REVIEW NOT REMOVAL: A CALL FOR AN EXPANDED OBJECTIVE
I was still in bed early this morning when my phone rang. A
friend was on the line from Lagos and he wanted to confirm a rumour making the
rounds that the Federal Government had backed down and reverted to the old pimp
price for fuel I instinctively hollered GOD FORBID. It may sound ironical but I
really want a reversal of the removal but definitely not before the nationwide
protest had begun. This confrontation between the people and the establishment
is long overdue so that we know once and for all who owns this entity called
Nigeria, and from which direction legitimacy flows. It will by and large
signpost the direction governance will subsequently take and reiterate the
primacy of popular opinion in the articulation of government policies. Of
course some may argue that the government conceding a reversal of the atrocious
removal even before the mass protest will be a sufficient demonstration of the
supremacy of the people; I agree totally. However, the protests have assumed so
huge a profile that it can and must accommodate larger and more fundamental
issues and objectives rather than just the reversal of the New Year gaffe.
I do not have enough conclusive facts to conclude that
subsidy exists or not. Several distinguished commentators and analysts have argued
on both sides of the coin. However, I will use the view that it exists as a
working assumption. By the texture of the government’s position, it appears,
and strongly too, that there is fundamentally nothing wrong with the economics
of subsidizing petroleum products. The removal is rather predicated on the
existence of a so-called cabal which has been feeding fat on subsidy. The
government has been consistent in saying that the true beneficiary of subsidy
is the cabal and not the masses for whom it is theoretically intended. If this
be taken as true gospel, then the job is simplified since the word CABAL in
this context is not a description at large but refers to known persons and
corporations, thanks to the Senate Public Hearing.
The government has sought to project its position on the
mantra that it is far more just, equitable and sustainable to retrieve the
subsidy money from the cabals and deploy same for the good of the people. Very
noble and patriotic intentions, I must say. The money of the nation must be
used in uplifting the nation through the provision of the necessary
infrastructure. The government also insists that this coup against the Cabal
must of necessity inflict hardship on the people. That is just where I
disagree. The Cabal can be cannibalized without necessarily smothering the very
people it is meant to serve.
Now, let us look at it this way. If those who import refined
petrol, and who are classified as constituting the cabal, receive just returns
for the services they render, then the government will not be justified in
reviling them and seeking to run them out of business. However, the very fact
that the government wishes to dismantle them by removing subsidy suggests that
the cabal benefits from a system warped beyond acceptance. In effect, it is the
system that needs cleansing and not the cabal. It must also not be forgotten
that whatever the cabal does is done in collaboration and collusion with top
government officials. So the issue of corruption rears its ugly head again.
There is no argument that corruption is the worst single
headache Nigeria has. As long as corruption remains, no reform can work, and no
matter how sincere the government is, every effort to save money and plough
same to developing the economy will end fruitless. Nigeria has remained
unenviably at the top of the Corruption Index, and this accounts for the
near-impossibility of attracting foreign investors. It will amount to sheer
Pyrrhic victory to remove subsidy and then have it go down the normal route.
Therein lies the fundamental challenge facing the protesters: how to pull the
institutionalized structures of graft down.
Those who protest are super patriots. They are not just
driven by the personal economic imperatives of the subsidy removal but by the
larger picture of instilling accountability into the process of governance. It is
immoral to suggest that they are paid agents of the cabal. In fact, we hate the
cabal who have caused us so much pains and stolen so much from us. We truly
hate them with a passion. So, calling for a reversal of the removal is not
tantamount to acquiescing to the continued plunder of our treasury. No, we are
only saying that President Jonathan must not disrupt our already ragged life in
order to bring FRESH AIR. Bringing back the subsidy may have provoked and coalesced
the protest but bringing down corruption and installing an accountable and
responsive government are the sacred objectives of the ongoing protests.
Let no one be deceived; fuel subsidy must be retained and
reviewed. The government must demonstrate the will to sanitize the system even
as it keeps faith with the collective demands and aspirations of the citizens.
If it took less than N300 billion in 2007 to service subsidy, we are convinced
that barring corruption in the system, sustaining the subsidy regime should not
present a significant impediment to the TRANSFORMATION agenda of President
Jonathan. If our local auditors and accountants cannot be trusted to help in
cleansing this Aegean Stable, we may as well ask for outside help from
reputable firms to look at the books, review the process and let Nigerians know
where the rain started to beat us.
So, let the cabal not rejoice; we are not fighting their
battle but are coming for them. Let those who short-changed us in the
privatization programme not be at ease; we shall revisit the matter. Let those
who have mortgaged our power projects, who have benefitted from the stagnation
of our steel mill programmes, who have converted their positions of trust into
personal empires of rot be on their toes; the day of reckoning is here. The
tide has turned and Nigerians now demand answers. We have come to believe that
having an attitude of civil disobedience is also part of our civic
responsibilities, and no religious difference, ethnic divides or political
affiliations can stop this movement. Nigeria for Nigerians, that is the new
mentality. If the President cannot extricate us from the grip of those who besmirch
our collective fortunes, the least he can do is allow us to save ourselves.
This is just the beginning.
Aja N. Aja, esq
Wuse II, Abuja
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