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Nigerians are still counting their gains and losses resulting from the recent six-day protests against the removal of fuel subsidy

After one week of protests over the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government which crippled economic and social activities in Nigeria, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, suspended the nationwide strike last Monday.

The decision of the two main trade unions to suspend the strike came just a few hours after President Goodluck Jonathan announced an immediate reduction in the price of fuel from N141 to N97 per  litre. The price had shot up after fuel subsidy was abruptly removed by the federal government on January 1, this year and this propelled labour to declare indefinite strike to compel government to revert to the pre-January 1 price of fuel which was N65 per litre.

Although, the leaders of organised labour did not quite succeed in forcing the federal government to revert to N65 per litre because the new pump price of N97 per litre  was unilaterally imposed by government, they decided to accept the new price regime after wide consultations with civil society groups.

Abdulwahed Omar and Peter Esele, presidents of the NLC and TUC respectively had, while suspending the strike in Abuja, last Monday, claimed the new price regime was a product of a unilateral decision by government without input from the labour negotiators. The labour leaders, however, explained that one of the major gains of the protest was that “through the strikes, mass rallies, shutdown, debates and street protests, Nigerians demonstrated clearly that they cannot be taken for granted and that sovereignty belongs to them.”

 To labour, Nigerians scored a major point by rising courageously as a people to take their destiny in their hands and after six days of strike, the federal government was forced to slash the pump price of fuel. “The federal government that chorused continuously that its decision to increase petrol price to N141 is irreversible and irreducible, was forced to announce a price reduction to N97,” the labour leaders said.

The organised labour was also happy that the strike would compel the federal government to decisively move against the massive and crippling corruption in the oil sector. The unions agreed to participate in the committee headed by Justice Alfa Belgore, a former chief justice of Nigeria.  Jonathan set up the committee earlier this month to meet with organised labour and all other stakeholders to resolve issues that may arise from the removal of the subsidy on petrol. “We will explore the window of Belgore committee to fully deliberate in the series of discussions on the full deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry to correct a lot of the ills of such sector and maximise the gains for Nigerians,” Omar said.

Esele, the TUC president, described the N97 pump price as just the beginning of the struggle by Nigerians to ensure that issues in the downstream were addressed. He explained that the organised labour would explore the opportunity offered by the Belgore committee to ensure that the issues involved in the deregulation process were addressed. Esele believes the contentious issue of the quantity of fuel consumed in the country every year would also be addressed. He noted that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Department of Petroleum Resources had quoted conflicting figures on the quantity of fuel consumed by the country annually and now that labour is part of the Belgore committee, it would endeavour to establish the true position of things and check the fraud in the importation and marketing of petroleum products.

The labour leaders were also happy that the strike forced government to adopt a policy to drastically reduce the cost of governance. This is because two days before the commencement of the strike on January 9, President Jonathan had announced the reduction of his salary and those of other top government functionaries by 25 percent.

Despite the belief by labour leaders that the strike recorded a measure of success, some leaders of civil society groups contend that it was wrong for NLC and TUC to have suspended it. They believe that the action of the labour leaders was suspicious and said they had sold out. For instance, Joe Okei-Odumakin, president of the Campaign for Democracy, CD, described the suspension as disappointing. “Coming at a time when the main objective of getting the federal government to revert the fuel price to N65 has not been achieved, it leaves much to be desired. By suspending the strike, labour has dealt the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians for affordable fuel, and movement for accountable and corruption-free government, a huge blow,” she said.

Tam David-West, former minister of petroleum resources and Balarabe Musa, former governor of old Kaduna State, said that by suspending the strike and accepting the N97 per litre of fuel offered by the federal government, labour had betrayed the masses. David-West said by their action, the labour leaders have, “exposed themselves to be suspected rightly or wrongly to have been bribed by the government.”

The professor of virology insisted that there is no subsidy and that   what government has been subsidising is corruption. “Jonathan suffered a greater loss because he is the president and commander-in-chief. If the chief executive has told the world that without buying petrol at N141 per litre, the Nigerian economy would collapse, and his position echoed by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria ,CBN, and his ministers and they have come down to N97, it means that the N141 figure they earlier quoted was wrong. Otherwise, the chief executive of Nigeria would have stuck to N141. It means that the first premise was wrong and not valid,” David-West said.

For Musa, labour  appeared to have sold out because when  it started negotiations with government, it schemed the  civil society organisation out of the whole show. Now, it has decided to accept N97 per litre and to suspend the strike without consulting with civil society organisations. It is unfortunate. Any Nigerian who is old enough knows that NLC has always adopted a wrong policy on strike. It always calls on civil society organisations and other Nigerians to support the strike but it has the habit of abandoning the strike half way,” Musa.

