Lagos , Nigeria ( CNN ) -- Africa to represent Africans , a glorious dream . But that is what it has been for all this while , just a dream . Over time , as years have rolled into decades , Africans have become more and more subjugated to the decisions and policies that our former colonial masters propose , and with the aid of visionless leaders , they tell us that it 's the best thing for the people . It is not the first time subsidies have been removed in Nigeria . Former president Olusegun Obasanjo reduced it eight times during his tenure , with the cost of gasoline increasing from 20 naira ( 12 cents ) to 70 naira ( 43 cents ) . Each time Nigerians were promised better infrastructure and investment . Recently all subsidy was removed from diesel fuel and during this time , ordinary Nigerians have not seen any impact of the savings in their lives . In fact , life has become worse for them with life expectancy now at an average of 45 years , according to a 2010 United Nation Report . Corruption has been the main problem of most African countries for over half a century ; it is shameful and disrespectful to the spirit of our forefathers ' struggles for a free Africa . It has n't been too long that we recovered from the pains and delusions of an IMF-imposed structural adjustment program ( SAP ) in the country , which ran for more than a decade and put us in a worse situation than we were in before it was implemented . General Babangida , the then head of state , deregulated all sectors and removed government subsidies from almost every sector of production in line with IMF and World Bank directives towards a more open capitalist economy . The result : inflation shot up . We recovered from the pain and delusions but the poverty still remains with us . This subsidy removal is the latest in a long line of foreign concepts and ideologies that are being forced down the people 's throats . What the Nigerian government has failed to realize is that we can not continue to model our economies on foreign blueprints . What is behind the fuel protests ? I believe the fuel subsidy removal is callous and does not take into consideration the hardships facing the people . Nigeria 's Central Bank governor , Sanusi Lamido Sanusi , stated in a town hall meeting on fuel subsidy that 90 % of Nigerians live on less that 2 $ a day . Yet , the government choose to charge their own people $ 1 per liter for petrol , without consideration of how people are going to survive . This is treason against the people of Nigeria . One of the reasons given for subsidy removal is that ordinary Nigerians do n't really benefit , but it is a secret cabal behind importing fuel that is benefiting from subsidy and removing it will kill off their influence in the market , but the people disagree with this . The people do not trust the government to honor their promises . We have heard different successive governments come in and say they are not corrupt and want to build infrastructure but end up being the exact opposite . We the people no longer want to be the doormats on which our politicians wipe their feet on their way into luxury and comfort . Nothing has improved in education , agriculture , housing , or transport ; even our sports industry has been decimated . We have inadequate electricity in Nigeria so everything runs on generators ; even the power plants are powered by generators . These generators run on petrol and diesel fuel . With an increase in the price of petrol by 117 % from 65 naira ( 40 cents ) to 141 naira ( 86 cents ) and even 200 naira ( $ 1.23 ) in some places , virtually everything in Nigeria has risen in price overnight . How can the government even talk of saving any money with this kind of inflation crippling the buying power of the population ? Nigeria 's government squeezed . Worse still , President Goodluck Jonathan says he is introducing measures to help reduce our suffering and he comes up with 1,600 diesel buses as a solution . This is an insult to Nigerians . This number of buses is not adequate for a population of 160 million . How is this a cushioning effect ? It does n't even scratch the surface of the pain we shall have to endure . That works out to 100,000 people per bus . I do understand that the government needs to raise money fast but the suffering of the people can not be an option . I personally support the removal of subsidy when our government fixes our refineries so we do not have to import petroleum . They also need to be transparent about how much it costs to actually produce a liter of petrol . We the people of Nigeria will fight for the right to survive in the face of tyranny and deceit and I am calling on all the great Nigerian youths to join the mass action and rally everywhere in the country and abroad . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Seun Anikulapo-Kuti .
Seun Kuti says previous fuel subsidy reductions have not resulted in better infrastructure . The removal of subsidies , says he , is in line with IMF commitments but harms Nigeria . He says that the people do not trust the government to honor their promises . Kuti says the subsidies should only be removed when Nigeria stops importing fuel .