Personal Goodluck, Nigeria’s bad luck
Nigeria has been
caught in the wave of revolutionary fervour as some might suggest and this has
all been triggered by the amazing deftness of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Like King Midas of
old his wish to have everything he touched turn to gold had been granted only
that what has gained affinity to his touch is the Nigerian coffers. As the
proverbial 1st Lord of the Treasury he has presided over a
profligate and wasteful consumption of resources all to maintain a life of
unseemly opulence along with his cohorts rather than address the matter of
progressive leadership of Nigeria - He is both prodigal and a spendthrift.
An overly costly government
The expansion of
government that allows for three-quarters of revenue to go into recurrent
expenditure is untenable, unsustainable and unconscionable but his government
fattened on the largesse of Nigeria’s good have neither the discipline nor restraint
for a diet that will cut government excess, government waste and corrupt expense.
For the past few
months, they had set their eyes on fuel subsidy with the view to completely
removing it and promising to invest those proceeds in public infrastructure, primary health
and social development schemes.
The fact is the
government has no track record in concluding any of those schemes in Nigeria,
in most cases the government has majored in vacuous good intentions offered as
promises, none of which ever get to see the light of day. Goodluck Jonathan
sadly leads a hopeless and hapless clinging to forlorn hope; there is no reason
or basis to find any iota of optimism in anything he has to say to the Nigerian
people.
Guessing and paying off the charts
Three months ago, I
wrote Editorial:
Nigerian Government Dishonesty About Fuel Subsidy in which I noted the
discrepancies between the estimated cost of the subsidy and the actual cost
that was inflated 5 times more than the budgeted cost.
Besides, it appears no one is sure of what the cost of subsidising fuel is, the Central Bank in its MPC Meeting minutes suggested that the cost was about $6 billion, the on-going debate in the Nigerian Senate suggests the Federal Government budgeted NGN 240 billion ($1.54 billion) for subsidies in 2011 but have found that cost inflated to NGN 1.5 trillion ($9.6 billion) in what is a looking like a typical Nigerian scam. [CBN (PDF) Page 3][All Africa]
What is amazing is
how the legislature or any vested party is not in apoplectic rage at this
malfeasance in the executive by carpeting those involved and prosecuting the
principals for the fraudulent misuse of Nigerian funds – the idea that the
executive could overspend by 500% and no one be called to account beggars
belief but also shows how complicit the whole democratic system is in the
endemic corruption that makes the cost of this Nigerian democracy
unsustainable.
Incubating #OccupyNigeria
I feared that the
government might expect the so-called “resilience” of Nigerians to allow them
implement this blatant corrupt enterprise to feather their over-pampered nests
on the premise that they were doing Nigerians some great good that I did
suggest that if the people will not take to the streets the army should come
out of the barracks and reset this brigandage of wanton debauchery masquerading
as the government of the people.
Goodluck Jonathan
however forced his hand just like King Midas of old when he touched his beloved
daughter and she turned to gold. He announced that he was removing fuel subsidy
on New Years Day and that set in motion the movement called #OccupyNigeria.
Nigerians came out
to protest against their government that the usually indolent and
overpaid legislature came out of recess to discuss the matter.
Meanwhile ministers
and stooges of the government took on the airwaves to threaten the people and
make pronouncements that could only sound acceptable in Nigeria, because most of
those pronouncements if spoken by Western politicians who are regularly our examples of convenience would
have those politician blabbermouths out of a job before sundown.
Stop the killing
However, other
knowledgeable and articulate Nigerians countered each and every claim the
government put forward, as they set their dogs (security personnel) upon the
people killing some by reason of the savage and barbaric Force Order 237 which
according to the Amnesty International report
“instructs
police officers in “riot” situations to “single out” and fire at “ring-leaders
in the forefront of the mob” ”and “directs officers to fire “at the knees of
the rioters” and explicitly prohibits firing in the air.” [Amnesty]
It makes you wonder
how policing has been allowed to thrive in Victorian impunity for the
convenience of presumably 21st Century politicians, it is shocking and a shame that we have policing standards that make the Apartheid massacres look tame.
