YOU ARE FREE TO PROTEST.

If you think that the tens of thousands (arguably hundreds of thousands) of Nigerian men and women who turned out daily to protest the fuel price increase of January 1st 2012 were wrong and hypocritical for not responding in like fashion now;  you can carry a megaphone and loudspeakers to Ojuelegba to initiate a protest against the government of the day and see if people will follow you. 

Do you...yes you... really think the January 2012 protests was because of the person of Goodluck Jonathan?  You call the civil liberties groups and key leaders of that subsidy protest hypocrites because you are convinced they latched on to an opportunity to 'overthrow' Jonathan's regime. How more far from the truth can you be? Who were the people who led from the front in late 2009 and early 2010 at protest rallies to free Nigeria from Turai's sleeper hold when Ebele couldn't fight for his constitutional right to guide a nation whose president was a few nephrones  away from the great beyond? He lacked ambition then and that was all the convincing I needed to know that he wasn't fit to lead even a prefects body. APC wasn't even formed then and for sure president Buhari had not come out to say he was contesting again after 3 landslide losses.  

The hike was announced in 2012 and the stories that were brought to the surface in the following days caused many to wonder how a responsible government watched on as they incurred a 2.3trillion naira subsidy bill in 2011 from a 'meagre' 600 billion the previous year.  A Vanguard newspaper report has it that Nigeria spent just over 100 billion on subsidy payments in 2000.

Have we forgotten that the subsidy regime was investigated following the protests in a bid to pacify Nigerians?  Have we forgotten that banks,  the military,  the Nigerian customs, real and imagined companies were indicted in the technical committee report and that some powerful Nigerians and some powerful children were named with a few of them seemingly getting charged to court? 

Should we talk about president Jonathan offering to cut the basic salaries of himself and his officials or should we dwell on the buses they shared to the NURTW?  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala alongside Dezaini Alison Madueke defended the move and the subsidy reinvestment drive tagged SURE-P. Jonathan even got a credible individual to head that until he voluntarily resigned in late 2013. Lieutenant-General Martin - Luther Again replaced Christopher Kolade as SureP boss until the former got fired in march 2015 allegedly for attending former president Obasanjo's birthday bash.

The Nigerian labour congress suffered a near fatal blow to its integrity during the last days of that subsidy protest.  The body which includes petroleum workers attended a meeting to resolve the crisis at the Aso rock villa over the weekend and by Monday morning,  armed soldiers were stationed at Ojota the higher centre of the mass protest to prevent the re aggregation of protesters. President Jonathan settled for a compromise pump price and the Labour union lost respect. 

For those who are only capable of seeing Nigerian affairs as pro-Jonathan or anti-Buhari;  they really need to stop making reference to how 'great' Jonathan was and how doomed Nigeria is to have rejected her only president who passed through a university. It's tragic how seemingly educated people will constantly hail a regime characterized by heists which have made the British prime minister to crossbreed corruption and the fantastic four movie. All we hear is "why is Buhari only persecuting PDP members?", did APC members join in withdrawing money from the Central bank's ATM to win the 2015 election?  Did APC members like Olu Falae receive money they didn't know came from arms money to campaign for Jonathan? If indeed any member of the APC got any of such funds,  I'm sure it won't be hard to nail them. 

They say Fashola,  Amaechi, Aregbesola and other APC governors emptied their respective state treasuries to fund Buhari's campaign and hence deserve to be prosecuted. Do they really think that the president won by sharing money to all and sundry?  The president as a lone ranger in 2011 was awarded over 12 million votes to Jonathan's 22 million.  Do people actually think that Buhari without access to the CBN's vault and returned Abacha loot paid his way to ensure that Jonathan lost 10 million votes from 2011 and only gained just over 3 million plus votes to win in 2015? If Amaechi indeed drained Rivers state,  should it not have reflected in how Rivers people voted at least? 

Those who collected money to campaign for Jonathan and his NSA Dasuki have not denied that they took such monies; I'm not sure I've read of any allegation that any ethnic or religious leader collected money from anybody to ensure that someone called brain dead by the former president's wife got enough votes to defeat an incumbent. Many multi millionaires and billionaires were forged from simply associating with Jonathan.  Former service chiefs also indulged in the largesse and even the president's kitchen cabinet must have assumed the erstwhile president was just a rag doll to play with and then discard. 

Ruminating over some imaginary great deeds Jonathan did and wishing for his return is like a pregnant woman in her first trimester looking for thalidomide to relieve her morning sickness. No one is delighted that we now have to pay a more than 60% increase for petrol. Majority of Nigerians will find it hard to cope but we must understand that the people trying to fix things now were not responsible for leaving four sub optimal refineries which have ensured that petrol has to be purchased and shipped with foreign currency from refineries situated on other continents. Government or privately financed refineries on how shores won't just appear overnight;  it'd require some time.  

Obasanjo told Nigerians that power supply would be a thing of the past when 2003 came yet we still sleep soaked in darkness and its incubating heat. Nuclear reactors won't be purchased on ebay neither will windmills dot our coastlines like sunflowers in 'Mama Charlie's' garden after just a few weeks. Is it not fair to give the current team a reasonable chance to work? One thing Nigerians gained from 2015 is courage; the courage to do away with what doesn't work. If Nigerians observe that alterations need to be made by 2018/2019; be assured that Nigerians will effect the changes. 

The marketers sat with the government officials and decided on the way forward. They won't have forex at official rates because such funds aren't simply there. They'll get their money and ship in products which should match stipulated standards. Hopefully when supply increases it'd drive prices down while the nation's refining capacity and efficiency improves.  The minister of petroleum in a previous video said that the long term plan was to have the private sector run things in the oil sector. This may just be the first bus stop on that journey. 

The Emir of Kano championed an end to subsidy months before January 2012 and during the heat of the protests. He must have felt Nigerians who protested then were being unreasonable and didn't see the benefits of putting an end to the scam. One wonders what made the poster boy for subsidy removal to turn around and out the officials of the past government on missing oil revenue. Just about every account of Nigeria's money got looted in the last administration. Returned loot,  arms money, pension funds,  oil revenue,  excess crude account,  sovereign wealth fund,  etc; money sha miss all over the place. 

Who are the hypocrites?  If you didn't actively or passively support the protests in 2012 because of your obsessive affinity for Jonathan (and not necessarily based on principle) and you are now breaking your head because people are not joining you to protest the end of subsidy then you are the hypocrite. If you thought like Emir Sanusi that removing the subsidy in 2012 was the way to go but are now pulling out your hair because you think it adds some lustre to Jonathan,  you are free to charge to the front lines with labour unions to grind the nation to a halt.  I'm sure you'd find many pastors who will accompany you on such a voyage;  who knows,  you may just be right afterall.

let us not forget these brethren who exercised daily at places like Ketu and Badagry only to have their hopes dashed by SURE-P