FEATURE ARTICLE

Babs AjayiThursday, January 26, 2012
[email protected]
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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JONATHAN AND THE SUBSIDY LOGJAM (II)

Continued from Part I

nly an independent body of respectable citizens and accountants will ensure fairness, transparency and integrity in reviewing and reporting the true state of the account of PPPRA, which has generated so much controversy and disputed figures and dates in recent time. It is strange that the highly ineffective and incompetent minister of petroleum has hastily written to the EFCC to ask it to "immediately review and investigate all payments made in respect of subsidies checked against actual importations and to take all steps to prosecute any person(s) involved �." The action of the petroleum minister is suspect and no more than an attempt to sabotage a comprehensive and independent action, which might expose many who are connected to her and to the president and their fronts.


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At least one of the beneficiaries of oil subsidy payment is very close to Goodluck Jonathan and he has been seen many times standing behind or beside him at functions, and a few of them actually bankrolled Jonathan's presidential campaign. It is sad that the minister had suddenly woken up from slumber to realize that "better accountability and transparency in the oil industry" is very important. She is going to use people from her office to carry out "a comprehensive review of the management and controls within all parastatals in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources �." What a huge and insulting joke. Eighteen months after assuming office and our minister has finally woken up to the deafening noise for transparency and change the people have been demanding for years. It is obvious that a cover up is in the works and this must be avoided by the collective will of the people and the civil society. It is all a preemptive attempt to prevent the truth from coming out. It is only sensible to ask this lady to step aside to allow an independent review of a ministry she has mismanaged and a PPPRA she oversaw and gave directives to for nearly two years. It will amount to her investigating herself, which should not be allowed to happen.

It has been pointed out repeatedly that the current government is too large and there are just too many advisers and assistants, with several duplications of tasks and responsibilities. The Nigerian government is top heavy and with huge wages and allowances being paid to these hangers-on and title grabbers, and the nation is being sucked and indirectly looted. The wages and allowances of the Senate and House of Representatives are too much, overloaded to feed their greed and account for more than 10 percent of our annual budget. The Presidency is also very wasteful and extravagant. We do not need extravagant and wasteful leaders, we need committed and responsible leaders who are prepared to make sacrifices and are ready to earn wages that are commensurate with what civil servants are earning. These are elective positions and no one is forced to contest when they know the salaries and wages are too small for them. I am not sure many of the legislooters have ever heard of the word sacrifice. The huge waste and repeated purchase of SUVs, cars, foreign travel expenses, constituency allowances, committees' vehicles, endless tours and travel that runs into billions of naira and other excesses must be eliminated or heavily trimmed down.

Our nation cannot afford these excesses and abuse of resources and our people can no longer afford a reckless legislature and executive arms of government. The two arms are causing so many problems and stifling the lives of our nation and people. All the political parties are guilty of the wasteful madness and massive corruption that has taken over the nation. There are excesses in the PDP and also in the Labour Party, the ANPP and the ACN. Getting elected has become a life and death affair because it is the route to sudden wealth and a direct access to state or national treasuries. The leaderships of the political parties are very corrupt and extremely greedy and the future of the nation is bleak with corrupt political parties and politicians who are only after what they will eat and only wish to have access to government offices for the sole reason of looting and stealing. President Jonathan must drastically cut down the allocations for the Presidency to the barest minimum. He will be able to persuade the National Assembly to also cut down their greedy allocations only after he has taken the lead in this area. Nigeria do not have to borrow if our funds are judiciously used and deployed for the right projects rather than procuring hundreds of SUVs every year and looting the treasury while also looting our oil resources through the allocation of oil blocks to themselves, which are later sold for billions of dollars like T.Y Danjuma and many others have done in recent years. Why are the oil blocks of the nation in a few hands, the hands of retired generals and political office holders and their fronts?

The other issue for so many in our nation is the petroleum sales strategy of the NNPC. Why are we selling crude oil when we can make so much from selling refined petroleum products? Why are we throwing so much money away when we need much more to develop and transform education, social services, infrastructures and health services? Only nations that lack focus like Nigeria are selling crude oil. We need to allow the private sector to invest in refineries. We need to have refineries close to the oil fields where crude oil is explored and exploited so that they can refine and export petroleum products for maximum profit to other African nations and abroad. We want to get maximum benefits from our crude oil, take development to the Niger Delta and improve the lives of the people in the Delta Area. Jonathan should look for the documentary on Qatar by the CBS and learn from it. Above all, we need very dedicated and honest men and women to lead our nation and to take selfless actions and make sacrifices that will motivate us to rapid development. We need to have a full account of the subsidy madness and the looting that went with it, and take appropriate steps to recover stolen money, punish the perpetrators and do things differently for collective national benefits.

It is unacceptable and wicked to punish the Nigerian people with higher fuel prices that are the result of a corrupt leadership. It is criminal to force the masses to pay for the failure of the government to properly maintain petroleum refineries, adequately manage national resources for the collective benefit of all, and the excesses cum wastefulness of the executive and legislative arms of government. Billions of naira are wasted, misappropriated, mis-applicated (a la Augustus Aikhomu) and looted, yet the masses must bear the brunt of the madness and the huge overhead that is the consequence of a corrupt and greedy leadership. What is in it for the people of our nation? Why must they pay more for what they ought to get for much less if things have been done properly? I do not think the strike should end there. Organized labour and the civil society must demand drastic cut in the allocation to the Presidency and the National Assembly. This may mean setting up tent and occupying the National Assembly when the budget is introduced to demand a fair deal for health, education, roads, job creation and social services. The oil subsidy movement should transform into a good governance movement. I hope Pastor Tunde Bakare, Mr. Femi Falana and the human rights groups are listening. This is a good opportunity to come together and to become a strong pressure group that will monitor how our national wealth is being deployed.

Uppercut

Goodluck Jonathan

Why was Goodluck Jonathan in Bayelsa this week? He needed to show former Governor Timipre Sylva who is the boss and who is in charge; he has to make a triumphant ride to Bayelsa after getting rid of his loathed opponent and sworn enemy. That surely is a new low for a president that is ineffective, wasteful and without focus. He has shown by this needless and wasteful trip to Bayelsa that is a petty person lacking in leadership qualities at a time when Boko Haram are very much in charge and his presidency is adrift and sinking. For reckless and unacceptable abuse of power and waste of state resources, an Uppercut is hereby delivered to Goodluck Jonathan.

Diezani Alison-Madueke

At a time when the Jonathan administration is facing criticism at home and abroad for fiscal irresponsibility, financial recklessness, wastefulness and selfishness, the petroleum minister celebrated her birthday with a cake cutting show at the 20th World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar. As usual it was a jamboree led by a petroleum minister who is least deserving of such a position, considering the rapid fluctuation of her age. Generous lip service was paid to transformation by a lady who is in urgent need of ethical transformation. For putting her desire well above that of the nation at an international gathering and abusing her office, a well deserved Uppercut is landed on her with good effect.

Continued from Part I

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