Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Nigeria News Update: Labor Rejects N97; How the Deal With Government Was Brokered

Labour rejects N97

By John Ofikhenua, Abuja
Nigerian Nation

WORK is expected to resume today, following Labour’s suspension of its fuel price strike that brought the economy to its knees.

The government has reduced petrol price to N97 per litre – down from between N139 and N200. But Labour said N97 per litre was the government’s “unilateral” decision.

The Labour movement, which comprises the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), yesterday suspended the six-day old industrial action.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had on January 1, announced the withdrawal of petrol subsidy, which sent fuel prices rising to between N138 and N200. Prices of goods and services rose simultaneously. The labour movement threatened to go on strike, should the government refuse to reverse to N65 by January 9. The mass protests across the country culminated in loss of lives and property and the subsequent negotiation with the Federal Government.

Announcing the suspension of the industrial action, rallies and street protests at the Labour House in Abuja yesterday, NLC President Abdulwahed Omar noted that the government “that chorused continuously that its decision to increase PMS price to N141 is irreversible and irreducible, was forced to announce a price reduction to N97”.

“We, however, state categorically that this new price was a unilateral one by the government,” he said.

According to Omar, the labour movement and its allies, who co-ordinated the “historical” mass actions, decided that to save lives and in the interest of national survival, suspended the mass actions.

NLC and TUC said in the past eight days through strikes, mass rallies, shutdown, debates and street protests, Nigerians demonstrated clearly that they cannot be taken for granted and that sovereignty belongs to them.

On the detention of protesters, the unions said: “We demand the release of all those detained in the course of the strikes, rallies and street protests.”

Omar said labour has agreed to explore the Alfa Belgore Committee, which the Federal Government has raised to look into the fuel subsidy issues.

The NLC President said labour would tender its position on deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry to the committee.

Asked whether the Federal Government would go ahead with full deregulation, the TUC President, Comrade Peter Esele, said: “When we get to that bridge, we are going to cross it because he (Jonathan) mentioned that he is committed to full deregulation and he is going to put it on hold.

This means we are going to have a lot of discussion around it. First of all, in the Belgore Committee that we are going to explore, we are going to confirm how many litres this country actually consume?

Because, if you look at records CBN, NNPC, DRP and PPPRA all have conflicting figures. And I don’t see how Nigerians consume 35million litres per day. We are going to use that committee to explore it and audit that figure they are giving and we can now come back and correct a lot of ills in that sector.”

Omar, who presented a statement that he jointly issued with Esele, said labour noted that the major successes Nigerians scored in these past days in which they rose courageously as a people to take their destiny in their hands. With this, said the NLC President, the government has been made to adopt the policy to drastically reduce the cost of governance. The labour movement also noted that one of the major successes Nigerians recorded is to get the Federal Government to decisively move against the massive and crippling corruption in the oil sector.

Continuing, NLC and TUC added: “While until now government has seemed helpless to tackle corruption, the mass action of the people has compelled it to address accountability issues in the sector. In this wise, President Goodluck Jonathan has told the nation that the forensic audit report on the NNPC will be studied and proven acts of corruption will be sanctioned.”

Omar pointed out that the President also promised that accountability issues and current lapses in the oil sector will be speedily addressed, including the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The NLC President said a related success of the mass action by Nigerians is the government’s promise to bring to justice all those who have contributed in one way or another to the country’s economic adversity.

The Labour movement praised Nigerians for their resolve to change the country for the better, stressing: “We shall take advantage of the government’s invitation to further engage on these issues.”

According to Omar and Esele, this is in line with Labour’s resolve that the oil industry is too important to be left in the hands of bureaucrats, and that workers have the patriotic duty to ensure that Nigerians get the best from this natural resource.

The unions thanked Nigerians, especially traders, artisans, youths, students, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), the National Assembly, Civil Society Organisations, faith-based organis-ations, artistes and Nigerians in the Diaspora for their support and active participation in the strikes, mass rallies and street protests.


How the truce between Jonathan, Labour was brokered

By Yusuf Alli, Abuja
Nigerian Nation

LABOUR pulled the brakes on its strike because of security threats, it was learnt yesterday.

The pump price of N97 per litre was the making of the President after some indices had been presented to him by relevant security agencies, The Nation learnt yesterday.

But labour’s call for cost cut in government gave the President a rare insight into the intention of the leaders, according to sources close to the talks.

