Fuel Subsidy: Lifting a Nation’s Burden – A Review

By Ben Olisadebe

I watched this 45 minute documentary on Arise Television between 8.15pm and 9.00pm. I saw the promotion once and knew instantly that I needed to watch it because of the topic it focused on.
But first, I will like to say that the producers of the documentary didn’t do well with the promotion of this well researched, well written and so well produced doccie.

For a documentary of such national significance and with so much education and information, I think they should have promoted this piece of brilliant work for three weeks. This is because fuel subsidy concerns every home and everyone in Nigeria, the rich, the poor and all. It is a documentary that should be seen by all. I hope it should be shown again after a good promotion this time.

Professionally, I can say that the producers are well grounded. They gave history of subsidy perfectly and at what point things started to go wrong . They established when corruption crept in, reeling out well researched figures that jolted us and clearly told us why subsidy is a real burden to Nigerians and why it should go. It is particularly heart warming that the oil marketers themselves were very frank in admitting that there was serious corruption at some point. The Chairman of DAPPMAN used very strong words to condemn this corruption and that was a good national message to both oil marketers and Nigerians in general. The camera works and directing were very good and the whole technical work was way above what we see in doccies here. One will not be fair not to praise the entire crew for their deep knowledge of production.

The producers were also able to assemble very powerful oil marketers for their comments and I saw a lot of sincerity in their responses. But I have a feeling that they were not fully exploited. They, the Marketers, did not speak enough in my opinion. They had more to say. For a serious national issue like subsidy, the documentary should have been one full hour or ninety minutes so that those leading marketers should tell us more about what they know about their controversial business because many of us see them as part of our problem in this fuel matter. Many see them outrightly as cheats and criminals. This documentary will surely help to change some opinions including mine. Their explanations on what subsidy means and how it works was so educative.

Overall, the documentary may have done some real good to the oil marketers but it has also helped to justify why subsidy needed to go and President Tinubu must be smiling broadly about this.

The doccie also did well by reminding the President that Nigerians are facing serious economic hardship and calling on his government to do something about it. This was a very important call on behalf of Nigerians and I hope the President will understand this patriotic call.

Finally, I recommend that this documentary should be shown again and again and then taken to local tv stations in the states as many people still don’t have cable tvs in their homes.
This documentary should be seen by every adult in our nation.

*Dr. Olisadebe writes from Lagos