THE NATION FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012
22
EDITORIAL/OPINION
T
HE fallouts of the last national strike cum nation wide protests would in the next months to come continue to generate mixed reactions from the polity. For the first time in the history of this country, the people actually showed those in power that the level of their consciousness has outgrown the intrepidity of the past. For five grim days, the nation was grounded. But for the capitulation of the labour movement, the government would by today have truly realised that sovereignty as enshrined in the constitution rightly belongs to the people through whom they derive their legitimacy. While the message had been passed to the authority not to take the people for granted when contemplating inimical policies, one has since discovered emergent spurious characters masquerading as champions of the poor in the society. One of the curious personalities thrown up by the last crisis that arose from people’s aversion for removal of subsidy on fuel is one man that goes by the name Atedo Peterside. He is an ijaw man, the same tribe as President Goodluck Jonathan- but from Rivers state. Mr Atedo from his Channels TV fuel subsidy interview advertorial published in a national newspaper has fairly admirable credentials. He is Chairman of the Boards of Stanbic IBTC bank and Cadbury Nigeria Plc. Perhaps, the one that gives his effrontery and partisanship out on national issues was his membership of National Economic Management Team set up by President Jonathan. But for Atedo’s incongruous comments against Lagos state on the sharing of fuel subsidy money that exposed him as grouting for an inept president, this article would have been unnecessary. It was too easy to impute the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau into his malicious position against Lagos state and all successful men living therein which hypocritically includes himself, in the said interview. In the first place, his arguments were fraught with illogical postulations that belittle someone of his supposed standing in the society. Atedo’s bid at suddenly pretending to love the poor people and less privileged states like Jigawa, kebbi, Yobe, Bauchi and others further exposes him as a pro-establishment person, covertly seeking for more official patronage while at the same time fanning ember of ethnic acrimony and class warfare. He tried to convince himself about why the governors and
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OW that the hurly-burly of the fuel subsidy removal is done, where do we go from here? Well, let’s attempt to encapsulate what has become one of our most historic outings as a nation in a fivepoint epilogue and chart a new course therefrom : The Rehoboam syndrome: the only analogy I could readily find to match what President Goodluck Jonathan did with the fuel subsidy issue is in the story of Rehoboam. He was heir to Solomon, the Biblical monarch who is recorded to be the wisest, wealthiest and indeed greatest king of all times. Upon assuming his father’s throne, he chose to heed bad counsel: my father ruled you with whips, I will unleash scorpions on you, he told his people. And they responded to him saying, in that case, you may go ahead and lord it over your family and your clan. Israel was thus rent in two and the consequences, utterly disastrous as the Bible records. Rehoboam inherited a glorious kingdom and did not have to do any thing extraordinary to keep the ship of state sailing. All he needed do was to simply listen to the voice of the people. In the same manner, President Jonathan who barely seven months ago earned a ‘pan-Nigerian mandate’ at the polls, needs not fret too much to get the country running well and to keep the people happy. A country that produces a minimum of two million barrels of the best crude oil daily; ordinarily should not have to try too hard to grow and develop. All it requires is to keep its house in order and people from all over the world would come in, invest and build the country. Apparently, President Jonathan does not see this, and secondly, he has been labeled a weak leader for too long and he was just intent on showing a bit of machismo. For a strange
‘We all know it, we see it all around us yet we shy away from dealing with it. It is corruption that has led us to budget three-quarters of our total income for consumption by ‘workers’’
