In 2012, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan
removed subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit and it
was greeted with nationwide criticism and
protest. Following that, many unemployed
Nigerian youths and hapless students were
organised to stage protest at Lagos, Kano, Abuja,
Kwara and even London tagged OCCUPY
NIGERIA. The Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade
Union Congress, Civil Societies and some
opposition politicians were the brains behind the
demonstrations.

The then presidential candidate on the platform
of the Congress for Progressive Change in the
2011 election, General Muhammadu Buhari
criticised the action as callous while his crony
and former minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, Nasir el-Rufai is remarked to have said
that General Buhari would have done it better
without removal of subsidy.

Building on the loopholes of the Jonathan
administration, this same crop of politicians
came to gullible Nigerians kitty soliciting for their
votes in the 2015 general elections with many
promises of change ranging from reduction in
pump price of petrol, combating the Boko Haram
menace between three to six months of
assumption of office, monthly allowance to
unemployed Nigerian youth or graduates, to free
feeding of school children, etc. But in impugn
defiance today, what we see is ALL PROMISES
CANCELLED (APC) with recurring removal and
replacement of petrol subsidy. The excuse is the
global fallen oil price.

But Nigeria is not the only country affected by
the fallen oil price, the other member States of
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries are affected yet they don’t cease the
opportunity to inflict hardship on their people.
Nigeria among these nations is the only one with
the highest petrol pump price but with about the
lowest minimum wage.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, a gallon (4 litres) of
petrol sells for $0.64 (that is about N127 at the
official exchange rate of $1 to N199), while the
monthly minimum wage is $720 (about N143,280
when converted to naira at the official exchange
rate). In Venezuela a gallon goes for $0.38
(about N76), while monthly minimum wage is $89
(about N17,711), in Russia a gallon goes for
$0.63 (about N125), while monthly minimum
wage is $95 (N18,905). Algeria, Angola, Ecuador,
Iran and Kuwait in face of the daunting challenge
of fallen oil price is reputed to be selling a gallon
of the PMS for less than $1 while the monthly
minimum wage of Angola is $90.53 (N18,015.47),
Ecuador is $427 (N84,973), Iran is $215
(N42,785), Iraq is $214 (N42,586) and Kuwait is
$3,650 (N726,350) meanwhile there is a current
debate to increase the minimum wage to over
$5000 (995,000).

Nigeria in the midst of these sells a gallon of
petrol at the official rate of N580 that is about
$3 and runs a minimum wage of N18,000, the
equivalent of $90. Meanwhile prior to the
Workers’ Day celebration, the organised labour
had bargained for an increment of monthly
minimum wage to N56,000 about $281 but the
Federal Government would not say a word on
that while addressing the working populace on
their day, even to this point. This is outright
wickedness and a naked dance of skelewu on
the intelligence of the Nigerian people.

As part of the liturgy of my ecclesiastical bloc
which has been commuted to a personal prayer
rubric, I pray daily, ‘O God save our president’
but that would not translate into criminal silence
and conspiracy in the face of reckless impunity. I
therefore call on those who OCCUPIED NIGERIA
in 2012 to come now and LET’S OCCUPY
NIGERIA for like Desmond Tutu would say, ‘If you
are neutral in situations of injustice, you have
chosen the side of the oppressor...’ while Ban
Ki-Moon would add ‘It is up to each and every
one of us to raise our voices against crimes that
deprive countless victims of their liberty and
human right.’

Admin, help move this to the appropriate section. Thank you.

The core foundation of character is doing what you don't want to do to get what you want. If we want the change we truly deserve we need to come out and #occupy Nigeria.