BACK ON THE FRONT BURNER-THE FUEL SUBSIDY PROBE PANEL REPORT

Nigerians are angry but not yet very angry, yet. How many times do we have to go through this vicious cycle of lies, manipulations, intimidations and distractions? I am very upset because this crop of rulers in Nigeria thinks and believes that they would keep using the same tactics to keep Nigerians under subjection by manipulating what we should major on at any given time. They are not smart enough to see that times are changing; they have not woken up to the clear reality that Nigerians are coming of age; it has not dawned on them that Nigerians are no longer babies who are easily distracted and enticed away from a dangerous object when they are given a safer toy.

When will they learn? When will they realise that while they are satisfying their drunken urges and despicable sexual orgies in Government guest houses all over Abuja and our state capitals that we are busy at work? Yes, we are busy educating Nigerians; We are busy exposing the corrupt practices of this administration and its agencies; we are busy correctly presenting the facts and figures to Nigerians and holding the government at all levels accountable where the figures seem to have been massaged, manipulated or account not adding up.

Nigerians found some figures that have refused to add up. The Farouk Lawan-led Fuel Subsidy Probe Panel soon confirmed our suspicions that some key members of the Jonathan administration, including the Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke and some of their cronies have been fraudulently dipping their filthy hands into a purse that was not theirs. The amount involved is huge and if EFCC was to do a thorough independent job, Nigerians would literally be better off as some of the monies could go to providing some much needed social welfare for the poor of our society.

I was having a skype conversation with a patriotic Nigerian when news of the ThisDay Newspaper bombing broke. Less than thirty minutes before this news was broken by Kayode Ogundamisi, this Nigerian had said that their next action would be to create a diversion as this issue of the Fuel subsidy scam was not going away. The conversation was about the effrontery of Missus Alison-Madueke in declaring that she would not resign her position in the government having been accused of reintroducing a kerosene subsidy in spite of a subsisting presidential directive stopping the continued inclusion of the commodity in the subsidy scheme as well as conniving with the NNPC to illegally convert subsidy funds towards private use. 

In the days of King Henry (Viii), her head would be fed to a guillotine in minutes but in King Henry’s country of today, no one would suggest to her to resign, she would do it and then wait and sweat patiently until the police arrived to take her away in handcuffs, like a common criminal to be questioned. She would then be tried and judged fairly by the jury of her peers (not criminals) and sentenced to a prison term equal to the crime in addition to forfeiture of properties and recovery of the stolen funds; But not in Nigeria, a nation of prayer warriors and high flying (literally) “men of God”! A nation whose capital city of Abuja competes favourably with Sodom and Gomorrah but holds a superior attraction to “holy men” than sinners! No, instead, Mrs Alison Madueke, a common criminal, dares Nigerians to sack her and this audacity can only mean that President Jonathan, whose orders she 'flouted' and in so doing, corruptly enriched herself at the expense of Nigerians, is solidly behind her. If not, why has he not suspended her, pending investigations into the issues that came to light in the Farouk Lawan-led Oil Subsidy Scam Panel Report? Or am I missing something here? No, that would mean acting in the best interests of Nigerians and, God forbid, it’s not heard of in our Nation! Self-interest is their motto!

Nigerians are great people who are skilful, educated and enlightened but we have a bunch of touts, hoodlums and miscreants who are not ashamed of flaunting their ineptitude, incompetency and cluelessness.  These people showcase idiocy and relish it! How else can you describe the reckless and misguided utterances of these individuals to Nigerians and to the international community? The US senate would start an impeachment process if President Obama rubbished the dignity of the US military in a foreign chit chat. That president Jonathan was wide awake when he further humiliated the Nigerian Army which is already under an enormous amount of pressure having been left in decay as with all other institutions in our nation like education and health, is more than my little mind can fathom. I hope the Nigerian Army would view it seriously, repair their shattered image and make him eat his words! The administration of Jonathan has failed its own examinations and no one can rescue it now.

We must console and empathise with those Nigerian families who lost their lives and those who are still in hospitals in the horrendous and senseless bomb attack on a national media outfit in two locations. We also want to know why they had to be sacrificed to prevent us from demanding answers regarding the fuel subsidy scam. The chicken is coming home to roost. I have never blamed the dire security situation in Nigeria on any one but the power-drunk nonentities that run the PDP and consequently, our nation. PDP inadvertently created Boko Haram, kidnapping, widespread armed robbery, militancy and rape, vices that have made Nigeria one of the most dangerous places to travel to in the world. Now the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Owoeye Azazi, has said the party’s brand of politics, especially the way it picks its candidates for elections, is partly responsible for the menace now being visited on Nigeria and Nigerians by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram. 

We must now bring the issue of the fuel subsidy back to the front burner. The message we send out on all fora must provoke thinking and bring about a change in mindset. Anger at the corrupt leadership in our nation is what we intend to achieve by exposing the magnitude of their greed in a nation where majority of the people cannot afford a balanced meal a day nor rub two coins together. We must prevail on our youth not to allow themselves to become victims of use and dump as these crude politicians have done in the past.

When a people become complacent, they are taken captive by vain men who are entertained by the pains of others. Unless we all look in the same direction, shunning selfishness and greed, and rising up against our common enemy, I'm afraid it’s a long night. We must be brave and courageous because that’s the only way the cowardice of this bunch of bullies will come to light. Nothing good will come out of this corrupt contraption we have now. We must insist on having it dismantled one way or the other so that lessons can be learned and something resembling democracy that works for Nigeria and Nigerians can be established.

We cannot afford to let them decide what we should have on the front burner. That prerogative belongs to Nigerians and Nigerians alone. This time, we must refuse to rest the issue of the Fuel subsidy scam until we get all the answers that we seek. We will no longer be distracted from burning issues. We must remain focused at our target because we are winning, they are waning; we are increasing by the day, they are losing support and patronage; we are growing stronger, they are falling apart; and most importantly, they are not smart, we are! Its our nation and we must recover every inch of it from these bunch of insensitive, corrupt, inept, inefficient and clueless morons! Now back to Farouk Lawan-led Fuel Subsidy Probe Panel Report.