Subsidy: Atedo’s illogical illuminations chairmen of councils must be wholly entrusted with the spending of money derived from removal of subsidy on fuel. Yet, he feigns ignorance of the lootings of the same governors and chairmen that further contributes to the impoverishment of their people. He also did not acknowledge the good governance going on in Lagos in his haste to discredit the Centre of Excellence. As if he runs a voucher printing company, he wants all states to print fuel voucher to be given to tax paying low income earners in the public service. He was silent about the fate of middle income earners and even those who pay tax to government in the informal sector of the economy? One should ask him on what justification should these people be denied the enjoyment of subsidy accruals? Atedo erroneously believes that doing this will prevent rich men like him from enjoying fuel subsidy. Does he have the mandate of rich men to seek their exclusion from the enjoyment of fuel subsidy? This man definitely has score to settle with successful men in the Centre of Excellence because of his petty but false assumption that a large chunk of subsidy money is ‘being consumed by some wealthy Lagosians-they have the lion’s share of the consumption. Also, it is the upper and middle class who consume the lion’s share of that petrol in Lagos. That money does not belong to them.’ Atedo speciously believes that the northern states are
poor because subsidy money have ‘historically been spent on some wealthy Lagosians and/or diverted to neighbouring countries.’ From the foregoing, it is very clear that this man is playing a divisive game in his bid to defend Jonathan, his tribe’s man, whose irrepressible urge to remove petrol subsidy in the country is legendary. Let it be made known to Atedo that smuggling of fuel should not be a good reason for inflicting pain on the masses of this country under the guise of removal of fuel subsidy. Fuel smuggling business is the job of powerful and well connected people. How would he defend himself when he confessed in a part of the interview that during a visit to Ghana, he bought fuel in jerry cans in his car boot which he used throughout his stay there? So, it would not be wrong to conclude that he was one of those that at one point or the other depleted the daily fuel consumption need of Nigerians for pecuniary advantage. Is this not smuggling? If government fails to curb corruption and smuggling because powerful elements are involved, should the ordinary people be made to bear the brunt? Atedo is just crying more than the bereaved by his pretensions to love the poor in the north than his seriously pauperised people in the Niger-Delta. For the better part of his life, he has lived in Lagos where he made money and name for himself. There are others like him from Jigawa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Enugu and
EXPRESSO STEVE OSUJI
SMS O8055001684 email:steve_osuji@yahoo.com
Fuel subsidy: a five-point epilogue reason, he chose to damn the people and even the country on the very first day of the year. He shocked and awed them; then he forced his bitter medicine down their throats in spite of their spirited protestations. Not finished, he placed his boot on their chests and made sure they swallowed it to the last drop. He then walked off triumphant, leaving the poor fellows flattened and prostrate. Being very early in his tenure, it looks like a long night lie ahead. It’ still corruption, stupid: it is soul-searing to see us work ourselves up to the state of dementia when we are simply suffering the effects of corruption and its sibling, ineptitude. We all know it, we see it all around us yet we shy away from dealing with it. It is corruption that has led us to budget three-quarters of our total income for consumption by ‘workers’. It is corruption that renders our budgets worthless while our national earnings are virtually disbursed by about 37 men from the back pockets of their pants. We have entire ministries, departments and agencies running on a superstructure of corruption and we choose to live with it. What, for instance, does the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) do? One has asked this question umpteenth time. It cannot drill for oil, it cannot keep tab of the quantity of crude drilled, it cannot maintain refineries, it cannot build new ones, it cannot even manage the importation of refined products from other lands not to talk of building storage capabilities. It cannot account for the taxes it takes from our oil businesses. This must be the wonkiest government
establishment in the history of mankind. A corporation that ought to catalyse Nigeria’s leap to modernity is a mere cesspit of sleaze. In the last two decades especially, NNPC has been completely damaged like an old hag. It has been reduced to a conduit pipe for slush funds. Why do we have to put up with this ogre? Of palliatives and laxatives: if this government was willing to spill the blood of the people to wrench the so-called subsidy from the people, why would anyone believe its singsong about palliatives? I must have heard it somewhere that government is eternally the art of the incongruous. That is why we are being mandated to fall sick so as to get palliatives. How much, really, is the entire subsidy which will rescue Nigeria from an imminence collapse and at once create an Eldorado of palliatives for the people? Are we not doomed if this savings from ‘subsidy’ is the main anchor for raising Nigeria into a modern state? Why is the government so vague about the real issue which is to upgrade our oil sector and build our refining and petrochemical sub-sector. These are the real palliatives and the only things that would rescue this administration and safe President Jonathan’s face. Propaganda is a concubine: some other authorities have also described propaganda as the handmaiden of the crooked and dishonest. Decent people don’t resort to propaganda, they press to work, facts and truths and keep repeating and burnishing them convinced that as divine statues, they would eventually prevail. But in pushing the
