NIGERIA: WHO IS IN CHARGE, PLEASE?

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

This piece would have been done a couple of days ago. This writer deliberately put the piece on hold just to watch whether the immediate social trends that constituted the compelling reasons for it will ease out. But alas! Instead of abating, these socially ugly trends keep expanding.

Before you wonder for too long what this writer is driving at, let me hit the nail on the head.

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On January 23 rd 2009, most National Dailies carried banner headlines that the Federal Government has effected the review of the open market pump price of premium motor spirit from the extremely high rate of #70.00k per liter to #65.00k. Some Nigerians expressed support for the move by the Federal Government to heed the longstanding clarion calls by a large segment of Nigerians for the downward review in line with the market trend of price of refined crude oil in the international community.

One of these Nigerians and groups that cheered on the President Umaru Masa Yar’adua’s government for this so-called magnanimity was the Action Congress, one of the very few credible opposition political platforms in the country. Ironically strategic stakeholders and union leaders in the crude oil sector criticized the incredibly uncharitable downward review of the pump price of fuel otherwise called premium motor spirit. These opponents of the review expressed the widely acceptable view that reducing the exorbitant pump price of fuel from #70.00k to mere #65.00k was grossly inadequate and will not in anyway improve the living condition of millions of heavily impoverished Nigerians. But on top of this incredibly uncharitable, laughable and unhelpful downward review of the open market pump price of premium motor spirit as announced by the Federal Government through one of the most unpopular agencies: Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency, (PPPRA), the Government deliberately failed to enforce the new pump price regime.

Apart from the ugly fact that in the entire South Eastern Region of Nigeria, Premium Motor Spirit has always been sold for between #120.00k to #90.00k per liter for over a year now, the petroleum product is not available for most buyers resulting in the emergence of very long queues in the few fuel dispensing stations that have decided to sell the product.

That is infact one side of the ugly story of the state of social paralysis that has enveloped most segments of the Nigerian society. The most annoying part of the entire scenario is that, while the fuel marketers have refused to comply with the new directive by Government to review downward the open market pump price of fuel, Government has not shown the will- power to enforce the new pump price regime across the country. This has resulted in the total break down of economic, social and to some extent spiritual activities especially in the nation’s capital because virtually all motorists have besieged the few stations that have opened for business.

Before returning to the controversy surrounding the issue of government’s unwillingness to enforce the new pump price regime, it will be worthwhile to point out the fact that the political office holders who populate the political space in Nigeria will never stop amazing every rational human beings in this country.

Reason: Even while Nigerians clamour for the enforcement of the newly introduced pump price of premium motor spirit, the politicians in the corridors of power at both the executive and legislative arms of Government just like unserious comedians, engaged themselves in the empty intellectual arguments of whether the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Jonathan is validly acting as president with the two weeks vacation of president Umaru Musa Yar’adua which commenced on Monday 26 th January, 2009.

These characters that parade themselves as political office holders in Nigeria are indeed truly amazing and shockingly disappointing. You need not ask why before I reel out my reasons for drawing to this conclusion.

The secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed had in a media released published by most national dailies on Saturday 24 th January 2009 told Nigerians that with effect from Monday January 26 th 2009, the president Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua will proceed on leave for two weeks and that within that period, the vice President would act as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Some days after, the president’s spokesman, Mr. Segun Adeniyi told a bewildered nation that though his boss Alhaji Yar’adua has proceeded on two weeks vacation, he (President Umaru Musa Yar’adua) is still in charge. The political muscle flexing and drama continued even in the chambers of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a section of the senators stating that the vice president’s role as acting president in the two weeks that the substantive president is on leave is not valid since the constitutional directive was not met by the President before he proceeded on break. But the Senate president, Senator David Mark, said the section of the 1999 constitution that talks about when the vice president can act as president could be invoked optionally.

Section 145 of the 1999 constitution states as follows; “whenever the president transmits to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the vice president as acting president”.

The impression created by the spokesman of the president is that the secretary to the Federal Government did not know what he was writing when he issued a media release stating the obvious fact that the president will proceed on two weeks leave and that his vice will act as president for those number of days. What a shame?

The question is, who is truly in charge of Nigeria?

There have being too many conflicting public statements by political office holders at the top most level of administration in Nigeria since the current Government assumed office.

Most Nigerians think that it is not helpful that the political office holders will engage in beating about the bush literarily debating about unnecessary issue when serious existential problems like the failure of the law enforcement officials to enforce the new pump price of premium motor spirit has not been sufficiently addressed. The same scenario was created before the Federal Government finally announced the very slight reduction in the high pump price of fuel.

In mid December last year, precisely on December 17 th 2008, Thisday Newspaper lucidly carried a story of the confusing drama that took place in the corridors of the presidency and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC). The special Adviser to the President on Petroleum, the eminently well educated scientist, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah had told Thisday exclusively that the pump price of petroleum products would soon be reduced.

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The Petroleum Special Adviser to President Yar’adua had said the reduction would gradually move from 25 percent to 40 percent to reflect the state of the current fall in global prices of oil.

But the Group Manager (Public Affairs) of NNPC, a former Independent Television Producer, Mr. Levi Ajuonuma said in Oran, Algeria, venue of the 151 Extra Ordinary meeting of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OPEC), that no such decision had been taken. He [Ajuonuma] thus debunked the good news that the president’s special Adviser gave to Nigerians on the Government’s plans to review downward the open market pump prices of petroleum products.

Ajuonuma stated thus: “the Federal Government’s agreement with labour still stands. The Government will not do anything about the current prices (as at December 2008) of Petrol until it meets again with labour. Since the Federal Government has subsidized the pump price heavily recently, the government is not in a hurry to tinker with the current domestic pump price ….”

Like most Nigerians, this writer feels that there is so much confusion in the top echelon of political governance in Nigeria. Who is truly in charge of Nigeria please? Can Mrs. Dora Akunyili answer this interrogation please?

The other day, Michael Aoondooka, the controversial Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice dabbled into the political arena by acting as the spokesman of the so-called core Northern political elites when he debunked the widely held insinuations that the North is searching for a replacement to the current president when the first tenure expires in 2011 because of President Yar’adua’s reported troubling health challenge.

The questions one will ask are; when did the office of the Federal Attorney General changed from being the nation’s chief law officer to nation’s chief political officer?

Another pertinent but related interrogation is when did Aoondooka, who is of Tiv ethnic nationality in the middle belt of Nigeria become the spokesman of the core northern politicians?

Nigeria has become a huge play ground for all manner of people masquerading as politicians to play around with the intelligence of the larger population of citizens who in any case have maintained dignified silence in the face of oppression.

In his book DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY, the highly respected cleric; Mathew Hassan Kukah (PHD), warned that alienation and disengagement may set in if the current state of confusion among the political office holders continue.

His words: “the legitimacy of any community or government rests on its ability to find and nurture the glue that will hold it together. Societies do this by way of myths and national symbols around which they derive their legitimacy. When the state fails to continue to serve as a platform for the individuals to attain their potentials, human beings tend to find alternative means of creating a sense of belonging. Disengagement then sets in as men and women adopt new survival techniques ranging from belonging to armed gangs, cults and extreme religious or cultural groups, or they adopt false nationalist agendas cast in tribal and religious moulds. They then begin to unleash all forms of terror on the state, its citizens and agencies….”

At every point in time, Nigerians deserve the right to know who the political leaders are. Nigerians must constantly know who is in charge of Nigeria. Nigerians need to see that government policies made in the service of the common good and the public interest, like the newly reduced pump price of premium motor spirit, among others, are substantially complied with by all persons.