[size=14pt]March against corrupt government officials in Nigeria [/size]
World News - Africa
Saturday, 05 November 2011 12:00
Written by Emefu Clement

-Matters arising from the fuel subsidy removal crisis-

In the wake of President Goodluck Jonathan`s move to remove the fuel subsidy, the media has been bombarded with arguments for and against this motion in the past weeks. There are obviously reasons for this panic and reaction, very understandable. Various public classes react differently according to their own interest based on the little or the much they know. Definitely there are those who always benefit from such confusion.

The poor masses – the ordinary Nigerian public, about 75% of the population only see the aspect of increase in the pump price of petroleum products as a consequence of the removal. Of course that is the much or the little they understand. I belong to this group. This ordinary public sees the N65 per litre charge for fuel as the ONLY dividend which the government`s fuel subsidy policy can offer them. This implies ipso facto that removing it will clearly spell-out government`s disinterestedness in the plight of the Nigerian common man, whereby ordinary basic amenities have looked almost impossible amidst the wealth of this country. Therefore, adding to the bottled animosity against corrupt government, this becomes the last straw that is breaking the Carmel’s back. Perhaps the concrete and tangible motive for a revolutionary move against corruption in the political class that we have been waiting for is at last here.

Now we come to the political public class, who has been running and milking the Nigerian wealth for over four decades now. More revelations unfold as matters arise from the cries of the ordinary citizens against the fuel subsidy removal saga. In response to my article titled: Open Letter to President Goodluck E. Jonathan, , a friend linked me up to another article titled: Fuel Subsidy and Fake Subsidy…, Articles | THISDAY LIVE by a fuel subsidy activist Mr. Simon Kolawole. Very insight filled and thought-provoking, at the same time a corpus of saddening revelations concerning the fuel subsidy, which the ordinary Nigerian citizen is not privileged to know. I still wonder why the government cannot open up and address Nigerians on the major reasons for this removal plan, if it is not an accomplice. Most strikingly, Kolawole qualifies the fuel subsidy as the greatest fraud in the history of corruption in Nigeria involving government officials; namely, the fact that the non-functional state of our four refineries is stage-managed in order to pave way for the continual importation of petroleum products. The so-called petroleum importers (partners in criminality with our government officials and the ruling class) now charge billions of dollars on daily basis from the Nigerian government for inexistent figures of consumed fuel in the name of fuel subsidy. This is still in addition to the subsidy on importation damage charges, even when they are never incurred. One cannot believe the amount of billions of naira that go into the pocket of small group of individuals – about 20% of the population, which consequently impoverish the rest of the population. This remains the underlying reason why the President wants to move against all odds towards the removal of the subsidy. Seemingly a bold and patriotic move, but is the approach equally patriotic? Do the ordinary citizens not have the right to know the reasons for policies in their own interest? The President surely has questions to answer, and indeed an account to render to the Nigerian common man.

Interestingly furthermore, Kolawole posed a question to his intelligence source on the details of this state of affairs, as regards bringing to justice this network of corruption cables that hold the nations progress to a standstill for years now. The answer comes quick and is more worrying as it fingers our government officials as the custodians of this corruption. Imagine a country whereby every sector has collapsed, as the President himself observed few months ago: legislative, judiciary, and even the executive owing to the kind of people that surrounds it irrespective of the good intentions. Mere signing of a document to propagate this criminality, for example at the price of N50 million has become a normal way of life for them. Recall the amount of billions being reported on the headlines that Nigerian individuals carry out of this country; how else do they make such whooping sums of money?

It is at this juncture that I come back, to continue from where I stopped in the previous article – Open Letter to President Goodluck E. Jonathan,  My fuss is not much about the fuel subsidy fraud as seen from these revelations but rather on the magnitude of the corruption that stifles the Nigerian growth in all spheres of life: human development, economic growth and stability, education, energy and power, basic infrastructural development, etc. These remain the normal dividends of governance in any nation of the world. But on the contrary, this has been beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian for many decades now.