Tunde Bakare, convener of Save Nigeria Group, SNG, said although his group  was disappointed in the way the leadership of labour buckled in the knees by accepting the  N97 price without consulting SNG and its allies, he was pleased that the government had to eventually eat the proverbial humble pie.   Bakare was upbeat about how the protest compelled government to take certain positive actions. “While we outrightly reject the unilateral fixing of pump price at N97 by the federal government upon which the controlling leadership of NLC and TUC threw a spanner in the wheel of people’s movement, it must not be lost on our patriotic people that the clampdown by a government which had arrogantly declared that its decision was final is the proverbial eating of the humble pie. So also are the administration’s pledges to investigate the oil subsidy cabal, ensure that the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is passed and cut the cost of governance. These were issues the regime was not ready to address before the movement of the people.”

The SNG which had organised a very successful mass protest at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos, throughout the duration of the strike was, however, prevented from holding a rally there on January 16,  by soldiers armed to the teeth, deployed by the federal government. Bakare described the deployment of troops and tanks by the federal government to the park and other parts of  Lagos, as a violation of the rights of Nigerians to peaceful protests.

Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, also described the deployment as an intolerable act of provocation. “This is a gross violation of the rights of citizens to congregate and give expression to whatever grievances that bedevil their existence. We demand the immediate and unconditional removal of these soldiers…It makes absolute nonsense of the Belgore machinery for resolution that was set up, even before it has commenced work. It has turned future dialogue into negotiation under the gun, which is nothing but a charade and will only be challenged at no distant date,” Soyinka said.

Femi Falana, human rights activist, whose  “movement was rudely curtailed at Maryland, Lagos, by armed soldiers who claimed that they were under strict instructions “ from above” to prevent him from leading fellow Nigerians to continue the  protests threatened to challenge it in court. “It is unfortunate that Dr Goodluck Jonathan who rode to power on the basis of the series of protests held in Lagos, and Abuja, by civil society organisations can deploy armed troops to attack the same forces,” he said.

In a state broadcast, Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos State, condemned the deployment, describing it as a “very disquieting development.”

But  Bello Haliru Mohammed, minister of defence, explained that government deployed the soldiers following security reports that the initial peaceful and lawful demonstration by the organised labour and civil society groups had been hijacked by people with selfish motive, planning to turn  it into a riotous movement similar to the situation in Syria and Libya “While reiterating Mr. President’s pledge in his broadcast that government will continue to respect the people’s right to express themselves within the confines of the law and in accordance with the dictates of our democratic space, let me emphasise that under no circumstances will the government stand aloof while some misguided elements unleash violence on the Nigerian society,” he said.

However, despite the misgivings of some civil rights activists about the manner in which labour leaders suspended the strike, there were some gains accruing to Nigerians from the one week strike. Based on the way Nigerians defied all previously held notions, braved the odds, walked long distances and  endured the hardship to protest for one week, they have shown that the masses can no longer be taken for granted by government.

The protests forced the president to make two nationwide broadcasts in one week to douse tension and assuage the feeling of the masses.

In response to the clamour by the civil society groups that the president should kill corruption and not Nigerians, Jonathan invited the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to probe the subsidy payments. Following the directive of the Presidency to probe all financial transactions relating to payments of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirits, PMS, the EFCC, last Tuesday, invaded the offices of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA. 

This marked the beginning of its investigation into the alleged corruption and financial misappropriation in the importation of petroleum products to pave way for the prosecution of culprits involved in fraud.

Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the EFCC, confirmed that the commission has confiscated documents it obtained when operatives visited the offices of the PPPRA in Abuja. He explained that the early stage of investigations would focus on marketers to determine who imported what,  when, at what price and from where. According to him, the commission would peruse the obtained documents to identify the vessels that imported petroleum products, towards authenticating the origins of the imported products and the truth about their costs. “There will be a foreign leg of the investigation, to determine the true price quoted for products at the time of purchase so as to verify the claims of marketers,” he said.

Uwujaren said that Ibrahim Larmorde, EFCC chairman, would leave no stone unturned, in ensuring the arrest and trial of culpable suspects which will be the final stage of the investigation.

In addition to the action of the EFCC, the Senate has also commenced probe of fuel subsidy payments. Enyinnanya Abaribe, spokesman of the Senate, said the National Assembly would probe the management of the subsidy fund, which would lead to the discovery of the beneficiaries of the fund.

