The subsidy removed will be used to provide cushioning measures to the masses so that the effect will not be felt: Question (maybe to Lagosians): Is there any way you will beautify a road that will make the bus driver not to increase his fare if fuel is increased from 65 naira to 142 naira? After such increase in transport cost, what do you think the food stuff sellers and landlords will do? I do not think any cushioning measure exists that will prevent the bus driver that plies Ikotun to CMS not to increase his fare from 500 naira to 1000 naira id fuel is increased from 65 naira to 142 naira.
My conclusion is that the govt must never punish its citizenry to make up for its inefficiencies; if our leaders need to go take a refresher course from Venezuela or some other similar OPEC countries, then so be it.
Suggestions
• Fix our refineries and build new ones, preferably in partnership with the private sector on a BOT scheme.
• Effectively police our borders to curtail the shipping of our refined products to neighbouring countries. The fed govt could even enter into agreement with those countries such that we supply them fuel officially at an agreed price (Gaius Obaseki started something like that).
• Cut the wings of all such cartels, if at all they exist.

Added to the above, a better alternative in building refineries will be a PPP (private - public partnership); this will definitely reduce the start up costs for the investors and will go a long way in keeping down the prices of the finished products.