A source, who was part of the Sunday night meeting between the government and labour, said subtle blackmail from the government on security threats and alleged hijack of the strike by regime change proponents did the magic.

The source said: “The model adopted for the last phase of talks between the government and labour did the magic. It was initially a joint labour-civil society delegation to the talks but the last phase did not include the civil society.

“The government was careful in excluding the civil society, whose members were described as ‘strange people’. Those in government felt the civil society groups were fuelling the strike.

“With the civil society out, the President bared his mind to the labour leaders that the strike had been hijacked by other vested interests. He expressed worries about the dimension the strike was taking and how it was going beyond labour’s control.”

President Jonathan reportedly cited Kaduna where the Government House was almost overrun. He said there was a bigger plan for regime change by other partisan interests and stressed the need to put the nation above any other consideration.

But the labour leaders, said the source, insisted that they were not after regime change but reversal of the pump price to N65 per litre. They acknowledged that some “emergency” comrades had joined the strike and they told the President that they did not mean to cause security breaches.

The source added: “Labour made a lot of suggestions, including why it is possible to reverse to N65 per litre, cutting of wastes in government, creation of jobs, fighting corruption, auditing of importation of products and subsidy funds, as well as other reforms.

“They said once the government meets all these conditions, they will suspend the strike.

“The submissions swept the President off his feet. For the first time, he was able to gauge their passion for the nation at a close range. He assured labour of his readiness to review the fuel pump price but he was non-committal on the new rate.”

The President also promised to address the nation on his plans and urged labour to take advantage of the Alfa Belgore Committee to resolve all issues on deregulation. The labour leaders, however, said they would await the President’s broadcast. They also assured the President that they would change the strike’s tactics to a sit-at-home type, it was learnt.

Another source said: “When the labour leaders left the President, he looked at the indices presented by agencies of government and opted for N97 per litre. It is right to say that the new pump price was unilaterally fixed by the President.

“Those in government had submitted indices indicating that the pump price could not go below N120 per litre, but the President thought otherwise.”

The source praised Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s role in making the President to concede to labour.


Disgraceful assault on democracy

By Kunle Fagbemi
Nigerian Nation

It was not always expected that President Goodluck Jonathan would know the mature, statesmanlike thing to do at a time of grave national crisis, but by deploying troops in the streets of Lagos and some other Nigerian cities, by occupying Gani Fawehinmi Park (the cynosure of modern form of dissent), and by using clearly unconstitutional means to smother legitimate protests, the president has intentionally but informally declared a state of emergency in Lagos State and other states where troops were deployed yesterday.

By today, it will be determined whether the statement issued by the state government against that unwholesome act was strongly worded enough.

The deployment of troops in a democracy and at a time when there was no general breakdown of law and order exposed the sham Nigerian democracy has become, and amounted to intimidation and a declaration of war on both the people and the constitution.

The Jonathan government intended the deployment to scuttle street protests, take the bite out of the rallies against fuel price hike that had caught the attention of the world, and ensure that the new N97/litre price of petrol announced in the wee hours of yesterday stood a chance of being accepted.

The government has shown no qualms about the economic consequences that will hit the country in the coming months and years like a bomb, nor did it fail to exult in spite of the gloom the troop deployment cast on the nation.

But by deploying troops, Jonathan simply upped the ante, moved closer to the spirit of the Arab Spring, angered the people the more, and made his fuel subsidy measure even more difficult to tolerate. The major disconnect between the people and their governments will gradually ossify into a chasm in the coming years.

Protests are a part of the dynamics of helping a society achieve balance and equilibrium. Without that balance, a government could be tempted to go too far, and an unsound policy could ruin a country.

Unfortunately, a problem that was essentially limited to fuel price hike has now expanded into other more contentious issues involving presidential assault on the constitution. From zoning crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Boko Haram and on to subsidy controversy, the president not only took the country on a merry-go-round culminating in a constitutional crisis, he has also completely forsworn democratic governance and embraced authoritarian rule.

The labour union and civil societies will be under pressure to respond in a way that will leave them with a fair dose of credibility and integrity. With labour implicitly accepting the new price and suspending street protests, it put in jeopardy future collaborations between it and members of the public who could lend muscle and credibility to future protests.

