On The Nigerian Fuel Subsidy. I Will Not Gloat.

After years of REALLY disliking Nigeria (I don't like to use the word hate), this fuel subsidy issue has managed to do what no amount of insults, threats, cajoling, or arguing could have accomplished when it comes to my feelings about that place.

I am actually experiencing pity.

I have never felt sorry for Nigerians, even when I lived there. Really. I have been annoyed, irritated, flabbergasted, disgusted, laughed at things, but pity has never been part of the gamut of feelings till now.

Must be the new year.
I read an article on Sahara Reporters, "A Prayer To Be Wrong" by Pius Adesanmi which sort of sums of my feelings, minus the typical "grammar melodrama" that many Nigerian journalists love to use when writing. Some parts of the article:

It didn’t have to come to this. You told them but they abused you; you warned them but they cursed you; they unfriended and blocked you on Facebook; they hounded you on Twitter; harassed your friends and relatives; they asked your mother to warn you. They called you unpatriotic.

And now I see King Jona’s geniuses all around me – comrades made genius by King Jona because they predicted the obvious that the majority could not see or did not want to see. I see them fall into the temptation of elation. I see the confidence of the vindicated. I hear them gloat. I hear them say: “I told you so!”

But I say to my brothers and sisters in the community of the despised and derided minority: gloat not...I say to them: the error of the majority is the proverbial sky that falls but fails to discriminate on whose head it falls...I say to them...the time for us to start struggling to be wrong is NOW.

I really hope, for those of you who care enough to try, that things work out. I have often been accused of trying to "infect" people with my unpatriotic postings, but that is not true. I gave up trying to "convert" Nigerians long before I started this blog. I have only ever expressed my opinion.

Can you see what I mean when I say, the Nigerian government truly does not care about Nigerians? It is difficult for me to imagine living in a place where there is such obvious lack of respect for "the people" and the government is never held responsible for bad policies. It doesn't even matter who holds Aso Rock, it is the same politicians or it is one of their puppets.

In a country where 90% of the country barely survives on less than $2 a day, the government had the audacity to remove the only benefit Nigerians could ever claim, raising gasoline prices to at least $1/liter ($4/gallon). You don't have to be an economist to understand that prices will now increase across the board. Millions of people now need to work twice as much to get enough money to survive and unemployment in Nigeria is at about 20%.

You know the idiotic part? I have been told the subsidy was calculated into the 2012 budget. So, why did the removal happen on Jan 1st? What will happen to the money in the 2012 budget for the subsidy? Ask yourself.

Why would the government do something this stupid overnight without taking any steps to improve living conditions? How are people supposed to afford this? In a stroke of brilliance the government has offered 1600 diesel buses to "the people" to help. If you do the math that is 44 buses per state (not counting Abuja). Good idea, right?

Nigerians, lend me your ~~ears~~ eyes, it is time to take back your country. I am not advocating violence but I doubt there is such a thing as a "peaceful" revolution. It has always been my position that mass action is the only way to help Nigeria. I believe there are only two ways to change Nigeria (or any other country for that matter), you can use fear or use money. "The people" cannot afford to buy the change they need.

At times like this, it will be easy for Nigerians to default to religion. Pray, if you must, but ACT as well. God will not come down to save you. Of course, I haven't even mentioned anything about Boko Haram.

All the positive change mongers now have momentum. For the non-profits, youth groups, labor unions, etc this is your chance to make things happen. If you don't, then there is no point in your continued existence.

Good luck (no pun intended) with the plans. I really mean that.