An impassioned letter from a friend and colleague who was on the march in Abuja today

11 January 2012

 

It was a sea of people! Tens of thousands of Nigerians matching together! Rainbow of colours! People from different works of life held together by an unquenchable zeal to make their voices heard. It was a magnificent sight to behold and an unprecedented solidarity of diverse interests in a unanimous movement to wrought change in government. Today (January 11) is the third day of the fuel subsidy removal protest in Nigeria. What started as a stuttering movement two days ago is now a massive movement in Abuja and other parts of the country. This movement undermines the narrative that we are a divided people. It refutes the claim that Nigerians are too docile to hold government accountable. It rebuts the allegation that the protest is sponsored by the opposition. People from both the South and North were in this protest together. Christians and Muslims prayed and sang together. This protest is not about a divided Nigeria but a people united by suffering, and a people who can also be united by good governance.

Walking with protesters in Abuja today for about two hours, shutting down one of the major highways in the city was physically gruelling but emotionally uplifting.  For successive years, governments in Nigeria have adopted policies and practices that increased corruption, wasted the resources of the country and treated Nigerians like they do not matter. Before now,  the  response of labour and civil society had not been enough to shake the foundations of government or create appreciable political and moral deficit for government. All of that has changed. Today government is not only haemorrhaging political authority but moral authority also. Nigerians are going through the budget, questioning dubious proposals, highlighting inconsistencies and demanding transparency. The immediate cause of this crisis is the removal of fuel subsidy but the remote cause is the years of neglect and irresponsible leadership.

The argument of the Nigerian people is fairly simple. Deregulation/removal of subsidy is not bad on its own but deregulation without more is a recipe for disaster and the continuation of voodoo economics that has impoverished the nation for too long. You need to put very solid policy and oversight infrastructure in place to protect the interest of the people and ensure that deregulation becomes a progressive policy capable of triggering economic growth. The high level of corruption in the government especially the management of the subsidy funds remains a constant reference point. Government has not been able to explain the astronomical rise in the cost of subsidy expenses from N300 BILLION in 2010 to N1.3 TRILLION IN 2011. Neither has this sharp increase been investigated. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult for Nigerians to trust the intentions of government or even their capacity to adequately apply the funds saved from the subsidy removal. The Federal government is still running a bloated government with very questionable budget lines and obscene allowances. Without addressing the high cost of governance, Nigerians are not convinced that the call for belt tightening measures by government is sincere or appropriate. Moreover the way government ambushed Nigerians with the subsidy removal without dialogue undermines any claim on the part of government of bona fides.

The only way this impasse can be solved is for government to go back to status quo ante and roll out a phased measurable program that will lead to subsidy removal. Government must show sincerity and sensitivity to the legitimate demands of Nigerians. It is not about Jonathan or PDP but about clean government and accountability.

There are many winners in this protest. Government can be a winner, if it harvests the positive energy of the youths and Nigerians who have defied weather and fear to match for days to make their voices heard. They have called for drastic reforms in government and government can ride on this momentum to do the needful and make a break from the so called ‘cabal’ that seem to hold it hostage. They can make unpleasant cost cutting decision especially with respect to allowances and the cost of running needless government activities.

For Nigerians, the peaceful protest must be continued in spite of the obvious challenges and frustrations. Democracy is about expression and by their conducts; Nigerians are making their voices heard across the waters and all over the world. This protest should be about good governance and a new culture of accountability. The amazingly solidarity that overflows denominational, ethnic and political boundaries should not dry up at the end of the current struggle but should be a standard with which Nigerians should conduct themselves. The speakers at the protest have called for solidarity in fighting terrorism and for Nigerians to be their brothers’ keepers. That call has been answered in Abuja, Kano and Kaduna where Muslims and Christians watched over each other while they prayed. These moving manifestations of unity must be sustained.

I walk away from the protest today with a greater belief in the future of Nigeria and firm commitment to fight on. Watching aging men and women defy the odds of their age to protest provokes a feeling of solidarity and resilience that is not easy to quench. Watching the youth identifying with one another across ethnic, social and religious lines as they articulated their demands for good governance inspires confidence that the Nigeria of our dreams is not too distant. It is with this confidence, solidarity and resilience that we have marched this far. Suffering unites us but it is obvious that prosperity will further solidify that unity. Tomorrow we go back to the trenches to continue the protest because if not for any other thing, it reinforces the fact that we are in this together and we believe in each other. We are all citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and this is our motherland! The struggle continues....