Kano among other states that live in the former capital of the federation. Many people from diverse ethnic background are daily trickling into Lagos. They feasted and are still feasting on Lagos infrastructure because of the tolerance of successive administrations in the state. It is on record that the highest Value Added Tax (VAT) to federal purse is gotten from Lagos but this fact was not taken into consideration when sharing VAT accruals. Also, the 13 per cent derivation that the oil producing states are enjoying today was made possible through the efforts of Akinrogun Segun Osoba and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu when as governors of Ogun and Lagos states, they pressurised the government of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to yield to their demand on this. Where was Atedo Peterside then? He felt unconcerned and was quietly busy making money simply because an Ijaw man was not president then. How many jobs have been created for the youths by the Niger-Delta governors and local government chairmen since they commenced collection of derivation? Has poverty been removed from their jurisdictions? Will the addition of subsidy money to that of derivation make any difference? Rather than engage in self ingratiating argument against Lagos, one thinks Atedo should commend Lagos to other governors whether in the north or south-south to come and learn something about governance that is working. Nigerians and particularly President Jonathan must realise that this Atedo of a man is not one of those with ideas that can move the nation forward. What is more saddening is his inclusion in the National Economic Management Team. If his twisted and illogical illuminations on Channels TV on subsidy and Lagos are anything to go by, then the outputs from the Economic Management Team of the president can be better imagined. May God save Nigerians from the likes of Atedo.
‘Let it be made known to Atedo that smuggling of fuel should not be a good reason for inflicting pain on the masses of this country under the guise of removal of fuel subsidy’ subsidy arguments, we were taken aback when we noticed government deploying falsehood, half-truths and outright blackmail to make its case. We became less convinced when we noticed the NTA being debased; we saw all the tell-tale signs of the perfidious periods of Abacha, Babangida and Obasanjo. Those who were undecided about Jonathan immediately got the needed corroboration that he was not real. Why was as much money being used for propaganda purposes to convince people to support ‘subsidy’ cut? Something was sure fishy. Going forward: we have been disvirgined and we have lost our innocence. All across the 36 states and the FCT Abuja, the people suddenly found the spunk stand up as one to say no. Apart from the M.K.O Abiola June 12 election (which was not totally total), never before have Nigerians risen as on in the manner they did from January 9 – 13, 2012. We tasted the forbidden fruit and is it delicious? We have found the totem of our sovereignty and someday, we will have to go get it. Meanwhile, the Jonathan government must cut the crap about palliatives and probes and build us refineries. This government would have been a colossal failure if by 2015 Nigeria is still importing petroleum products. Build refineries, that is the way forward. LAST MUG: Gov Chime, Southeast and the protests: as usual, governments and leaders of the East tried to undo themselves during last week’s nationwide fuel subsidy protests. While leaders of other zones of the country were at one with the people, we saw Ohaneze and some so-called leaders speaking through their stomachs. This has come to be our pattern during Nigeria’s great moments. Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu state even got the prize: as if he lives in a bottle, he summarily abrogated the people’s right to protest in his ‘kingdom’. To prove his seriousness, he had one Comrade Festus Ozoeze picked up, tried at an emergency tribunal set up in the State Police Command and thrown behind bars. If we don’t grow up, the world will not wait for us. Meanwhile, Senator Uche Chukwumerije recently cried out that there is no major infrastructure project from the zone in the current federal budget – like the second Niger bridge, the dredging of the River Niger, Owerri-Aba road dualisation – not a word from our leaders on this.