The public now knows where it stands with labour. It may also be morale dampening to protesters in some parts of the country that the first time a productive relationship would be fashioned between the two groups, it ended anti-climactically. While the NLC/TUC strike lasted, that relationship was amorphous, with many snorting that the protest, particularly in Lagos where it was highly effective last week, had been hijacked by political interest groups, especially the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

In the light of the NLC action, civil society groups will come under pressure to formulate new approaches to national crises. They had foreseen since last week that the Jonathan government seemed irretrievably lost, irrational, and prone to excessive measures.

They also foresaw the more worrisome problem of collusion between the federal and state governments over the subsidy issue, with some protesters becoming uncomfortable with the backward-looking steps taken by some state governments against constitutionally-sanctioned protests and the surreptitious and in some cases open betrayal by supposedly pro-masses governors.

The civil society groups in fact openly worried last week that if Nigerians must guarantee the safety of their democracy, then they must be prepared to do much more than just secure reversal of fuel price to N65/litre.

The truce that led to the suspension of the NLC strike was largely the effort of the National Assembly. The Federal Government, uncharacteristically of a responsive government, sulked that the protests were gaining strength.

But in brokering dialogue between the government and labour, the legislature elevated the principles of compromise far above the principles of lawmaking, and the spirit of mediation more than the spirit of checks and balances. The country will see more of such despairing compromises between the Executive and the Legislature in the coming months, even as the quality of governance decline alarmingly.

For the sake of what they all refer to as peace and stability, they will continue to compromise, fail to ask the right questions, avoid deep probes, incrementally whittle down the ingredients that make for real democracy and good governance, and connive at the kind of withering assault against democracy unleashed by the Jonathan civilian dictatorship.

Since 1999, no true or even aspiring democrat has had the opportunity of heading the Federal Government. It is, therefore, not surprising that both Olusegun Obasanjo and Jonathan failed to understand its sublime dynamics and the physical and metaphysical bonding required to nurture and sustain it.

It was expected that given the plethora of philosophers and scientists in the National Assembly, they would recognise the spiritual and moral crises the country faced last week as a result of the subsidy controversy. If they did, they would have curbed Jonathan’s dictatorial tendencies and restored their own powers which the president appeared to have taken for granted. The significance of the moment was lost on them. It is unlikely to be regained soon.

It is suggested that the acceptance of N97/litre is victory for both labour and the president. More, it is thought to be victory for Nigerians who have proved they can no longer be taken for granted. This is sentimental hogwash. The truth is much harsher than that. Not only has Jonathan taken the measure of Nigerians and found them to be of poor mettle; not only has he outflanked labour, seduced and demystified opposition parties, and flattered and weakened the National Assembly, he has also more crucially discovered that his powers are as elastic as he can conjure and that the constitution cannot really circumscribe his anti-democratic imaginations.

In the coming months, since he knows little about the transcendentalism of the constitution, he will test its elasticity the more and, if necessary, whimsically call out troops to enforce unpopular measures.

Perhaps the most important immediate casualty of the suspension of the strike before real victory was achieved is the abortion of the new culture of popular, supra-ethnic and supra-religious protests which would have helped democracy to develop and blossom.

Most protesters, particularly the middle class who attended in great numbers, will be disenchanted, indeed disgusted, that it ended anti-climactically. The next elections will test how far that disgust can be harnessed against pretentious parties and feckless politicians who have not shown the character of greatness.

About 18 years ago, Nigerians were tantalisingly poised on the edge of a major political breakthrough when a Muslim-Muslim ticket won the June 12, 1993 presidential election. That miracle was also aborted.

How many such abortions a country can take in one generation is difficult to estimate. Now that protests cannot be conducted openly and peacefully as guaranteed by the constitution, protesters and disgruntled elements may head for the underground in the coming years as more people lose faith in both the country that has alienated them economically and a democracy that has proved to be leprous.


Oliver Twist governors

By Our Reporter
Nigerian Nation

BEFORE the dust raised by the successful nationwide strike orchestrated by organised labour and its civil society coalition settles, the role of our governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in entrenching the removal of fuel subsidy regime deserves scrutiny. Although the strike ended yesterday, the governors got more than they bargained for when inhabitants of their states sustained for days, vigorous protests against their (governors’) supported increment of per litre price of petrol from N65 to N141.

The governors could not deny knowledge of the draconian fuel subsidy removal policy that would automatically further worsen the poverty status of Nigerians the way it came. A few months ago, the governors openly canvassed the withdrawal of the subsidy, to, as they put it, enable them pay the N18,000 minimum wage.

