Being the Devil: The Federal Government of Nigeria.
Who does an unpleasant thing he said he was yet to conclude upon on a festive day that was four months earlier than he had tentatively scheduled? The Devil is readily given the responsibility of unsavoury actions but he is absolved of this. This time, it is the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).
It was only a few weeks ago that the FGN held a Town Hall Meeting on the contentious fuel subsidy removal issue in Lagos. At the end of the meeting, some members of the audience, including a former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba, commended the FGN’s decision to hold the debate on the fuel subsidy removal issue and the civility the proponents of the action, the government crew led by Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the opponents, various civil groups showed to each other throughout the debate. Chief Osoba further admonished Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, the Coordinating Minister for the economy (a position that means and entails nothing but being the unconstitutional Prime Minister as her unquestionable status to subordinating ministers of the various sectors, both seniors and juniors confirms) that she should ensure that similar town hall meetings are held in all the geopolitical zones of the country. The obtained views of Nigerians about the fuel subsidy removal issue will aid the government in reaching a masses-preferred decision before the April 1, 2012 date that had been set for the removal of the fuel subsidy and the consequent steep hike in fuel prices from N65/litre to N144/litre.
In a democratic society, deliberations on unpopular policy moves by the government must continue within set time frame till the masses whom government is for, had made their voices known to the government they gave the ruling privilege. That is a basic democratic principle the FGN led by President Jonathan who was elected in a relatively free and fair election ought to know and uphold. The FGN is however populated by high-handed individuals that have arrogated to themselves the responsibility of thinking what is good and not for the masses. The opinions of the masses do not matter. Those the civil societies gave at the town hall meeting, for example, the one the chairman of the Silverbird group, Ben Murray-Bruce, gave that the FGN, if it must remove the subsidy on fuel, should cushion the hardship the policy will enact on Nigerians by subsidizing the transportation sector such that transport fares will remain at pre-fuel subsidy removal prices, were irrelevant and if they were, insufficient for further deliberations to be held. The FGN jolted logic and removed the subsidy on fuel that a former Minister of Petroleum, Prof. Tam David-West said is non-existent, on the first afternoon of 2012 in a callous move that was clearly to pre-empt civil protests that are being lined up against such action.
In the press statement jointly issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress yesterday, the FGN was stated to thrive on falsehood and to be untrustworthy. A correct judgement. The FGN is least likely to do any concrete thing on the degenerated infrastructure that it said it removed the subsidy on fuel for. The FGN’s seriousness about capital projects is inherent in the non-completion of the power plants that were contracted almost two years ago. The thoughts of the FGN can hardly be said to be with the degenerated infrastructure, but wherever they are, their devilment must be resisted. We are in a democratic society and President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo will not be eating with an outrageous N1 billion in 2012 while transport fares, market prices and all other prices are doubling their pre-fuel subsidy removal amounts.
