TIME TO END THIS AGE-LONG DECEPTION

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, owned fully by few  retired generals. One didn’t need to look too far for reasons why it was  convenient and more profitable to keep the refineries in a permanent comatose state. The longer the flow of imported fuel is sustained, the wealthier members of the cabal became and the more hopeless the fate of the refineries became.

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, nail, hook and sinker, given the fact that they could then regulate the operations of the refineries at home which at this point they must have acquired, so as to create a viable market for the fuel imported directly from their refineries abroad.

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. They could not suffer the presence of a reformer who might harbour the slightest intention of getting the infrastructures back on their feet. This explains the pattern that had characterized the emergence of our past presidents. Which of them could boast of becoming president by popular ballot? None. It was always a case of few generals coming together to hand pick either one of their own or someone they were convinced was too weak to rock the boat.

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