Nigeria’s Catastrophic Fuel Crisis Has a Simple Solution

INis petrostates seek to convert oil revenues into human capital. By investing in better clinics, schools, and other public services, they cultivate a healthy, well-educated citizenry that will thrive long after the oil runs out. Nigeria offers its people cheap gasoline. Almost half of the government’s oil revenues are wasted on gasoline subsidies—2.3% GDPor four times the health budget. He should eliminate that subsidy, a difficult step that could be made politically easier by the start of gasoline production last week at a massive refinery owned by Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s richest man (see Middle East and Africa section).