ONE would have though that the present economic
reforms in the glues of privatization and commercialization policy by the
PDP-led federal government, would metamorphosed into decision changes, that
could help re- consolidate our ailing economy, and subsequently put smile on
the faces of average Nigerians. With increasing readiness and enthusiasm
exhibited by Nigerians to sustain our hard-earned democracy, the general
belief was that the newly elected democratic government will work
assiduously in fashioning out certain strategy or policies that has direct
impact on the feelings,wishes and aspirations of the poor masses in its
decision making process.
President Olusegun Obasanjo should be
commended, albeit partially, for his enthusiasm and the sagacity with which
he carries out his constitutional responsibility as the executive president
of the federal republic. For instance, under his leadership in the past five
years, government has taken numerous drastic actions and decisions in
various directions of the polity and economy.
A retrospective analysis will indicate that
from the armed forces and the police and other sundry security agencies,
including a large chunk of the civil service have positively received
tremendous reforming attention by the federal government. Despite a pocket
of criticism from various quarters of the polity the president's dogged
stance on his reformist policies, no doubt, enabled him to succeed, even
temporarily, in injecting a sense of professionalism into the civil service.
On the economic front, President Obasanjo had
equally succeeded in scoring the desired goal through his controversial
privatization and commercialization policy. The basic idea behind the
formulation of this policy, as we are told to believe, is to open-up the
market economy and create variable challenges and competition, thereby
enhancing productivity.
My personal understanding of the globalisation
phenomena is that, it should be regarded as an avenue where opportunities
abound for helping countries to open up their economic enterprises for
global challenges. It should also be the catalyst requisite for provoking
initiatives and or certain policies that could transform the lives of the
citizens. This, to my understanding should have been the much talk-about
dividend of democracy promised the people during various campaign lectures.
But, unfortunately, for Mr. Obasanjo, recent
happenings within the nation's polity spells doom for the president's
popularity even among and within the rank and file of his leading
all-conquering Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP). For instance, his
intransigent stance on the burning issue of deregulation of the mainstream
petroleum sector only succeeded in making villain of the president in the
estimation of even his staunchest supporters. Moreover, President Obasanjo's
dictatorial tendency coupled with his 'holier than thou' posture have over
the years, rendered him incompatible with the basic principle of a
democratic dispensation. The president's 'I know better than you' traits,
alienated him further from his political associates who were ab initio
his master-strategists, and policy planners or simply political advisers.
On Thursday, September 23, 2004 the federal
government through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA)
announced substantial increases in the prices of petroleum products
including the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the fuel for powering over 90% of
commuter vehicles across the country. This sharp increase has in turn
resulted in the high cost of transportation as currently being experienced
in the country. This is not supposed to be so.
For those of us who mingle freely with the
people, the talakawa on a daily basis and who care to listen to their
complaints, it has become a common phenomenon hearing them bemoan their fate
condemning the federal government for this singular action (or is it in
action?). It is an undeniable fact that this development has left sour
grapes in the mouth of ordinary Nigerians who are already groaning under the
attendant escalating impact on the prices of other goods and services.
Interestingly, not a few Nigerians voiced their
discontent as a result of this government petroleum prices hike. Today, the
general belief among the masses is that the government has demonstrated its
inadvertent tendency, or inclination towards their grinding penury. However,
despite incessant calls for the president for policy reversal by virtually
all the stakeholders nationwide, Mr. President failed to listen to these
voices of reason. But I do not blame chief Obasanjo for his intransigence,
having been trained as a military officer whose commanding order should be
carried out by his lieutenants without questioning. For a man with such
military background, one may forgive the president for his sometimes sturdy
resistance against popular public opinion.
Talking about theory of separation of power in
an ideal democratic set up where the legislature are constitutionally vested
with the responsibility of checkmating any excessive use of absolute power
by the executive, the situation in Nigeria leaves one to be uncertain
whether at all our law makers are actually doing what they are supposed to
be doing. Take for instance the passing of the controversial Labour Bill by
the executive. We all believe that despite the said amendments by the
legislators, the bill is rightly seen and interpreted as a draconian law
ostensibly designed to muffle, if not gag the organized labour for embarking
on nationwide strike as recently experienced in the country.
It is equally believed by many that the
conception of the clause on 'any national strike' in the bill and its speedy
passage without the traditional debate as to forming a quorum is seemingly
faulty. The Senate is hereby strongly admonished to take a second look at
the bill and give it a democratic passage. Suffice it to say that such kind
of law that inhibit the organized labour from expressing their rightful
dissatisfaction through sit-at-home-strike is nothing short of legalized
dictatorship. This is so because in an ideal democracy people- and that
include the organized labour and or any other group of individuals-are
legitimately allowed to demonstrate their dissent through whatever means or
method they deem fit, provided they do not infringe on other people's right
or indulge in any act inimical to national security.
The Obasanjo PDP-led government which initially
started on a good note in its early period by initiating certain meaningful
developmental projects that has direct bearing on the lives of the people
like the basic primary education scheme, the poverty alleviation programme
and the national employment policy, all these projects, as good as they may
seem, were rubbished by the government's I-don't-care-attitude towards the
masses hue and cry! I would have expected the government to consolidate on
its achievements, and not just squander such ample opportunity of bringing
soccour to the aspirations of the citizens that queue to vote these
executives to power.
