Let me first wish you all a Happy New Year. We made it to 2012, despite the hazards we face as Nigerians. I appreciate the feedbacks of the readers of my articles. For my critics, especially those defending their employers or interests and those who benefit from suppressing the truth, I can not be bothered by their vituperations against me. They could be rest assured that, so far as I breathe, I will never stop saying things as they are. And I will continue to put our country first.
Let me first wish you all a Happy New Year. We made it to 2012, despite the hazards we face as Nigerians. I appreciate the feedbacks of the readers of my articles. For my critics, especially those defending their employers or interests and those who benefit from suppressing the truth, I can not be bothered by their vituperations against me. They could be rest assured that, so far as I breathe, I will never stop saying things as they are. And I will continue to put our country first.
It looked as if we were to enter the New Year on a fine note when President Goodluck Jonathan looked presidential as he declared a state of emergency in some local governments in four states of the federation in an attempt to address the danger posed by the brutal Boko Haram insurgency. He also ordered shut the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast. Even though, he was not courageous enough and not minding that the imposition of emergency rules in those local governments will do too little in keeping Nigeria safe, at least he acted and talked like a president.
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I was pleasantly surprised that at last the president did something drastic in the fight against Boko haram. It looked like Jonathan was about to take seriously the copious problems confronting our sick nation. But that hope was dashed on New Year day when his government pusillanimously, through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), announced the immediate the removal of the controversial subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol.
In spite of overwhelming public ire and opposition to the removal, Jonathan, a democratically elected president went ahead with the extraction of petroleum subsidy. This is the greatest political betrayal with no parallel in Nigerian history, and Jonathan has simply committed political suicide. It does not matter if he would offer himself for re-election or not.
The Jonathanian dream has been shattered and Nigerians have to look for a new leader who will extricate them from the venomous claws of an undeserving elite and cartel who hijacked this nation and postponed the vision of our founding fathers.
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With the subsidy withdrawal, the president detonated an economic bomb against commonplace Nigerians who staked all for him when those who thought it was their birthright to rule perpetually opposed his presidency. These same people that earns less than four dollars a day (notwithstanding the so-called increase in minimum wage), are those he has now waged an economic war against. If Jonathan were naïve that the people won’t fight back because of the passivity and fecklessness of Nigerians over the years, he must be mistaken. There have been riots and strikes across the nation in vehement protest in what has been dubbed by some commentators as “Occupy Nigeria”.
But how could this president chose to pay back ordinary Nigerians by making their yokes heavier like the unwise biblical King Rehoboam? So, it does mean that those who died so that Jonathan could become president must have died in vain.
If he claims that he was democratically elected and has a mandate of a people, why is he too arrogant to understand that he is simply a servant or messenger of the people? And why then must he insist on doing what the people are so much opposed to?
His economic team steeped in textbook economics, which conflicts with the good of mankind, say that the withdrawal will help Nigeria realise all her failed dreams. We have had such rubbish before. I was growing up as a young man when the military dictator, General Babaginda promised Health For All by the year 2000 - as if that year will never come. billions of Naira was wasted. The same way he poured more billions into the drain of the Better Life For Rural Women Programme, which at best served to profile the late wife of the General as humane. As if they were doing the rural women any favours.
The subsidy on fuel is not the problem. The problem we have as a nation is savage corruption and high cost of governance like no where in the world. How could a president that will spend over one billion Naira on food alone, with his Vice, have the moral authority to talk about saving money?
Our leaders have fooled us in the past, but now Nigeria’s moment of destiny has dawned. The destiny of this nation is tied to how Jonathan manages this crisis he has thrown the country into. Two options are open to him. He can imprudently persevere in official superciliousness and not bulge to public demand to cancel the subsidy withdrawal. If he chooses to tread this path, then we may not be far away from The Nigerian Spring.
Alternatively, he could elect to be a wise leader with a listening ear and hearken to the voices of a more patriotic majority, and not to that of an imperialist agent. This is the only thing that will ensure that Nigeria survives, at least for now.
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