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Source Daily Trust
When President Goodluck Jonathan decided to remove the subsidy on petrol said to benefit a cabal and not going to the poor who are meant to benefit from it, on January 1, he may not have envisaged the magnitude of protests that is still raging.

After all, this is Nigeria, a country of docile people that must accept whatever decisions government makes for them. Even if they protest, it would be a short one, and they accept their ‘fate’ as the will of God. Talk of the most religious people in the world that Nigerians are said to be!

However, he has been proved to be wrong, times are changing and people see what is happening in other countries such as the Arab spring that has toppled dictators like Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Also with the help of western powers, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was deposed and killed.

The foregoing should have made the government to thoroughly consider before making a monumental decision like the total removal of petroleum subsidy which has led to the increase of transportation and virtually everything in a country where majority of the people live below poverty line.

As a result, apart from the protests that broke out immediately, a day after the fuel price increase, the organised labour, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC started a nationwide strike with rallies. The civil society is also involved in the strike.

But the government is still insisting that it would not revert to N65 as demanded by the NLC and TUC before they enter into negotiations. And the government also insisted that the NLC must end the strike before they start negotiations. So there is a stalemate.

In any event, the issue of the removal of subsidy came to the limelight with the N18, 000 minimum wage that was signed into law last year before the April elections. The president and governors agreed to pay it before the elections, but it is yet to be implemented.

The governors complained that they didn’t have enough money to pay the minimum wage, so they pushed for the removal of the fuel subsidy. Though the tune has now changed that they would use the money for developmental projects, the question is, can they still do that and pay the minimum wage?

People are sceptical, believing that the money would be diverted. For example while the federal government has come out with its reinvestment project, we have not heard any such plan from the states, much less the local governments, making people to be more suspicious that the fund will be another milking cow.

In a democracy, the people’s will should prevail, and if the government wants to introduce an unpopular policy it should enlighten and educate the people. As reports indicate, many people don’t even know what fuel subsidy is, they feel the government is out to punish people.

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in defence of the government said there were adverts in the newspapers about it, but how many Nigerians read newspapers? Enlightenment in Nigerian languages and in the rural areas would make people at least know what the government is doing.

But to spring this suddenly on the people and expect them to make sacrifice without a whimper, or with a whimper then they would skulk away to suffer in silence is an insult to the people. The government should credit them with intelligence and common sense, especially now that people are aware of the billions in the budget for the president’s food and cars among other luxuries and the jumbo salary of legislators.

While the protest goes on, the government is raising alarm that politicians have hijacked it for their selfish end, so also hoodlums. But are the opposition politicians not part of Nigeria, are they not also affected by the government policies? And the so- called hoodlums are they not Nigerians and the product of Nigeria? This is not however condoning lootings, killings and arson.

Many have lost their lives through shootings by the police and the Inspector General of Police; Hafiz Ringim said without remorse that those killed were hoodlums. Shouldn’t they be arrested and tried, since these people are unarmed?

It is wrong for the government to assume that other Nigerians don’t have feelings enough to join the protest, blaming NLC for instigating people, does it means people don’t know where it pinches them?

If the government learns anything from this protest it is not take Nigerians for granted again, and it should go back to the drawing board.