I maintain, it is these poor Nigerians that voted President Goodluck Jonathan to power, in hope that at least a rescue mission has finally become a reality. Then I continue to ask, can Mr. President not use his executive power to stamp out this abysmal corruption? Of course he can and has no other option that to do it. Nigerians need results and the dividends of good governance. The poverty line in this country needs to be minimised to the lowest degree considering our vast rich reserves of natural resources. The only way to do all this is to fight and stamp out corruption in the Nigerian governance no matter who is involved.

The Nigerian people have no other option than to violently revolt against these corrupt leaders. It is not necessarily to destroy lives and properties, but to express most loudly their disapproval of this injustice perpetrated by a handful of the population. We have no other choice. We have no choice than to take the streets and pour out our Anger against the level of corruption in this country. A corruption whereby one`s life is stunted by the selfishness, greed and wickedness of another. Enough is enough!

Chimaobi Clement EMEFU,

Imo state.

http://www.codewit.com/africa/3711-march-against-corrupt-government-officials-in-nigeria

Brilliant article. Will you join in the match against corruption?

Any date for the march against corruption?

what will happen if the useless police pick up arms and begin shooting,

Be wary when you find Beaf calling you to join a march against a government led by GEJ.

Be very very wary 

Horus:

Any date for the march against corruption?

Beaf:

Brilliant article. Will you join in the match against corruption?

obowunmi:

what will happen if the useless police pick up arms and begin shooting,

We shoot back.

If you have ever taken part in any serious aluta, you would know that the police feel exactly the same pinch as the rest of us. There is nothing easier than convincing a policeman to think about his family and the bread he can put down on his table after an honest days work.

I have recounted several times how we stopped a column of armoured cars during the June 12 aluta; they had streamed out of Ikeja Cantonment to put down the popular uprising. It happened under the footbridge at Palmgrove bus stop in Lagos, and we had nothing, but our scrawny teenage chests and barely countable pubic hairs. All we did was stand our ground and keep shouting that whoever was in the tanks should think about their families, their parents, brothers and sisters who were there with us, if not physically then in spirit; we urged them to think about the country and ponder if they were happy.

Well, well! The turret of the lead tank opened and out popped the commander. He didn't utter any words, but simply lifted his uniform to reveal a tee-shirt with MKO Abiola's face emblazoned on it. He told us they were with us and asked us to let them go through so that they could fulfil the orders they were sent on by driving through to Surulere.

That experience of what the courage of even scrawny chested teenagers could produce has indelibly seared the belief into my mind, that the fight for a just and better Nigeria can be won over and over with the people as a resource.
If only the older generation of the time had had the same courage, Nigeria would have changed for the better long ago; MKO Abiola would have been President, Abacha would never have ruled etc

The future is ours, but we must claim it.

This video explains it all https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-789927.0.html

Buhari is the man, any day!

We shall see.

auwal87:

This video explains it all https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-789927.0.html

Buhari is the man, any day!

Stop being a daft self-servicer. I would have understood if you had mentioned Idiagbon. Why not bring Abacha back as well?
We need to wipe out every last one of the politicians in Buhari's generation. Was Nigeria created for that crowd to pillage with their cronies?

At the time Abacha killed the local refineries and built a private refinery for himself with FG money in Sierra Leone, Buhari ran PTF to disburse the gains of fuel subsidy removal. Today, Abacha is dead; why is anyone from that most useless of all govts Nigeria has ever had still alive?

This is what Buhari took part in under Abacha:

It was only General Sani Abacha that succeeded in transferring subsidy removal benefits to Nigerians through the instrumentality of PTF

Strangely, this is what the economist an other non-revitionists recall of Abacha:

Yet, at the same time, the new president has to deal with Nigerian realities. Politics in Nigeria has become the art of stealing—chopping, as it is called. [size=14pt]For instance, millions of dollars recently allocated to repair the country’s oil refineries simply disappeared while General Abacha’s close associates made fortunes out of importing petrol.[/size] And Nigeria will not be easy to democratise. Some of the exiled leaders of the “democratic” opposition are only out because the general turned them down for jobs. It may be hard, but necessary, for the handful of Nigerians who have really suffered for their democratic principles to sit down with such people.

http://www.economist.com/node/134561

The Economist hits even harder with the truth of what Abacha was:

