By removing the so-called oil subsidy, President Goodluck Jonathan has taken away Nigerians’ final excuse. In the days to come, we will know if Nigerians will eat Jonathan’s poisoned meal or reject it. We will know if hunger and fear will force the resistance to fizzle out. We will know if bribery of labor and civil society leaderships will lead to a capitulation. We will know if the day of confrontation will once again be postponed.
By removing the so-called oil subsidy, President Goodluck Jonathan has taken away Nigerians’ final excuse. In the days to come, we will know if Nigerians will eat Jonathan’s poisoned meal or reject it. We will know if hunger and fear will force the resistance to fizzle out. We will know if bribery of labor and civil society leaderships will lead to a capitulation. We will know if the day of confrontation will once again be postponed.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
In the meantime, one thing that is clear is that for Nigerians, there is no longer an option of taking the bathe of the egret.
In an irony of a different kind, for the president too, it is a poisoned meal. Each day that the subsidy is gone, billions of Naira goes into the coffers of the government. By the end of the year, he will have over a trillion naira that was not budgeted. Add that to the trillion that will come from excess crude oil money (that’s the difference between how much crude oil is selling in the international market and how much Nigeria budgeted, minus the billions NNPC guys will steal), Abuja will definitely have trillions of reasons to party. In a sane society, the president will have no excuses. But of course, like those before him, the president will invent new excuses.
I covered Energy for the Daily Mail newspaper in Lagos in the 90s. I have followed the petroleum subsidy debate ever since then. I can tell you authoritatively that, substantially, there is no fuel subsidy. The only subsidy we have in the Nigerian system is corruption subsidy. But it doesn’t matter now. The debate is closed even before it started.
Let me clear one simple fact that so many Nigerians appear to have misunderstood. The cabal that imports petrol for Nigeria is not going to suffer because oil subsidy is removed. In fact, the cabal is not going to lose a kobo. All that will change is that instead of the government giving the cabal whatever is the difference between its hyped cost of importing fuel and the selling price at the pump, the Nigerian people will provide the difference.
By all indications, the cabal will continue to smile to the bank. Now, that is one of the flavors of President Jonathan’s poisoned meal.
The other one which supporters of the oil subsidy removal ignored is its impact on the people. These supporters ignored it not because they were blindsided. No. They know that transportation cost will go up. They know that food prices will go up. They know that the cost of living will go up. They know that the value of the naira will go down. They know that the living standard will go down. They ignored it because the bigger lie the government is telling suited their selfish ends – that oil importers were the beneficiaries of the subsidy and that the benefit must be stopped from going to the cabal. And when it is stopped, the people will begin to benefit.
It is the same screwed up logic that was used to convince Nigerians that Goodluck Jonathan was the best presidential candidate in the 2011 election. The same insane logic was used to persuade Nigerians that they were voting for Jonathan but not for the PDP. It is a manner of thinking that embraces excuses and regrets.
The truth is that Nigerians have been beaten up for so long. Many of us have become emotional wrecks. We can no longer think straight. We let one sentiment or another hijack our sense of reasoning. But nature has a way of bringing us back to reality. The only problem is that when that happens, we still find a way to rationalize it. We do so because we are afraid to say that we are weak. We are afraid to say that we are wrong. We are afraid to say that we are gullible. We are afraid to even regret.
But gullible we are. Wrong we are. Weak we are. Regrets we all have. Our redemption starts when we begin to acknowledge these character flaws.
As this showdown plays itself out, Nigerians must remember that the street is the only place where hope for change lies. Afterwards, when election time comes, irrespective of how Nigerians vote, it is the PDP all the way. Nigerians must not also forget what has changed in the last one year. The establishment has been falling across the globe. They have been exposed as hallow- not as formidable as they appear. But you won’t know that until you give them a push.
One hundred years from now, the people who will occupy the land now called Nigeria will read our story and be ashamed of us. They will be ashamed at how much beating we allowed our selfish leaders to exert on us. They will be ashamed at how much we resisted thinking outside the box. They will be ashamed of our readiness to keep suffering rather than take actions to save ourselves from the yoke of corrupt leaders who think only of themselves.
Paul Anderson has a theory about how to respond to imperfections in any organization. Anderson, acknowledging that even the best company in the world is not perfect, reasoned that a worker could respond in one of four ways, three of which are acceptable and one is not. According to Mr. Anderson, one way is for a worker to choose to focus on the positive and overlook the “bad things”. The second way is for a worker to try and change things for better. The third way is for a worker to decide that the shortcomings really bother him or her and leave. The fourth way, which Anderson described as invalid is for a worker to dwell on and complain about things that trouble him or her and yet fail to move on or take positive action.
As it is for a company, so it is for a country. As it is for a worker, so it is for a citizen.
For Muyideen Mustapha and all others who are willing to risk it all in taking positive actions to change things, men and women opting for a life of no excuses and no regrets, even death is incapable of erasing your place in History.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });