OCCUPY NIGERIA PROTEST MOVEMENT:
AGENDA FOR THE PRESENT TIMES [BY JAYE GASKIA]
Originally written in early February 2012, it still
resonates with our situation today, in particular in the circumstance created
by the the betrayal of the January Uprising then [in its abrupt call off], but
also more pertinently now [in the fact that neither the labour centres nor one
of its two civil society coalition allies considered the January Uprising
significant enough to either be remembered, learnt from, or commemorated]. Of
the four member coalition partners in the Labour Civil Society (LASCO)
coalition, only one coalition, the UAD has done anything suggesting an
understanding of the significance of that period in our history. Now back to
the original write up below.
It is a
little over 3 weeks since the abrupt and unilateral call off our our nationwide
uprising by a leadership of the labour centres who seemed to have been coerced
and pressured into a hurried retreat from the [unintended perhaps on the part
of labour's leadership] consequences of our collective actions. For let us face
it, when a awakened, increasingly conscious and aroused popular mass protest
movement initiates a resistance with minimum demands such as policy reversal;
if the government of the day seems either incapable or unwilling to meet such
demands in the face of the growing confidence of the popular masses in revolt;
it will not long be long before the mass movement will shift from a demand for
policy reversal to one of changing the unwilling or incapable regime and
replacing it with a new regime, able and willing to meet the demand of the
popular movement.
And let there be no doubt about it, in this country,
during the weekend of of 14th and 15th of January, we were at such a cross
road. If our protests had continued and deepened into the following week; the
regime would have had to either completely reverse itself or risk losing power!
Such were the concrete choices facing the regime; such was the underlying basis
of the panic within the regime, and its decision to wage a full scale
psychological war on what it had discovered to be the weak link in the
Labour-Civil Society Coalition prosecuting the struggle: the leadership of
organised labour, the leadership of the two trade union centres - NLC &
TUC!
From the moment this weak link was discovered
considerable effort was made to blackmail the coalition, and drive a wedge
between the coalition partners [NLC & TUC on the labour side; and UAD &
JAF, on the civil society side].
However this is not the issue at stake for now; this
analysis is necessary in order to properly situate what is required to set new
agenda for the current phase of our uprising.
Why did we Occupy Nigeria? Because we had become tired
of ineptitude, incompetence, insensitivity, stupendous corruption and impunity
in governance? The straw that broke the proverbial Carmel’s back was the unconscionable
hike in the price of petrol, the impunity with which such a gravely devastating
decision was taken and implemented, the complete lack of understanding of the
parlous conditions of existence of the people, and the contemptuous and
disdainful dismissal of popular outcries on the issue of so-called subsidy
removal!
Thanks to our uprising, which is now in a reflective
phase, we now know that a gigantic and monumental fraud had been taking place
in the petroleum sector for a period of over half a decade; we now know that
this fraud entered a qualitatively new phase in 2011.
Thanks to our uprising we can now confirm that we were
right not to trust this government, that they were lying to us to push the case
for fuel price hike, and that they have been lying to us since they
unilaterally hiked the price of petrol on Jan 1st 2012.
So we are finding out that the national daily
consumption rate for petrol is not calculated on the basis of empirical
evidence, but allocated on the basis of the whims and fraudulent caprices of
anyone interested in cutting their own share of the national cake!
We now know that the list of 'fraudulently approved
importers' of fuel has been growing endlessly, that briefcase corporations
benefit, that established corporations claim more than actually import etc.
Interestingly too, we have also now been informed that
the 1.3 trillion naira figure bandied around to justify the removal of subsidy,
was supposed to include 300 billion naira for subsidy on kerosene, as well as
substantial arrears for subsidy payments for 2009 & 2010. Laughably too,
there is no agreement between all the different relevant MDAs on this matter
with respect to daily consumption rate [is it 35 million litres per day, 49
million litres per day or the 59 million liters per day that we are actually
paying for?]; and with respect to the amount paid in 2011 for the so-called
subsidy [is it 1,3 trillion naira, 1.4 trillion naira, 1.7 trillion naira or
over 2 trillion naira actually paid according to CBN?]. What is more, no one
has been able to justify or explain why a subsidy payment bill that ranged
between 300 billion naira and 600 billion naira per annum in the previous 5
years suddenly ballooned to over 2 trillion naira in 2011; or why and how daily
consumption rate which purportedly averaged around 28 million liters per day in
the previous 5 years suddenly mushroomed into the 59 million litres per day of
2011!
From the forgoing a few things are very obvious: First
a large scale fraud, or historic and monumental proportion has been taking
place in the petroleum sector under the direct watch of the petroleum minister
and the indirect watch of the minister of finance and coordinating minister of
the economy; secondly, this grand scale mega fraud - SUBSIDYGATE, has involved
the NNPC, the PPPRA, and must have come under the gaze of the CBN and the
Federal Ministry of Finance; Third, every significant minister/official, and
ministerial department or parastatals involved in this case including the
ministers of petroleum and that of finance; as well as the CBN, PPPRA, NNPC and
Customs have given clearly contradictory data and information with respect to
these issues; no data or information given by any one department or official
has corroborated that given by others. The implication of this is that both the
economic team and the role of the coordinating minister of the economy have
been superfluous and redundant: no coordination of this economy has been taking
place whatsoever, except perhaps in the coordination of the mega looting of the
treasury.
In the light of the foregoing our previous demands must
be reaffirmed; while we must now include new demands:
1. Independent and thorough going probe of processes in
the petroleum sector, in particular the fuel import and subsidy payment regimes
by a special task force with investigative and prosecutorial powers.
2. All those indicted in this grand scale fraud must be
prosecuted and upon conviction given exemplary punishment to serve a s a
deterrent to others
3. A time bound [24 months] and funded strategy to
ensure self sufficiency in domestic refining capacity of petroleum products
must now be put in place immediately. We must cease importation of refined
petroleum products within 24 months.
4. The actual daily consumption rate of the country
must be immediately determined through strict monitoring of tanker loading at
depots and sales of products at filling stations across the country. Defaulters
must be immediately punished.
5. The actual existing production capacity of existing
refineries must be immediately ascertained. From the determination of this
production capacity and actual daily consumption rate, we can work out exact
quantity of products we need to be importing to meet the gap if it exists
during the 24 month transition period.
THE NEW DEMANDS:
6. Both the ministers of petroleum [under whose watch
these frauds have taken place] and the minister of finance and coordinating
minister of the economy [under whose watch absolutely no coordination of the
economy has taken place] should either both resign or be sacked immediately.
7. The boards and managements of both NNPC & PPPRA
should be immediately dissolved and the agency & parastatals completely
overhauled.
8. Independent commission of inquiry into the murders
of more than 20 citizens during the protests by a special task force with
powers to investigate and prosecute; and payment of compensation to the
families of the murdered and injured, alongside exemplary punishment to the
culprits [both those who gave the orders and those who carried out the orders.
IF WE ARE EVER GOING TO STAMP OUT IMPUNITY AND TACKLE
CORRUPTION IN GOVERNANCE OF OUR COUNTRY WE MUST INSIST ON THIS DEMANDS AND BE
PREPARED TO ONCE AGAIN OCCUPY NIGERIA IF THEY ARE NOT MET.
Our Revolution Continues! Its Our Country, Lets Take It
Back!!
The more we have challenged this regime and confronted
it with counter arguments to the reasons it is proffering for the urgency with
which it is determined to remove fuel subsidy; the more new facts have emerged
based on logical and rational, as opposed to voodoo analytical interpretation
of official data from government and global Oil industry sources!