With the hostile reception accorded subsidy removal by Nigerians who defied hardship to protest, it is obvious that the governors are not in sync with the people. Otherwise, they ought to have correctly anticipated what the reaction of the people will be towards such an unpopular policy.

It is sad that the governors gave priority to accrual of more money into public till over the people’s welfare. They, by such decision, seem to prefer allowing the people to suffer by conspiring with the Federal Government to protect the small cabal milking the country dry simply because more funds will be available for all the tiers of government to share. What they should have done was to prevail on the Federal Government to unveil those behind the subsidy cost that increased from about N600 billion in 2010 to more than N1.3 trillion last year. In their parochial thinking, the governors believe that the Federal Government would no longer need to make deductions from their share of the excess crude proceeds to fund the subsidy.

The NGF seems not sincere and sometimes looks befuddled about what position to take on state issues. In one breath, it demands for fiscal federalism and review of revenue allocation formula, and in another, it engages, in tandem with the centre government, in acts that are inimical to the realisation of this lofty goal.

What the governors should learn now is that gone were the days when government can force down the throats of people grossly inimical policies. Nigerians, as demonstrated in the last nationwide strike/protests now appear ready to take their destiny in their own hands.

Our governors should stop behaving as if without oil money they cannot ensure development and growth in their states. One important step to take is for them to shed their financial excesses. We know that some of them promised to increase the frontiers of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) during electioneering campaign. Why can’t they do that without necessarily over-burdening the people? Many people, particularly the rich, are not captured in the tax net. Where they are, they are under-taxed. Moreover, the states have to look inwards with a view to harnessing the numerous mineral and agricultural endowments waiting to be tapped.

We acknowledge government’s position that fuel subsidy may not be sustainable the way it is, but the governors and President Jonathan should also note that corruption is equally not sustainable, particularly with regard to fuel subsidy, and in the downstream sector, generally.

Governors should be on the side of the people, especially on an emotive matter as fuel subsidy. The impression that the NGF is giving is that more money in the hands of governors would necessarily translate to democracy dividends. We beg to disagree. Although there are a few states where funds are being judiciously spent on infrastructure and other developmental projects, the fact is that such states are few considering the 36-state structure that we presently operate.

Above all, the governors should realise that there was no crude oil in the First Republic, yet, those who managed the affairs of the regions did so creditably, with every region developing at its own pace.


ACN condemns troops deployment

By Our Reporter
Nigerian Nation

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has condemned the deployment of armed troops to Lagos, describing it as anti-democratic.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said President Goodluck Jonathan outdid the brutal military dictators of the past by using the military as an instrument to suppress a peaceful protest by unarmed citizens.

The statement reads:’’Whoever advised the President to take this path has done him a great disservice and ruined his democratic credentials, if ever he had any. Sending soldiers armed with assault rifles and backed by armoured tanks to intimidate and harass unarmed civilians has now exposed President Jonathan as a closet dictator.

‘’Mr. President, as we said in our earlier intervention on this issue, the protests in Lagos these past few days have set a new standard in how the citizenry can engage in non-violent protest. It was so well organised and peaceful that people even came with their families, including young children. Ethnicity, religion and other divisive tendencies were jettisoned in an unprecedented show of unity, while music was used effectively to reduce tension and create a carnival-like atmosphere.

‘’Even the policemen who daily shadowed the Gani Fawehinmi Park did not need to fire a single canister of teargas because there was no violence. This is the setting that the President, alienated too soon from the people who elected him into office, decided to send battle-ready soldiers into. If the President was angered into taking a wrong action by the verbal jabs thrown at him by speakers at the park, then he needs a lesson in democratic governance.

‘’We condemn the tactless and unnecessary show of force in Lagos, and will like to remind Mr. President that it is only a government that has run out of ideas on how to engage its people on issues, no matter how vexing, that will resort to the use of force to suppress them. A government that claims to exercise sovereignty on behalf of the people cannot treat the same people as enemies to be shooed off streets and parks by fierce-looking soldiers.”

It called on President Jonathan to immediately withdraw the soldiers, ‘’Part of the reasons the issue of fuel subsidy spiraled out of hand was because the governed no longer have trust and confidence in those governing them. It remains to be seen how an unyielding Federal Government and the occupation of Lagos by the military, on the orders of elected President Jonathan, will restore that much-needed trust and confidence.’’

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