The reprehensible Abacha has unknowingly bequeathed his successor a brilliant opportunity to free Nigeria from military rule. First, his very unpopularity—there was dancing in the streets even in his home town when he died—makes it difficult for another soldier to take power and stay there.

http://www.economist.com/node/134561

It is not unsurprising that at this time such articles the whitewash Abacha and his evil regime; Buhari, who headed Abacha's PTF was out in full force last week, stumbling all over his tongue with an incoherent message about subsidy. This is what Buhari hard to say about Abacha's history of brazen theft:

Buhari, in his own comments yesterday, described the allegations of looting against Abacha as “baseless”, because according to him, “ten years after Abacha, those allegations remain unproven because of lack of facts”.

http://www.tzuk.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2387&Itemid=105 (you can also google the comment above)

Birds of a feather.
[size=14pt]We have also seen Tam David West, Buhari's petroleum minister equally animated and exercised in recent times. Both Buhari and Tam David West have one thing in common, and it is whitewashing the histories of their masters. What has this clique got to hide? Does the average Nigerian who refuses to read know that during Abacha's regime, with Buhari at the head of the PTF racket; the refineries were deliberately run down and monies for their turn around maintainance routinely vanished into thin air? But wait for the cracker! At the time this lot were running down our local rineries, Abacha actually used FG funds to build a personal refinery in Sierra Leone, so he and his cronies could milk the nation dry as a fuel importers!
That refinery was aqcuired through the vehicles, Integrated Investment Trust Limited and Nasimatume Investments Limited jointly owned by Abacha and his National Security Adviser, Ismaila Gwarzo.

Needless to say, the Abacha refinery in Sierra Leone is now cobwebbed. Many of our ex-generals are in similar rackets, they destroy the refineries at home, while having shares or ownership of refineries abroad to milk the nation dry.[/size]

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-792025.0.html#msg9439973

Kill them all.

koruji:

Be wary when you find Beaf calling you to join a march against a government led by GEJ.

Be very very wary 

There are times when it is best to keep your silly partisan comments to yourself. The title of the thread says very clearly, "March Against Corrupt Government Officials In Nigeria." They are everywhere, and in all parties; those in ACN today will cross over to LP. PDP, APGA, ANPP or vice versa.
In any event, why would the fact that I created the thread make you love corruption instead of hating it? Perhaps, you have something to either hide or protect.
Why are you scared of standing up to corruption?

@Beaf
Look at this, also bolded below: "In any event, why would the fact that I created the thread make you love corruption instead of hating it?"

This why my warning to others is on point. If you don't get it then no one can help you.

Yes, koruji love's corruption (I expect you to quote this in some other post of yours and repeat it over and over again). Better look at my NL 2011 resolution below - so you can get a good idea of how much I love corruption.

Beaf:

There are times when it is best to keep your silly partisan comments to yourself. The title of the thread says very clearly, "March Against Corrupt Government Officials In Nigeria." They are everywhere, and in all parties; those in ACN today will cross over to LP. PDP, APGA, ANPP or vice versa.
In any event, why would the fact that I created the thread make you love corruption instead of hating it? Perhaps, you have something to either hide or protect.
Why are you scared of standing up to corruption?

^
If what I have said pains you, then learn to stick to the topic.
If you truly hate corruption, then always stand up to it and not ask questions that cause doubt about where you stand.

Pained me? Yeah I am hurting really bad

What I am telling you is that it is not your place to be calling people to march against corruption when GEJ and his officials are at the receiving end. Your battery of objectivity is way too low - even worse your antecedents show that you have no qualms about turning whoever raises a voice in support of your call today over to GEJ's police-state to be "dealt" with tomorrow.

Get it now

Beaf:

^
If what I have said pains you, then learn to stick to the topic.
If you truly hate corruption, then always stand up to it and not ask questions that cause doubt about where you stand.

obowunmi:

what will happen if the useless police pick up arms and begin shooting,

The NATO will come in and all hell will really break loose.

koruji:

Pained me? Yeah I am hurting really bad

What I am telling you is that it is not your place to be calling people to march against corruption when GEJ and his officials are at the receiving end. Your battery of objectivity is way too low - even worse your antecedents show that you have no qualms about turning whoever raises a voice in support of your call today over to GEJ's police-state to be "dealt" with tomorrow.

