Subsidy Removal, Where are The 2012 Activists?

In 2012, when former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan proposed the removal of subsidy from petroleum in the country, all hell was let loose, Nigeria was shut down for weeks by a group led by Pastor Tunde Bakare known as Occupy Nigeria, Ojota in Lagos became like a music festival ground where musicians like Idris Abdukareem, Ruggedman, Femi Kuti,Banky W and a whole lot of others performed freely and taking jibes at the then Government over the proposal.

Nigerian Embassy in the UK, USA and prominent institutions like IMF etc were occupied by Nigerians in diaspora in protest against the seemingly obnoxious plan. There were many write-ups castigating and condemning the Government for being insensitive to the plight of the people. Some of the people who penned down their grievances were Tolu Ogulesi who is now the SA to Buhari on Social Media, he described Jonathan as ‘The son of canoe carver who wants to take Nigerians back to the difficulties he had during his upbringing’ stating that he must be rebuked!. Femi Adesina, the current SA on Media to Buhari was not left out as he gave a thousand reasons why the Government must not remove fuel subsidy, what has changed?

Now the current Government of President Buhari has removed subsidy from fuel without palliative measure in place, shooting the price of fuel to N 145. A country where minimum wage is N18,000, a country where civil servants who are paid paltry amount are still being owed six to seven months’ salary arrears, a country where in the midst of abundance, majority cannot afford to feed twice a day.

Let me say categorically that I am not an Economist and I am not claiming to be one, simple logic will tell us that when you increase the price of fuel, prices of food will go up, transportation fare will be about 200% and this will further increase the hardship of the populace. In fact, many civil servants’ income will not be able to foot their fare, removing subsidy at this time will further breed corruption especially in the civil service, no matter what you tell a hungry man, all he wants is food on his table, he will go extra mile even if it is a corrupted road to fulfil that when he has the opportunity.

Also bear in mind that many private companies, who are largely the employers of labour in the country mostly survive on fuel and diesel, this will not only increase the price of their products/services, it will further cause job loss. Thousands of people have lost their jobs in Nigeria in 2016 alone and companies are still downsizing due to lack of policy direction and increase the  cost of doing business in Nigeria. Most Airlines have left Nigeria to neighbouring Ghana and many are still following suit.

The popular saying that ‘an idle hand is the devil’s workshop’ may be constantly replayed soon, I am not a Prophet of doom, but if nothing is done to address the hardship in the land that is being aggravated by these unfriendly policies of the current Government, the Government should be ready to expand its prison because criminality will increase, the rich should also be ready to build more walls and fences because they will also live like prisoners because I foresee constant invasion of their homes.

Back to my question, where are the activists who grounded Nigeria in 2012? , where are the intellectuals- Professor Wole Soyinka, Nasir El-rufai, Obi Ezekwesili, Femi Falana, Joe Igbokwe,  Dino Melaye,Tam David West among others?, Where are they!