The price of fuel has reached a new high in Burkina Faso since August 19, 2022, just three months after the previous peak on May 12, which had already left a bitter taste for low-income consumers. This unexpected increase of 30 and 35 CFA francs on the prices at the pump of diesel and gasoline, paradoxically comes the day after the drop in the cost of a barrel of oil at the global level, and in a context where populations are already strangled by very high inflation. The government may well explain or justify this tariff tango by the increase in the rate of the dollar and by the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but it is nonetheless true that it showed a lack of anticipation, which fuels the trial of incompetence and amateurism brought against it by the “Damibaphobes” and all those who feel increasingly martyred by the anxieties of everyday life. It must be said, the problem here is not only timing, it is also communication; the Minister of Commerce having given the impression of being in argumentative distress, with the cryptic answers to the nevertheless clear questions of the national television journalist who asked him to justify the price yoyo. Minister Abdoulaye Tall took the opportunity to say between the lines that the dial of hydrocarbon costs could move more, especially since “the situation remains tense”, despite the efforts made by the government to minimize this risk. Not enough to reassure all these consumers whose nerves are already on edge, especially when we know that the high cost of living is the best shared commodity in Burkina Faso.
This exponential rise in gasoline and diesel prices will have knock-on effects
Since this last jolt in the shopping basket, which announces others with the downward trend in the subsidy of petroleum products, we hear some trying to explain why Burkinabè have nothing to be ashamed of, fuel prices in neighboring countries being generally higher, while some like the Ivory Coast are immensely rich and even produce oil. They omit to say that on the other side of the Léraba, the government recently took a series of social measures to cap the prices of 21 consumer products, in order to support the most vulnerable groups. The Burkinabè authorities, although their backs are against the wall, should do everything to save the furniture, even if it means drastically reducing the State’s operating expenses to, if not increase, at least maintain the current course of the fuel subsidy, otherwise the inflation, already an extraordinary 17.5%, will jump further with all the consequences that this could have. Because, let’s face it, this exponential rise in gasoline and diesel prices will have knock-on effects, and many are already wondering whether the average Burkinabè, who is already suffering, will not end up put away your ignition key, and if the probable subsequent increase in basic necessities will not push the populations, as in 2008, into the streets to demand from the government, social measures to relieve their suffering. It is therefore a time-delayed atomic bomb which could explode if the leaders are not careful, and the smallest financial scandal committed by the authorities of the Transition in this context of economic gloom and the murderous war against terrorism, could serve as a detonator. It would therefore be necessary to think, already, of quickly putting the work back on the job before the social front comes into turmoil, because, it is not obvious that the presence in the government of the “yellow vest” and ex-leader of the red union, Bassolma Bazié, not to name him, could serve as a shield or lightning arrester for the Transition regime if the purchasing power of the Burkinabè continues its inexorable decline.
Hamadou Gadiaga