Global Nigerian unrest
With Nigerians in
civil unrest that has taken on a global significance with demonstrations in
Europe and America as well and the labour unions acquiescing by ordering indefinite
strikes one can only hope that the people who matter are not enticed by unscrupulous means that the government has adopted in bribing the hungry and
the unprincipled to speak up for the atrociously untenable.
There is no doubt that
the fuel subsidy should go but only after we have achieved local sufficiency of
the refined product; the government should address the real problem of the
corrupt nexus of officials and companies robbing us blind whilst facilitating
the development and effective functioning of our local refineries working to
capacity.
Beyond fuel subsidies
#OccupyNigeria is
however now beyond the matter of fuel subsidies, it has to go the heart of the
cost of our democracy that demands swingeing cuts to not just basic salaries but
to allowances and perks that are beyond belief. All allowances should be cut to a fraction of the basic salaries of politicians which are in any case already
excessively huge.
Going into politics
in Nigeria should lose the allure of untold riches paid for sanctioned
indolence, politics should be about selfless service with Nigerians only
meeting basic middle-class needs of our politicians – if these people need more
they should go get a job elsewhere, Nigeria’s udders have been milked to
incurable sourness by political jobbers at all levels of government.
Sadly, the
government of Goodluck Jonathan with the once excellent but now terribly
disappointing Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are incapable of
implementing reform but one hopes that after they have been stunned by the
forceful and determined reaction of Nigerians they will move to cut costs, cut
waste, prosecute the frauds, restore the subsidy, lay off the majority of
advisers, cut unnecessary ministries and ministerial posts, impose economy on
the legislature, partner in building working refineries that will obviate
the need for the subsidy and dare to earn our trust.
We could not have
imagined a Nigerian version of the Arab Spring but today we have a Nigeria of all tribes and persuasion united as one for that entity called
Nigeria and the identity that is Nigerian - #OccupyNigeria is our
Nigerian Harmattan of Discontent and long may it continue until our democracy
begins to represent its people, our aspirations and our hopes and the people we have elected to lead us begin to serve.
Tweets of interest
RT @resourcedat: DOWNLOAD KPMG
REPORT ON NNPC: http://is.gd/JkOXaw
Need to read this - Favourite it. An embarrassing
catalogue of corruption, ineptitude and waste that should have had ministers,
officials and company executives shot in a former time.
@ElRufai Interview on AIT on Fuel
Subsidy – YouTube bit.ly/ye1xWz He takes
it all apart and the government has no comeback. Someone to be credited for knowing the workings of the Nigerian
government and exposing its failings.
RT @disgeneration: Fuel subsidy
removal: Nigeria’s Finance Minister speaks to Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/yTxaBZ
I could not help but notice her fluency
in the parseltongue.
BBC News - Nigeria
fuel protests: Union threatens oil shutdown http://bbc.in/w2sITG
The government is far from embracing humility.
RT @OKShorty1: @BukkieSho Oil production will be
shut in. Nigeria will lose $200m/N33b everyday. < Brought on by government
incompetence.
#OccupyNigeria
is no more just about reversion of subsidies, it demands a root and branch
reform of our government & governance.
Yes, let us end the
#OccupyNigeria strikes by getting the government to
cut spending, cut waste and restore subsidies.
#OccupyNigeria
has gone global - We, the people of Nigeria are out to take our representative
democracy back from hoodlums.
…as AGF reads riot
act to protesters http://is.gd/pIr8F2
No, we are reading the Riot Act to the Nigerian Government.
The end of
paternalism in Nigeria, we'll not be threatened by the people we have elected
to serve us, they're accountable to us.
OPS decries effects
of strike, urges NLC, TUC to call it off http://is.gd/loz9hA
Address the problem head-on, it's the government.