Besides, the National Assembly has commenced the process of fast-tracking the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill which would facilitate the ongoing deregulation of the downstream of the petroleum industry.

Apart from the gains of the strike action, there were also losses in both human and economic dimensions. In terms of the human causalities of the fuel subsidy protest, there were reports that at least 25 persons lost their lives across the country; during the mass protests.  Those; killed in the struggle include Muyideen Mustafa in Ilorin, Ademola Aderinto in Lagos, Raheem Mojeed in Osun; Olurin Olateju in Ibadan; AbdulGafar Mohammed Hadis in Kaduna; Yahaya Abubakar Adamu in Lambata and Rabiu Abubakar in Suleja.

There are conflicting  figure on the economic cost of the strike, especially on how much the country had lost during the period of the crisis. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance, said that based on Gross Domestic Product, GDP, estimate, the week-long strike cost the country about N300 billion. She explained that the amount was not more than that because the economy was not totally shut down as a result of the strike.

Explaining the implication of the action, the minister said that if the economy was totally shut down, the country would have lost about N500 billion for the period the strike lasted.

Okonjo-Iweala explained that, while the protests paralysed economic activities in some states, those in the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones were bubbling with economic activities. “I think we can determine the amount lost when the GDP is considered and that would amount to about N500 billion. But don’t forget that the economy was not totally shut because we still had some people who went about their normal businesses. So, it will not be right to say that because there were protests in some few cities like Lagos and Abuja, then the whole economy was totally shut down.

“I am sure you are aware that economic activities were not paralysed in the South-East states and some other areas, and if you put that into consideration, then we can say that the economy lost about N300 billion to the strike action.”

But Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, believes that the country was losing N100 billion daily to the strike.

However, to many other economic experts, Nigeria would have lost about N733.5 billion to the work stoppages occasioned by the nationwide strike called by the organised labour and civil society groups.

The losses from figures garnered by  Newswatch from major economic sectors, showed that the banks topped the losers’ chart, with about N400 billion, followed by the Information Communication Technology, ICT, companies, where operators, especially the telephone companies, lost about N159.5 billion. The maritime industry recorded about N96 billion loss, as operators in the aviation sector put their aggregate loss at about N18 billion.

Losses from the manufacturing companies were estimated at about N10 billion, due mainly to assessed low profile of operations at the plants. The aggregate loss figure was rated as conservative, given the non-inclusion of the informal sector, whose operators were less active during the strike.

Notwithstanding the controversy as to the cost of the strike, what is certain is that Nigeria lost billions of Naira as a result of the protests. Nigeria lost manpower, time, energy and its reputation in the international community within this period.

Ayo Teriba, chief executive officer, Economics Associates, said that Nigeria’s economy almost stood still during the period. “The losses associated with the strike and protests cannot be overemphasised as this almost led the country to a stand still. I hope we will learn from this and change for the better now,” Teriba said.

However, as Nigerians count the gains and losses recorded in the strike, oil marketers were yet to abide by the directive of the federal government that the fuel pump price be reversed from the initial N141.00 to N97.00 per litre. Most petrol stations, apart from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Mega stations, refused to yield to the directive last week. In Edo State, this resulted in the scarcity of fuel and long queues at the petrol stations.

Some people who spoke to Newswatch said they have never bought at the rate of N97.00 as directed by the federal government. Etinosa Iroghama, one of the bus drivers in Benin, said the federal government announced new pump price for fuel, he has never bought it for that amount rather, it has been at a much higher rate.

Piqued by the callous action of the petroleum  marketers, Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo State, last week threatened to revoke the Certificates of Occupancy, C of O of the petroleum marketers if they refuse to open their stations and sell fuel at N97.00 per litre to the public as directed by the federal government. “If you don’t sell to the public, I will revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of the land belonging to the marketer. The ordinary man should feel the reduction in the pump price.” Oshiomhole who went round petrol stations in Benin City to monitor the level of compliance with the new price regime was annoyed that many stations remained shut to motorists, even when they had petrol to dispense.

On his visit to the NNPC Mega station at Sapele road, Oshiomhole commended the management of the filling station for selling to the public at the government approved rate. The governor who lamented that the marketers were quick to adjust their pump to reflect N141 to N145 per litre wondered why they were reluctant to reduce the pumping machine to the new price. He, however, explained that in order to curb the situation, the state government would invite the marketers to a meeting where the need for them to revert to the new price would be discussed and impressed on them.

Reported by Dike Onwuamaeze and Annette Oghernehaboke