My Thoughts As They Proceed: Dear President: On which track are we?

My Thoughts As They Proceed: Dear President: On which track are we?

My Thoughts As They Preceed: Dear President: On which track are we?

My Thoughts As They Proceed: Dear President: On which track are we?

Dear President: On which track are we?

I have watched and listened with great interest the sequence of debates and interviews since the subject of fuel subsidy removal surfaced. It’s been different views with the proponent of the debate accentuating that the Nigeria populace will benefit hugely from the decision in the ‘nearest future’. How near the future, is likely to remain an open-ended question.

Eventually, the removal appeared so sudden when most Nigerians never expected it like a coup d’état. A New Year gift some have tagged it, and since then protesters have gone on rampage. All over the Nation, aggrieved citizens are using every means possible except violence to display their dissatisfaction toward the policy.

Though security personnel in some states including the President’s province have not been friendly, as a report has it that one protester has been permanently silenced in Ilorin – a bad one indeed for a democracy!

This situation has made me wonder aloud if truly we are under a democratic rule. Just some few weeks back a town hall meeting was held in Lagos and the representatives of the federal government presented their arguments on why subsidy should be removed. While I had reasoned on some of the points raised and have agreed with them, I still so much believe that this sudden decision is a slap on the electorates who conferred the power to govern on Mr. President.

In the first place I define the whole scenario as punishing the majority for a sin committed by the minority. If the government has allowed a few Nigerians as it were, to be enriched by our collective resources in the course of several years, what justification has the president to punish the populace for this?

Also, my teachers of leadership have taught me that leadership is not just by being but rather doing. In fact, doing precede being! This it has been explained to me that as a leader, followers want to see what you’re doing and then they follow in your stead (agreeing- being). Followers aren’t ready for a leader who will show them the way he has never been to, rather, they are looking for a leader who will be in front and then ask them to follow suit.

Mr. President Sir, an honest question to you is, in what way (s) will the Presidency feel the pain your subjects are feeling as a result of this removal? Re-phrased, what personal sacrifice (s) has Mr. President made to justify the demand from the swarming populace? Will it be appropriate to ask if Mr. President uses part of his salary and allowance (s) in purchase of anything at all? How about our numerous political office holders including the active and inactive Ministers? It was at
the town hall meeting recently organized that an official confessed he has never bought fuel with his money ever since he assumed office.

Mr. President Sir, shouldn’t a leader consider and weigh an action appropriately before proceeding? For more than a month now, ASUU has been on strike. It has never been a concern to your Excellency; well that seem not to be important at the moment I guess. Yet, the anticipated objective of the removal of subsidy is so that we can create job, build roads, give proper maternal care and the likes, as if these have never been included in our previous yearly budgets.

How do we overcome youth unrest and the viral of Boko Haram if a large percentage of our youths are at home when they are supposed to be in school? Mr. President Sir, when do we begin
to see the deregulatory benefits (as the minister of petroleum resources puts it) that will cushion the effect of skyrocketed bus fair which is now far beyond a hundred percent increase?

Mr. President, Nigerians have started agitating on the social forum and this by itself isn’t a good sign. If you can recall Sir, this was how the unrest in the Arab world started and we should not be
seen working the same road.

Quick suggestion in the interest of our collectiveunity; the fuel price should return back to the original amount while the government put in place the proper structure that will make the removal bearable. Or can it be said that Nigeria has gone so bad that if we don’t remove the subsidy now we won’t exist in March 2012?

With the Boko Haram mayhem in town, what most Nigerians are expecting from the government is assurance that we are safe to be able to go out and provide for our needs not a compounding of burden. Please Sir, if you can, which I will suggest you should, consider the advice of Jean Herskovits, a professor of history at the State University of New York, published in New York Times on January 2, 2012 on Boko Haram tittled: In Nigeria, Boko Haram Is Not the Problem.

Peace to Nigeria!