Nigerians say No to aluta, forever?

We live in interesting times. Nigerians, despite the excruciating pains that they daily ENDURE, chose to ignore the call to strike. A number of explanations could be offered. First is that they have lost all confidence in the Labour leaders whom have been shown to be deceivers who have profited immensely from the pains of the workers, or that they are simply war-weary, or that they are still enamoured of Buhari, the iconic leaders in whom people have so much confidence, something akin to what they show their maximum rulers in North Korea.
By the time you read this, Labour would have been fully demystified. With the concerted condemnation of their call for strike, one may even assume that any such call will never again gain traction in Nigeria. Maybe we have finally arrived, at the place where the western nations – especially the United States – have been. In such capitalist countries, there is nothing like strikes. The unions were hobbled under Reagan – and in Britain, under Thatcher to a lesser extent. Those people have since understood the maxim of ‘every man for himself’. In such places, employers wring the every ounce of productivity from workers, and workers have turned into machines, but luckily for them, they have put in place infrastructure for their masses, which ensures those masses enjoy the same lifestyles as the middle class. Well almost.
In Nigeria, we are working on a promissory note; and the promissory note seems rumpled and chipped on all sides. Yes, it is issued by a man of integrity – the president – but that man seem to be overwhelmed by the problem of the day, and ensconced by trustees with whom he probably shares no ideal. Their rhetoric that the already downtrodden should take on more sacrifices therefore rings hollow. How can the president and his team be asking the people for more sacrifices when they did not actually show any visible signs that they were ready for any significant sacrifices themselves. I have three senators on record – Ben Bruce (don’t snigger), Isa Misau, and Sola Adeyeye -who stated in no unclear terms that the number of expensive luxurious official cars bought for government operatives in Nigeria were too many and that they did not think any government workers – including themselves – deserve any, for now. No one took them up on their challenge.
These lawmakers however dropped the ball when they also stated that the kind of Spartan frugality that people are asking for, will not start with the Senate. In other words, they will collect their own and damn Nigeria. At that point, they have sent us the people back to Buhari. And the poor old man has said nothing; just the same way he has said nothing on the matter of elite recruitment at the CBN! Nigerians also saw the leaked memo wherein Minister Lai Mohammed ‘borrowed’ the sum of N13 million from the National Broadcasting Corporation – an otherwise innocuous agency fast turning into another cash cow like NNPC. The money is meant for travel to some equally innocuous conference abroad where our people blow grammar and return with nothing. The Senate has a point because the President has the final say in the matter of sacrifice from all our big men and indeed all political appointees and even the elected ones. For some reason, Buhari has disappointed Nigerians on that score. What went wrong?
Nigerians said no to strikes all the same, despite sleeping and waking in rolling darkness (many for weeks now), despite encountering crimes like kidnapping and robbery like never before, despite education and health becoming more unaffordable, despite a mismanaged Naira which has caused inflation and is now eating away at their salaries, despite aggression from tax officers and rate collectors, despite massive job losses and company closures, despite inability of many to continue their trades. In spite of all this, Nigerians passed a vote of confidence on Buhari. Nigerians have – by their actions and utterances – said clearly that they are now ready to sit back and relax, and watch Buhari’s magic unfold.
I must confess I am no longer as enamoured as I was with the whole change project.  How many times will one have his heart broken by politicians. I cannot forget that the APC as a party denied ALL of its election promises – which formed the basis of the votes they got. I cannot forget the misused opportunities, the tactless engagement of the people.  Those are hard to forget. As I stated elsewhere, it is all about the sequencing and the optics. How do policies look? How will they be received? What should come first, or second? But people in government are the first to lose track of the pulse of the people they lead.
And that is the problem with the increase in pump price of refined petroleum.  As a matter of fact, we don’t know what it is. Have we now deregulated or this is just the price reacting to market forces as the Vice President said? Many government officials now say different things about the same thing. The Vice President’s statement that what happened was not deregulation was alarming because it’s like saying there is more pain yet to come. Or perhaps he meant they had deregulated months ago, in which case we will question the credibility of government officials who claim that deregulation had not happened, until now.
And if deregulation were to be done properly, why are we still setting prices? Why don’t we allow the market determine the prices in an organic way? For me, the best thing to have done – if government is tired about the back and forth – is to allow the prices float. Since government now says anyone who wants to, can get involved in the business of fuel importation, there is no reason why the NNPC cannot do more than it has been doing before, or at least continue to play its role. One would therefore expect the NNPC to be the benchmark, if it trusts itself. During the week, we heard a rumour that A. A. RANO, an oil marketer had declared that all its stations should not sell at more than N107. It turned out to be a ruse. It should be NNPC selling at such a price, so that others can see it as the indicator. By my own calculation, apart from fraud and profiteering, we should be able to achieve pump price of not more than N80 at the current price of crude oil, which according to the NNPC/Ministry of Finance, accounts for 80% of the final price of petrol at the pumps.
The other aspect of deregulation is that we need to finally agree that prices cannot be equal around the country. Since we are now all-out capitalist and neoliberal, we should play the game appropriately. In the USA and Europe which we copy, prices differ depending on location. And quality is also an issue. We have all sorts of fuel being brought into Nigeria, and it is a sure thing that with the mindset of the marketers – the same people who ripped off Nigeria in the 2011 fraud and none have been successfully convicted – they will always search for the cheapest quality anywhere in the world to bring to this country. That is why for most people who drive big, sensitive cars, the ‘check engine’ light is always on, and our fuel evaporates faster than anything.
It will be great to see how the collapse of labour pans out in future. Let us hope we don’t ever have cause to protest against any future government on any issue.