16- Vangu~,d. MONDAY. JUNE 13. 2011
THE high cost of kerosene has been with us for a while and so have lncreasing dan~ gees of this cost. Among the m are the sale of adulterated kerosene by greedy m e rchants who exploit the gap in supply, and Ute devastation of the e nvironment. Equally not so new is government's utter indifferen ce to the pUght of the masses of Nigeda who depend on ke rosene for cooking. Nige rians who use kerosene have been on their own. They mourn relations who die from adulterated kerosene, treat their injured. and lament the deep holes the high costs of the product drill in their pockets. Government does not care. Und e r the nebulous policies of privaUsatlon. diesel and kerosene were among concessions made to business people who supported government. The markete rs of these products do not refine them. they just import and push the cost to consumers. Diese l has been more manageable as the high consumers are industries. They too are sagging under the burdens 01 generating their own electricity from diesel. A huge parl of the hJgh cost of products and services is related to the cost 01 private generation of power with diesel. Kerosene use is more wide spread. Most households in Nigeria use the product for
Vanguard ~COMMENT~
Kerosene - The Forests Are Going cooking, as cost of cooking gas is exorbitant too. Sellers of the product exploit this market, particularly since gove rnme nt claims it has no business with the importation of kerosene, another way of saying the importers can seU at whatever price they want It is ironic that the product that is in mass use does not enjoy any form. of intervenUon from government. The importers usc this freedom to impose prices as they like. They have over the years benefitted from the shortage in supply of the product. Uttle thought is given to the effed this could have on the forests. wblch we are losing to logging and desertification. As the pdces SDalf kerosene users resort to fire.wood and charcoal. both products that despoUthe forests. All the talks about re-forestation, protecting the environment and stopping desert encroachment, are
vaporising belore our eyes. Government's indllierence about the cost of keroscne has set back the gains in those directions by many years. Ignored cost of ke rosene is a simple indication about how issues that affect ordinary people are neglected by the rid! and powerful, who look after themselves. At the end of the day, everyone suffers the consequen ces. The damaged e nvironment does not recognJse the ridt or poor. A dam.aged environment damages everyone. oite n with the Significant impUcaUons for alL Some slates like Bauchi banned the sell of charcoal years back to contain the felling of trees. Some others have forestalion programmes to curb the menace of the desert. Yet none of these has been successful because as kerosene. the main fuel for cooking continues to be out of reach of its users. they resort to the forests for firewood and charcoal. The suggestions that a low price of kerosene is to help the poor, narrow perspectives about haw blgh cost of kerosene devastates to the e nvironment. Whether we manufacture or import kerosene, what we should be th1nIdng about is a price at which our forests will be sale. We do not have aU the ti.m.e in the wodd to reach that dedsion.
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OYIFEANYIUBABUKOH J::JOllO WI NG therecenUy approved N 18.000 minimwn .l'w&ge (Of ....ukers. the gov~ors 01 Ule 36 stales 01 the fede£lItion have proposed lin entirely new revenue formuilllD enable the state to pay the minimum wage On May 1. being \\brkB's· Dq-, 5e'Ifera1 governors had insisted that it would be impouible lorthestatestopaythenewwage unlessthecwrent revenue formula WIIS reviewed. By the governo rs· f!'(;ommencied fonnlilil. the FedefaJGovemment. which todIly rece\·es 520/. of the federal allocation. is toreceive32%; state governments 10 receive 42%, instelld of 26.72%: and the local councils 32%, instead ofW.6%. The approved Nl8.ooo minimum wage is proper and justifiable In the face of the badly vitiated purchasing power of the neira. the C\IrTelt N7.500 minimwn w&ge is h!lrdly a living wage. Butin implementing the poIicyUu!Je is an obvious drawback; which is the diflicultyof paying II unifonn W<1gein a federation. or of imposing a COOllDOIl wage law on the constituent states of the federation. Besides. the fact the govenors (Ile now delibemtely and bcl.:Itedly proposing II new !I!'\'l!nue fonnula as II condition!Of paying the minimwn wage seems to confirm that the governors were not consuJted initially. during the formuJallon and fixi ng 0[ the minimum
