TIME TO END THIS AGE-LONG DECEPTION
It is no
longer news that fuel queues have disappeared from our filling stations.
Nigerians can smile on their way back from the office, confident that they
would relax with a serving of chilled beverages the moment they got home. The
big question, however, is why did it take so long for light to appear at the
end of the tunnel. Then. yet more intriguing is the bigger question: why are
some entrenched and minority interests so bent on quenching this God sent light
before we begin to fully reap the benefits that come with it?
I will
attempt to answer these two important questions in line with our quest at Democratic
Legacy Initiative to employ the instrumentality of information to rip off the
veil that has hitherto been used to subject Nigerians to perpetual servitude.
Let us
travel back in time to the period between 1986 till just recently. The process of
decay began just about then. At a point when all our refineries had collapsed,
ninety percent of the domestic fuel consumption came from refineries outside
the shores of Nigeria
When it
appeared the statuesque could no longer be maintained due to agitations from
civil rights groups, they bandied what in all ramifications was a dumb solution
aimed at entrenching their positions even further. The panacea they proffered
was for the refineries to be privatized, which in order words implied that they
should be sold to the highest bidder. Who else, if I may ask, would have been
able to bid higher than the past military leaders who served before handing
over in 1999 – proud owners of billions of dollars stashed away in foreign
banks. Let us pause and picture the scenario where their proposal had sailed
through. They would have ended up owning the contraption called Nigeria
The power
sector of our economy was yet another trophy that needed to be subdued and put
under close supervision so as to complete the circle of subjugation. Apart from
the trucks and cars plying the roads, the second biggest guzzler of fuel and
diesel are generators. If for instance a system which guarantees uninterrupted
supply of electricity is put in place, Nigerians will invariably have no need
to buy generators. It then follows that given a generator- free economy, the
consumption of petroleum products would be drastically cut down by almost forty
percent. There is no gainsaying that such a situation will no doubt bring
little joy to the hearts of the generals who own refineries in Europe and Asia . So, what to do? Very simple. In the short term,
strategically ensure that power supply remained permanently epileptic by
sabotaging all efforts to revamp the sector. With the right kind of money and
contacts, it required little effort to achieve this. All that needed to be done
was to, in an ambush formation, infiltrate the ranks of the electricity workers
union and the damage was as good as done. Or, then, how else can one explain
why in spite of all the billions of Naira squandered by past regimes in the bid
to get past the standard 3000 megawatts of electricity, which had remained the benchmark
for decades, nothing was achieved. You will recall that in the case of the
telecommunication sector, the indicator refused to go past the seven thousand
lines mark until God intervened in His infinite mercy.
Still
talking about strategies adopted by the cabal to ensure that the boat of profiteering
and exploitation is not rocked, the long term approach had remained to ensure
that a loyal and trusted member of the fraternity always emerged as president
of Nigeria
A level
thinking reader would have at this point worked out by inference why this same
mendacious cabals are not comfortable with the choice of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as substantive president for the next
four years. Given the magic he has wrought just in a matter of months, they
must have reasoned, little is left to imagination as to what he could end up
changing in four years. By such reasoning, he is obviously a bad choice,
considering their scale of preferences and in which direction their personal
interests lie.
In their
line of thought, if within months he was able to get all our refineries back to
work, and, like magic improved supply of electricity significantly enough for
Nigerians to openly acknowledge and appreciate, then in four years, if he is
left to continue, he would have done enough to put them permanently out of
business. In order to avoid such a calamitous turn of events, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan must be
stopped at all cost. Come to think of it, they had no hand in his emergence as
president and that in the Nigerian tradition amounts to a capital offense. How
could he be there without their approval? That is unthinkable! They had to find
a way to stop him and zoning was the trump card that first came to mind. From all
indications, however, that failed to achieve the expected result because rather
than deter him, he is becoming more popular by the day. The reason is not far
fetched. My Bible told me that God will not cast away a perfect man, neither
will he help the evil doers. Job 8.20
We want to
use this opportunity to call on all Nigerians to join forces with the Democratic Legacy Initiative to work
out our salvation using our collective will-power. We can make up our minds
today that we have had enough of this age long deception. We can declare an end
to this circle of subjugation and servitude. We can no longer afford to stand
in the midst of plenty and die of starvation. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan must be allowed to accomplish the task God
sent him to do.
Ebenezer C. Ebenezer
National, President Democratic Legacy Initiative
Tel:
08076651050
Email:
democraticlegacyinitiative@gmail.com
