Time to discuss the Nigerian project

I had no doubt before now that 2012 will be a difficult year for Nigerians and the government they elected in April. It will be difficult politically for the government, economically for the people and socially for both. All the tell-tale signs were there long before now. With the mounting human tragedy in the North due to the unrelenting bombing campaign of the extremist Islamic group, Boko Haram, and a looming religious strife, it is a year Nigerians should face with trepidation.

What I didn’t know was that President Goodluck Jonathan would personally stoke the embers of the already smouldering energy crisis and exacerbate the tension in the country so early in the day by authorizing the removal of fuel subsidy on New Year Day. Coming after the Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, announced, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on December 21, that the Federal Government was yet to fix a date for the commencement of the policy, that amounts to an ambush.

When the fact that Maku’s “clarification,” a rebuttal of an earlier statement made by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Austen Oniwon, that the policy would begin automatically with the implementation of the 2011 budget, is thrown into the mix, it becomes obvious that the government was, while claiming to be consulting with stakeholders, ensnaring the people.

It acted in bad faith, more so, when the 2012 budget estimates are yet to be passed into law and the National Assembly had already authorized the executive to implement the 2011 budget till March 31. The President, himself, while presenting the Appropriation Bill created the impression that implementation of the policy would start in April. The government has not started implementing the 2012 Budget. In fact, the Bill is yet to be passed into law. So, President Jonathan decided not to even wait for the budget. He has decided to operate outside his own 2012 fiscal framework.

Removing the so-called subsidy on New Year Day, a Sunday, when Nigerians were still in celebratory mood was an unkind cut; an act of bad faith that can only widen the gulf of mistrust between the government and the people.

On Monday, a journalist-turned-banker friend of mine who travelled to the East for the Yuletide sent this text. “There was anguish in Owerri this morning – Monday, January 2, 2012 – as most Christmas returnees woke up to discover they can no longer afford the transport fare back to their bases. Could you imagine that fuel is already selling for N200 in some areas in the East? I have filled my tank with N20,000 worth of petrol and I will do this twice before I reach Lagos.

Christmas returnees are already stranded in their villages as transport fare has gone hare wire.” This is surely the definition of hardship, which the President, ironically, promised on New Year Day not to inflict on Nigerians.

It is incongruous that a government that needs all the goodwill it can muster from the people is the one deliberately pushing Nigeria onto a slippery slope. I wonder what gives Jonathan the confidence that he can weather the harsh storm his action will indubitably induce.
But that is an issue for another day.

For now, I am more concerned about the precipitate descent of Nigeria into a state of anarchy and the hardening positions. Following the Christmas Day bombing at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, I warned that the country may inexorably be drifting towards sectarian conflict.

The reactions I got, rather than assuage my anxiety, heightened my fears. Of the numerous text messages I received, I was particularly alarmed by what one D.A. Muh’d Kano (08079962089), who sent a text message from Abuja said. “You were silent, perhaps happy when ARNAS attacked and killed helpless Muslims at Jos Eid-Praying ground. Now, the turn of the so-called Chosen ones has come, and as expected, you are now making noise through your shameless newspapers.”

Boko Haram spokesman, Abul-Qaqa, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on telephone shortly after the attack, also claimed it was an act of reprisal to avenge the killing of some Muslims in Jos, Plateau State, during the Eid-el-Fitri festival.

Abul-Qaqa said the attacks were meant to prove that no amount of surveillance by security agents would deter his members from doing whatever they planned to do. “By the grace of God, we are responsible for all the attacks on Sunday. What we did was a reminder to all those that forgot the atrocities committed against our Muslim brothers during the Eid-el-Fitri celebrations in Jos. Muslims were killed but the Federal Government and the international community maintained sealed lips.”

Of course, this reaction came before the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, a man who delights, in my opinion, in rousing the rabble, pointedly warned that Christians in Nigeria will no longer turn the other cheek for Moslems to assault. Oritsejafor’s anger captured the outrage of millions of well-meaning Nigerians who sincerely believe that there must be an end to the orgy of bloodletting in the land.

The more than 40 people that were gruesomely murdered in Madalla had the inalienable right to life. They went to church to worship their God in peace time. Yet, they were so callously killed. How can anybody console Mrs. Chioma Dike, the woman who lost her husband and four children in the attack or Sir Emmanuel Obiukwu, the church warden who lost four children? In the twinkling of an eye, his life was turned upside. For Obiukwu’s and families, life will never be the same again. Do we as a people, Moslems and Christians, deserve this? My answer is no. it is easy for leaders to troupe to Madalla, have a photo session for the purposes of public relations and preach peace, but how can anybody convince Mr. Obiukwu or Mrs. Dike to have faith in Nigeria again?

As I appointed out last week, we are gradually inching towards sectarian strife, a slippery slope to hell. And my worst fears were confirmed after the Secretary General of a Muslim group, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, addressed a press conference in Kaduna where he berated Oritsajafor for daring to warn that if the Boko Haram bombings persisted, Christians would be compelled to defend themselves.

Like Abul-Qaqa and Muh’D Kano, Aliyu confirmed that Madalla bombing was a deliberate attack on Christians. Justifying the killings and taking umbrage at those condemning the attack, Aliyu asked: “Where were they when Muslims were attacked during the Eid-el-Fitri celebration that preceded the month of Ramadan in Plateau State where Muslims were attacked, killed and maimed? Sixteen people were not only slaughtered, but roasted and eaten. Why is this thing looking like a conspiracy of silence from the media, both local and foreign? Are Muslims animals? Are they not citizens of this country? Why is it always silence when something happens against the Muslims? Who reported the Southern Kaduna genocide?”

These are very dangerous sentiments. The implication of Aliyu’s statement is that despite the denials by leaders from Nigeria’s political and religious divides that the Madalla killings had no religious undertone, the fact remains that they were indeed killed because they were Christians. It didn’t matter to those who carried out the attacks that those killed in Madalla may not have visited Plateau State in all their lives, and, therefore, had no hand in the Jos mayhem.

Sadly, the Nigerian state is showing no sign of being able to contain this threat to its very existence. And being aware of this, the Boko Haram is emboldened by the day. Last week, it gave Southerners in the North three days to leave. This threat might sound ridiculous but the fact that some people are already heeding the ultimatum shows how much faith the people have lost in the ability of the state to protect them.

Time has come for Nigerians to discuss the Nigerian project. It smacks of hypocrisy for anybody, given our dire circumstance, to still insist that Nigeria should not be discussed

(culled from Candour's Niche Daily Independent Nigeria)