Having lost their voice of dissent with the
purported demise of the opposition and the implied lost of self- confidence
by the legislatures who have on many fora titled to compromise their
constitutional responsibility of checking the executive, the Nigerian
down-trodden masses resorted to the only seeming alternative: join and
support the organized labour to embark upon a nationwide strike action to
press home their point.
According to a veteran journalist and public
affairs commentator, Malam Ujudud Sharif there is "hardly any reasonable
person with any iota of conscience that would not support the latest strike
action by the NLC. This strike action is not only against the twenty five
percent increase of petroleum products prices by the Obasanjo
administration". To many ordinary citizens, this should also be a form of
protest against the form, style and manner the federal government governs
us. Majority of us are far from being satisfied with the way we are governed
without consultation as enshrined in the constitution. A situation where
government do not listen to public opinion in its decision-making process is
a manifest deviation from true participatory democracy.
Though this is not the first time the
government would be increasing the prices of petroleum products in the
country, having made similar attempts in the last five years, the major bone
of contention that tend to cause antagonism between the government on the
one hand and the organized labor and the general public support they enjoy
on the other, to my personal understanding, is the sheer lack of
consultations for the government to carry the stakeholders along. I believe
that by so doing the government would have succeeded in persuading the
public to accept its policy and proffer reasons or solutions on why such
policy is necessary and how it could be used to their own benefits at the
long run. After, democracy is popularly believed to be government for the
people, by the people...
As an astute observer, one may not fail to
decipher the fact that Nigeria today is gradually drifting to a one party
state. The reason is not farfetched; with the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP being the most powerful and vibrant party. The party rose to this
(enviable?) position after the carpet-sweeping or land-slide victory it
recorded during the last general elections.
On its part, however, the All People Party,
ANPP which is initially reputed and rightly expected to play the role of a
watch-dog on the ruling party through oppositional campaign as obtainable in
an ideal democracy, failed to deliver the much needed challenge in this
respect. Even though the ANPP succeeded (through its nationalist out look
and appeal) in penetrating further down sough-east and made significant
impact within the North-east geopolitical zone, later events, proved that
the party's leadership either lack the necessary zeal and vision to
consolidate on its popularity as the only serious challenger to the ruling
PDP on the federal level, or they were busy scheming their way towards 2007.
This failure to my personal conviction has rendered the party politically
incapacitated!
The Alliance for Democracy, AD, also started on
a sound note having won the governorship of six states within the
south-sough Yoruba region., but as fate would have it, the party
leadership-tussle that characterized the same period of discussion, couple
with in-house blackmails, political perfidy, overt and cover scheming sand
machinations among and between the party's bottlenecks; all these internal
wrangling to a large extent, precipitated the party's political demise. At
the moment, the party is ignominiously reduced to a giant-toothless bulldog
that can only bark bur cannot bite! Having lost its five political
stronghold to the ruling PDP, the alliance for Democracy clinged to its only
state-Lagos.
By the foregoing, it is crystal clear that at
the present political experiment, the ruling PDP is actually enjoining a
joy-ride having conquered the opposition or manipulated its way through or
both. Both one fascinating fact is that even top members of the ruling party
were reportedly dissatisfied with the way and manner the present conduct his
affairs devoid of consultations with relevant party executives. I still
wonder, (sometimes aloud!) weather Mr. Obasanjo himself is a one-man
political party?
My advice for the president is that he should
find time for critical self-examination and appraisal in the hope that doing
so might help the 'old man' to regain his steps and come into term with the
yearnings and aspirations of the people he's supposed to be serving. For
crying out loud! The people are not saying 'no to whatever bull shit-policy
(to alleviate poverty) he prescribed to them. They never argued with him.
But this time around they say: capital 'No' to fuel hike. Simple!
I wish to state unequivocally and without the
fear of contradiction that the principle of democracy is never built on a
combative, provocative or repressive platform, neither does it survive under
deceptive and reactionary postures. In those countries where democratic
government reportedly succeed like the Indhira Ghandi's peoples revolution
in India and the acclaimed exalted document as contained in the 'declaration
of independence in the United States of America, it has always been reported
to be people-oriented. To be frank and sincere, no system of government be
it military regime, democratic system, aristocratic or monarchy or even
communist states can succeed in the art of governance without meeting the
most basic needs of its people. After all, that is the contextual meaning of
government of the people, for the people and (enthroned empowered) by the
people.
As democrats, many of us have in one way or the
other expended our vexed dissatisfaction about the disillusion mat and
despair pervading every nook and corner of the country. I have tried times
without number to understand the logic of all these petroleum price
increase. To me, all these is trumpeted bull shut. I equally cannot
comprehend why even the four refineries are not working the way they should.
What I understand, however, is that the Nigerian masses are gradually being
pushed to zero tolerance and you and I know practically what that means.
Abdullahi Baba Alawusa freelances for Triumph
Publishing Company Limited, kano
