Barring any last minute volte-face by President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians may be poising for a total show down with the federal government tomorrow; what has been aptly dubbed, the mother-of-all-battles, over the president’s New Year ‘Gift’-the fuel subsidy removal. The organised labour has sounded the cry of war, urging Nigerians to stockpile their homes with enough foodstuffs to last the duration of the proposed indefinite strike.
From every indication the government is not budging. Every government official spoken with on the controversy insists that the government is on the right track and solicits for understanding from Nigerians. the government has even gone ahead to procure a court injunction stopping any protest over the subsidy removal. Meanwhile, the ranks of Nigerians who have vowed that, it is either the government does a complete reversal of its decision or all hell would be let loose, continue to swell.
The world in its true character and fashion is watching with bated breathe waiting for which party blinks first. While the government is justifying its position that the subsidy on fuel was doing more harm than good to the economy and the suffering masses, the organised labour, at the vanguard of the fuel subsidy removal protests, maintains that the government was putting the cart before the horse. It insists that any fuel subsidy removal which is not preceded by provision of the basic amenities, and infrastructure would afflict the masses of Nigeria with untold hardship.
Both parties were canvassing these views hoping that the necessary grounds would be shifted in the interest of the entity called Nigeria. While the talks were still going on and speculations became rife that the government may carry out the removal in April, at the expiration of the 2011 appropriation year, the president threw caution to the wind and announced the removal, exactly on the first day of the new year.
The country is still grappling with the evasive and almost invincible Boko Haram sect members, who, it seems, have signed a pact with suicide bombing. Even armed robbers who have taken a fancy for the commercial banks and the highways are also a present nightmare for most Nigerians. Communal clashes like the New Year eve Ebonyi massacre, have also become an intractable recurring decimal. Of course, in spite of threats of death sentence, kidnappers have not stopped terrorising the populace.
On the economic turf, Nigerians have been experiencing a steady and astronomical rise in the cost of living, attended by a falling quality of life, deprecating infrastructure, epileptic power supply, absence of medical facilities, fallen education standard and a frightening unemployment rate. These indices of a country on the brink of disintegration, have lived with the people ever since the first fuel price hike by General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1978. Corruption, seen as the greatest threat to the survival of the nation, has continued to grow. Pundits aver that revenue from every fuel price hike in the country fuelled corruption.
It was hoped that the return of democracy would make a world of difference to the suffering masses, but that was not to be. Throughout the seven-year, two-term reign of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, fuel price hike which he introduced at his first coming was a yearly occurrence, making life practically unbearable. The then government was always pitched against the masses on the issue. If there were any fruits from all the fuel price hikes, Nigerians did not notice anything as all the indices of an underdeveloped nation continued to live with the people. Given the providential circumstance which culminated into the dramatic emergence of President Jonathan as the country’s president and commander-in-chief, and the overwhelming support and camaraderie he enjoyed from the masses of Nigeria when it appeared that the vilified Yar’Adua cabal would sideline and short-change him, nobody in his wildest fancy imagined that Jonathan would be the president to afflict the people with the deepest and severest cut. From every indication, any hope that the president would rescind the decision would amount to waiting for a raindrop in the drought.
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In the week prior to the 2011 Christmas Day celebration, organised labour were scheduled to meet with the federal government to negotiate a soft landing in the face-off over the divergent positions on the purported fuel subsidy. Labour had hoped to talk some sense into the government representatives, to make them see reason why the removal of the subsidy would not serve the general interest. Meanwhile, the government, hell-bent on the removal of the subsidy, was also hoping it would win labour over or call their bluff.?
That meeting ended in a deadlock as both parties remained rooted in their positions. The labour leaders were not to pre-empt what hit them on the first day of January, when the federal government in a dramatic move, announced the removal of fuel subsidy.?
The action, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY learnt, took everybody by surprise, including some top government officials. A source close to the presidency disclosed that even the members of the president’s cabinet were taken off guard as they were not briefed on the action.
The source however, averred that the president, perhaps, assumed that since the subsidy was not reflected in the 2012 appropriation act, it was as good as taking effect from the beginning of the New Year. The president’s action however, had an instantaneous impact on the economy and the life of Nigerians from all nooks and crannies of the country. Almost immediately, all the fuel stations in the country adjusted to a new pump price regime, ranging from N134.00 to N250.00 per litre of fuel, as against the previous N65.00 flat rate during the fuel subsidy regime.
The spiralling effect was the sudden and equally astronomical rise in general cost of living. Worst hit was the transport sector.? Commuters who hitherto were complaining of exorbitant cost of transporting themselves groaned as commercial drivers also transferred the extra cost of fuel to them. Every destination, including distances as short as a hundred metres attracted a fare of N100.00. As a fallout of the transport fare hike, the price? of every commodity also triple-jumped out of the reach of most Nigerians. Private schools which provided transport at a fee for the pupils and students also sent messages across to parents and guardians of the school’s new hike in the transportation fare of their wards.
A school headmistress who spoke with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, Mrs. Halima Yakubu, disclosed how her school’s proprietor called her the second day after the announcement was made asking her to inform all parents whose children were on bus shuttle about a 100 per cent increase in the bus fare. She also informed the parents about a planned increase in tuition and other fees. This, the proprietor blamed on the new fuel increase.
“We don’t know where to run from this plan of government to wipe us off the face of this world. I am the headmistress of my school but my salary is not fantastic. I still have three children in the school and my proprietor has ordered for a rise in the bus fares and school fees. I really don’t know how President Jonathan wants Nigerians to survive these recent increases. As we are talking now, all foodstuff have risen in prices of and everybody is attributing it to the fuel increase.
“Did Jonathan realise that most Nigerians working in the private sector are grossly under paid and before now their so-called take home pay does not get anywhere near their homes? He must be bent on annihilating all poor Nigerians. He would not feel the impact of the rise in the cost of living because he does not pay for goods and services from his pocket. I understand that he budgeted nearly N1bn for his feeding alone. Tell me, why will such a person not be blind to the sufferings of Nigerians?”,
A police officer who craved anonymity told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the new pump price of fuel would generate enough revenue for government to carry out a massive development of the country. He, however added that the impact of the removal was biting hard on everyone including police officers.
“My brother I don’t know what to tell you. What I know is that government says it will provide infrastructure with the money from the fuel subsidy. I believe the government.
But right now as i am talking to you, I am feeling the pain the same way you are feeling it. We also enter vehicles, buy things from the market. It is not easy. We hope that the government will do something quickly before this problem gets out of hand,” he said. ?
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