'''''. Several times in the restored democro.C'f, whenever Ule Fed~ Government had increased salaries 01 its workers, stales · CIvil letVants. leachel'!! and pensionm hlld demanded euual I(l/Mie::. allowances and pensions with their federlll counte!'Oalt.s lAst year. follov.ing the ASUU.negotio.ted in:::reas ~ in sllIalies.lect1..u'efs of the states' univer.;ities In Ule SouUI'&st hcl stopped .....00: lor almost one acadenuc session ID ':'O::np~ go.emme!nts of Ule states to pay the iecturers 115 mu~ as thei r feder-Ill counmrparts. Today. medical doctors
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Nigeria's federalism and minimum wage o!IJld other- health v."drelS in certain states of the federation Me on sIIike to achieve simillll" purpase.. The heart or the problem Is thllt since January 15. 1966. till date. the Federal Republic 0[ Nigeria has been administered M 0. unitary governmenL Had Nigeria practised true federalism. \he state worker!!· demand COf ~al pay wiUl federal. WOIkers would have not arisen in the first pla~ and the governors · demand for bigger share 01 the federal. allocation wouJ.dbavenot~ an ad hocllffair. The root of the problem. IlUd we know ii, U that Nigeria is Dol run.u a fl'!deraJ. stale. which in theWlllds or Frof.A V. Oi~is ··lI political cootrivan~ in tended 10 reconcile nlltional unity o!I.Ild power with the mllinte!lan~ 01 stale rlghts In II \nIe feder-lilian. each coostituelll stllte reserves the right to pay its workers according to its resolUceI. Fm instan~ AnlUDbra SlBtewhich todayreceiv1!:s about N2 billion monthly from the Feder-atiouAttountand paysove- N 1.1 billion wage bill with thepreva1.Ung N7 • .500 minimum wage. may not be able to payils worken theSllQH'!so.Jaries with wurken 01 Lagos State. which earns more than N20 billion monthly from the H
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~on~tllTldtbc lnb!mlllJyGmefilted~'8lue,IGR.
Or with wolken of the oil.producing sillies. such as Riven. Irno. etc. which earn additionlll 13 per rent share of the oil r~u~
ill 1m ideal fed~S!Il. lIuch as th~ United States (vmC!:! model. NIgeria 119 adoptro) the constituent polities or slates are constitutionally guaranteed ~~ce 01 different~tems of law. Indeed. to the Rrst RtopubIic, the only eRII tb.einc!~dent
Nigeria practised federalism and p!lfliamenlMy syslem. each of the ttuee regions (Ialerfour) was guaranteed mstence under diUerent system of iaWIII, IUId thecuntrol ollis Iesow:ces. Apart from the federal constitution. each 01 th e four regions of the First Republic had ils own constitution. lind enjoyeda measure of autoDODlY0Vf!'I" il3 resources. AU that h as loog: chllTlgeci It bagan with lhepromulglltion of the Unification Deal!f! 34. ol 1966. which introduced 4 wUtMy system 0( government. replllong federalism with unitarism. with II strong central governme Dt. The promulgation of the decree was one of the two main reasons why Nigeria·s first rnllItary Head of SllIte, Majo£. General Johnson Thmnas Agulyi- lronsi. was killed by thecoospU"o!llOl""S 01 the July 29. 1966 revenge cou p. The decree. loa, ltugeiy precipitated the Mq--June 1966 pogrom and the post-July29 coup· s unpr~ented brutalities in th e Noeth in which thousands of Easterners. mainly the Igbo. were siaughtenod. The butch~es cu1mi.nllted In the JO.month dviJ war that claimed more than one million Nigerian lives. The North rose in hostility because It misinterpreted the deoeellS a deliberate s tep to ens ur e tbat " the mo re edu cated Southern ers monopolized top federal Jobs and sWlImped le rti llry ln5tituti ons~. Pr.tctising Wlitarism in the ntwleol federalistn dangerously CM:'rlooia thefactors which help to deddewlrelhe!" II stale sbould adopt federal or unitllry form 01 gm-errunenL The f/leters migbtrange from the size of the political entity, to the nalw"e of the possible constitUe!n1 member rna: from the ethnic o!IJld cullw"a1 cbaracteristia; of the whole stme to its origm IlIldde\'elopm~t: trom thesharingof abell~ inlimited s~ determiD/ltion ~d e pride of local prestige to Ihesh!!...mg of a s!!.'IJ.ti.mentall",,·e fcrone ~-pe 01 constitution orth~ otller: ME- Ubabukob .1Ijouroi1.lisl. wrole Irom AlYka,. A..n81Dfm, SllIle