THE DESPERATION OF A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS DIVIDE AND RULE TACTICS

When on 11th of May, 2016, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu announced the removal of fuel subsidy and the deregulation of the oil sector with Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) officially sold for #145 per litre, Nigerians went ballistic. Questions were asked.

A.How did the Federal Government arrived at the new pump price considering the fact that the FG was only subsidising PMS by paying about #14, leaving the former price at #86.50 per litre. You don’t need to go to Harvard Kennedy Business School before you can conclude that the price should hover around #100/l. How the FG got #145/l still remains a mystery and a source for debate.
B.Why is the former opposition party returning to their vomit of 2012 when they protested the previous administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan did same thing at a more saner time and atmosphere? Was Nigerians led astray out of greed for power?
C.Who did the FG consulted before arriving at such price? That was one of the reasons why the conglomeration of then opposition parties induced Youths and workers to the street to #OccupyNigeria.
D.Why are the Independent Marketers happy about the new condition when in actual sense, the decision was made to clip their wings?
E.What will the NLC/TUC do considering the fact that the Minister claimed they were privy to the decision?

Nigerians were still debating these questions when the FG stepped up their game. The leadership of the NLC released a press statement explaining how they were “ambushed“ at the meeting. They however stopped short of saying they will not allow the decision to stand as they asked their State executives to start mobilisation immediately while they await the outcome of the NEC meeting fixed for a later date.

As promised, NLC gave the FG a three day notice to either revert the price or increase minimum wage to a staggering #56,000, else they down tools. As it should be, the FG set in place motion for dialogue.

Anxious as everybody were, the NLC delegation met with the FG team led by the Secretary to Federal Government. Little did the NLC leadership knew the FG had a contingency plan. They knew not they were dealing with a deceitful, cunny and very desperate government. As anticipated, the NLC grandstand. And here comes the joker! The now very docile and defeated faction of the Comrade Ajaero was woken up and heavily mobilised to defeat the genuine cause of the struggle.

This is nothing but a barbaric act coming from where should traditionally be the hallmark of Justice and rule of law. Never have I ever seen a government this desperate! What value is this government passing on? The Machiavellian the end shall justify the means attitude of this government is preposterous and incongruous! Yes, they succeeded, but they’ve set a very bad precedent. As “corrupt and vile “ as PDP is, they never stooped this low.

As if that wasn’t enough, they made move to neutralise the potent threat of the most populous pressure group in the country, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). It’s no gainsaying the fact that NANS has since derailed from its ideology and intellectualism. A little stipend is all needed to destabilise the union.

NANS has three layers, the National Executives, the Zonal leadership and the JCC structure which comprises of all students' union Presidents in each state/axis. Having made the National President, Tijani Usman eat his own vomit, they moved to clip the wings of the Zonal structures. Critical to that is the acclaimed most ideological Zone...the South West Zone.

The South West Zone D had a Congress at Ibadan, Oyo State on Monday, 16th May, 2016 where they vowed to embark on the “mother of all protest on Thursday, 19th May, 2016 at Lagos. They were thereafter invited to Abuja to meet with the Minister of State for Petroleum. A charted flight was sent all the way from Abuja to Lagos to pick about 15 student leaders led by a former aide of Gov. Amosun of Ogun State, Olusegun Clement. In the team were the Zonal Executives led by the Secretary General of the Zone, Oloja Olarenwaju, the JCC Chairmen of the South Western states, except Ondo State(the JCC qualm there has remained unresolved) and some Stakeholders, believed to be sympathetic to the cause of the APC in the students’ movement, one of which is the immediate past Coordinator of the Zone, Asefon Sunday. They were late to the meeting and went to Department of Secret Service(DSS) to express their grievances. The directorate gave them a sum of #500,000 and helped them to secure a meeting with the Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria(IPMAN) who gave them #1.5m. There and then, the mother of all protests never had a father to impregnate it.

What remains baffling is that at this austere period, a government still sends private jet to pick up students and dole out cash to them just to keep them shut! Pathetic, isn’t it? PDP as corrupt as were made to believe never indulged in such show of shame.

One wonders why IPMAN is so happy to the extent of doling out cash and incentives just to make the subsidy removal accepted. Are we not going from fry pan to fire? Pity.

Yes, APC won the election on the platform of deceit and lies. Why aim to rule us on same propaganda? Why sow the seed of discord just to coerce Nigerians to accept their unpopular decisions. Desperation is not a good attribute of a government and how soon before the people go to the barricade?

Yours truly,
Wande T Ajayi
National Publicity Secretary
New Generation Ambassadors of Nigeria.