By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem
Nigerians heaved a huge sigh of relief last week when the Presidency finally reduced the pump price of fuel to N97 per litre. Recall that President Goodluck Jonathan had during the electioneering campaign promised the people fresh air if he wins but just as Nigerians were towards the end of last year grumbling that the fresh air was nowhere to be found, the President announces a 110 percent increase in the pump price of fuel on January 1st. The crisis that followed need not be repeated here.
On Sunday night, after series of meetings involving organised labour, leadership of the National Assembly, some ministers and state governors, the President agreed to meet with labour leaders for the third time with a final take-it-or-leave-it pump price of N97. Though the meeting was deadlocked, he made a nationwide broadcast the next morning to announce the new price and urged all protesters and striking workers to sheathe their swords in the national interest.
Since everyone knew that the price could never have gone back to N65, for the President to have retained half of the fuel subsidy was a breath of subsidised fresh air for the people especially when NLC leader, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar announced the suspension of the strike later on.
Also on Monday, about 52 corps members of the 2011 set were at the Banquet Hall of the State House, honoured by the President for their remarkable service to their fatherland. In the annual event, President Jonathan also announced automatic employment and post graduate scholarship up to Phd level to the outstanding corps members. Obviously, they were the first beneficiaries of the new found peace in the country.
Let us not forget that the President used the occasion to further lambast his political detractors for taking advantage of the protests to call for regime change and destabilise the country.
Members of the Council of States did not however benefit from the new fresh air as the meeting scheduled for last Tuesday was cancelled at the last minute by the President who cited security reasons.
Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon and first civilian President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who met the President on that day, told State House correspondents that the Council supported the manner in which the President handled the subsidy palaver.
He said: “We are here to greet the President. We were to have attended the Council of State meeting that was cancelled because of the situation in the country. The former Heads of State were to have met before now and advise on the subsidy issue as well as the security problem.”
On the best approach in resolving the security problem in the country, Gowon said, “I assure you that Mr. President and his team are very much on top of it. Any security issue is not something you can virtually dictate on and say this is the way it is going to finish. But with the determination to ensure security for all and for the good of the country, all that we need to do is to give the President the support for all the actions he is taking to put the situation under control.”
General Gowon who as Head of State led the country to the 30- month bitter civil war in late 60s also said: “There is need for cooperation from all the people. I am sure no stone would be left unturned in getting to the bottom of the problem and resolving it. I trust and believe in this country and the goodness of all Nigerians to be able to resolve their problems themselves the way we did after fighting each other for so many years.
How did we do it? Was there an equivalent of the reconciliation that we were able to achieve in Nigeria anywhere in the history of the world? It is only in Nigeria that this is impossible, in fact, becomes possible.”
While Nigerians were still basking in the euphoria of the newly found fresh air, Jonathan on Tuesday night in a meeting with members of the Diplomatic Corps, said his administration will handle the issue of subsidy removal better next time. According to him, government had learnt its lessons and when the remaining subsidy on petroleum is removed, it would be done in such a way that the suffering on the people would not be much.
While apologising to the diplomats over whatever inconveniences the subsidy crisis may have caused them, the President not
ed that no matter the machinations by the enemies of Nigeria, the country’s democracy had become too strong to be toppled by any interest.
After Wednesday’s weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Minister of Police affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd) spoke to State House correspondents on the really annoying issue of Kabiru Sokoto, the Boko Haram suspect who was said to have escaped in the hands of police men after his arrest in connection with the Christmas day bombing of St Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state.
He disclosed that himself and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Hafiz Ringim risked losing their jobs if the President is not given a good reason not to wield the big stick.
Olubolade confirmed that the IGP has been queried and given 24 hours to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him over the incident.
Olubolade also revealed that government has ordered the arrest of all policemen involved in the operation leading to the escape of the suspect including Commissioner of Police, Zakari Biu.
“That was an unfortunate incident but measures will be put in place now to address the escaped suspect. From the ministry, I have directed the IG to carry out full investigation and even at higher level above that one, there will be another investigation to ascertain what led to the suspect's escape, he said.
He continued: "I have also directed that the officers involved and the personnel involved should be detained immediately."
On what action might be taken against the police officers, he remarked that "you would have seen in the papers that the commissioner of police has been suspended. In fact, beyond that, I have ordered that he be placed under closed arrest."
Beyond the blowing the air that the minister did, there was really no result as at the time of typing this piece because the suspect was not arrested and the IGP retained his job. What was however unclear was whether the explanation given by Ringim to the ministry and Presidency was satisfactory enough for him to keep his job. But what kind of explanation could that be? What kind of story could be convincing enough to excuse such a high level mediocrity and negligence? Why did IGP Ringim bring back the controversial police commissioner, Zakari Biu to the Force from obscurity, knowing the ignoble role he allegedly played in the military days? Why was Biu allowed to handle such a sensitive case and why was it that only four policemen escorted Kabiru Sokoto to Abaji when it took a truck load of officers to arrest him in the first place? These questions Nigerians want answers for and somebody somewhere needs to do a lot to convince Nigerians that their tormentors are not among the people that are being paid with their taxes.
So on Friday, just when Nigerians were getting impatient with the whole brouhaha, the minister again spoke with State House correspondent and announced that Ringim had answered the query and that a panel had been set up by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Andrew Owoye Azazi to within a week look into the issue and advise government appropriately. According to him, the panel is made up of senior police and military officers as well as top ministry officials.
Back to the villa, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku addressed State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and informed them that the sum of N363.6 milion had been approved by government for a thorough audit of the country’s oil and gas as well as the solid mineral sectors.
This followed a concern raised by Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Tuesday about the lack of transparency in the importation of petroleum products by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as the management of the entire oil and gas secto
According to the minister, while the probe of the oil and gas sector will cover the period from 2009 to 2011, the solid mineral sector probe will expand from 2009 to 2010.
Maku also disclosed that the consultants are to carry out Nigeria's hydrocarbon and solid mineral audit values. “They are expected to also access the volumetric aspects of production, export, imports, unaccounted oil and gas and solid minerals as well as other relevant streams,” he added.
Lastly, President Jonathan at a meeting with the outgoing Ambassador of Iran, Hussein Abdullahi, reiterated that the ‘difficult’ decisions his administration took on the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry few weeks ago, were in the long term interest of the country.
The President insisted that government was focused on not just the removal of fuel subsidy but also the total deregulation of the downstream sector.
Earlier, the Iranian Ambassador told President Jonathan that his country also had to withdraw petroleum subsidies two years ago, noting that 70 percent of the savings were devoted to infrastructural development and 30 percent to the provision of other palliatives.
