It is no longer news that fuel price was jerked up by the federal government form N65 to N141. It is also no longer news that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), alongside their civil society collaborators also embarked on protest and mass rally to force the federal government to revert to N97 per litre of fuel.
What is however news is that some activists were on the side of labour and at the same time hobnobbing with the federal government. Prominent among them according to an insider,was a professor with a bias for economics.? A prominent member of a group that was meeting at a residence of a popular elderstateman in Victoria Island, Lagos – on how to tackle President Goodluck Jonathan and force him to change his mind, he was also at the forefront of a summit that was eventually postponed indefinitely thereafter. The summit, before it was called off, was being put together by the federal government to galvanise support for the removal of fuel subsidy.
Announcing the two-day summit last Wednesday at a popular hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, the professor of economics was surrounded by pro-subsidy group at the news conference.
Curiously, when a reporter asked him if the strike would allow the eminent people across the country, which he claimed had agreed to attend the summit, he sounded as if he was part of the script: “I am sure by Monday the strike would have become history.”
On Sunday, even when he knew that the two-day summit was a decoy to assuage and calm frayed nerves, he told reporters who wanted to know if it would still hold, in spite of the strike, that the summit had been postponed indefinitely.
Apart from the professor, some activists did not also hide the side of the divide they belong to during the crisis. One of the activists is Mujaheed Asari Dokubo. He was with the federal government throughout. But others mixed freely with the pro and anti subsidy activists to monitor their movement and strategy and report to appropriate quarters for action.
The leader of the newly formed National Action Coalition (NACO), Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, alluded to the fact in one of the meetings held at his residence that? some of the guests were there to spy on the group’s modus operandi.
Also, a lady attended both the anti and pro subsidy group’s meetings throughout the struggle.
Two prominent lawyers who had earlier been accused of abandoning their comrades suddenly showed up at one of the? meeting of the anti subsidy activists held in Lagos Island. One of the lawyers? was said to have vehemently opposed the street protests and rally.? He premised his argument on the fact that he had an intelligence report that the military may cash in on the situation to move in. He was quoted as saying that Nigeria may be the worst for it if the military intervenes, citing the case of Egypt, where the people opposed to Hosni Mubarak are now fighting the military that took over thereafter. Though, they capitulated and later agreed to participate, the way one of the lawyers was going out while the meeting lasted, to receive telephone calls, some insider said showed that he was there as an agent of government reporting to those who sent him.