Get it now

Dude, I don't get where you are headed. You are actually claiming to be scared of me, because of myths founded by your own self?
Are you afraid of corruption? Are you scared to stand up for what is right? Do you have something to hide?

All your excuses are k-legged, weak and pathetic.

I don't care who the corrupt person is, where they are, what party they belong in or what section of the country they hail from. Let us stand up to corruption. Period.

"Stand for corruption" - out of your mouth

Abeg go siddon somewhere.

Beaf:

Dude, I don't get where you are headed. You are actually claiming to be scared of me, because of myths founded by your own self?
Are you afraid of corruption? Are you scared to stand up for what is right? Do you have something to hide?

All your excuses are k-legged, weak and pathetic.

I don't care who the corrupt person is, where they are, what party they belong in or what section of the country they hail from. Let us stand up to corruption. Period.

koruji:

"Stand for corruption" - out of your mouth

Abeg go siddon somewhere.

I know everything for you has a regional or ethnic slant, so you might feel threatened by aspects of a battle by the street against corruption; that is the only reason (aside from being personally corrupt) that you would attempt to shut down a thread on fighting corruption.

If you are not sick of corruption, the rest of us are.

[size=14pt]Seize the streets and shut down corruption.
Let the common man rise up and demand zero corruption.[/size]

@Beaf,


WILL YOU TAKE THE LEAD? IF I WAS IN NIGERIA, I WILL, WILL YOU?

manny4life:

@Beaf,

WILL YOU TAKE THE LEAD? IF I WAS IN NIGERIA, I WILL, WILL YOU?

I don't mind one bit.
My younger days were spent as a student leader in the times when aluta meant action.

The only problem is today's youth, all many have are mouths where their balls should be. We all need to gird our loins and demand a future that is bright for our kids; we need to demand an equitable society where everyone from the blind, deaf and dumb to muscle bound giant and the brainy academic can say, "this is my country, I am proud to belong."

Yeah, go ahead and take the lead, Beaf.

When the police stop you, you can turn around and go home since the police has the right to stop protests.

If you refuse to go back home and they give you the "Bayelsa-boy treatment", we 'll tell your relatives that you would actually have commended the police's action.

Talking about regional or ethnic slant - you are the fool who goes around here calling people "Aboki" and "grass eaters", and the like. You are the one standing behind a party who wants to declare a state of emergency over a natural flood in one region, but couldn't hold its President's knees together long enough to declare one in a region that you, Beaf, promised would be "cut loose in the desert" even as they making the distance between the word "Nigeria" and "Security" wider.

You are supposed to start cutting that region "loose" now if you have the balls - instead you are here calling people to some distractive fight for your selfish ends.

Take your fight to the streets Beaf, and stop preaching to the choir.

All I know is that anyone that follows you into any kind of "battle" had better keep you "in front" - otherwise Julius Ceasar would be thanking his starts that Brutus was no Beaf.

manny4life:

@Beaf,
WILL YOU TAKE THE LEAD? IF I WAS IN NIGERIA, I WILL, WILL YOU?

Beaf:

I know everything for you has a regional or ethnic slant, so you might feel threatened by aspects of a battle by the street against corruption; that is the only reason (aside from being personally corrupt) that you would attempt to shut down a thread on fighting corruption.

If you are not sick of corruption, the rest of us are.

[size=14pt]Seize the streets and shut down corruption.
Let the common man rise up and demand zero corruption.[/size]

^
Why are you so scared of the street rising up to fight corruption? I am deeply puzzled.
I would expect that any of the many NL contributors would be only too happy to see the common man have a better life.

If you have nothing to hide, why are you afraid of the street rising to demand an end to corruption? Maybe you think the tide will get so strong it will sweep you away, Lol!
Dude, on the day the common man rises, what will you charlatans and deceivers do?

@topic
I am calling on todays youth to get an education about your country and seize the phucking street. Nigeria belongs to all of us, let no viper run rings around you; it is a collective fight or we all lose.

You have no credibility is the point.

Beaf:

^
Why are you so scared of the street rising up to fight corruption? I am deeply puzzled.
I would expect that any of the many NL contributors would be only too happy to see the common man have a better life.

If you have nothing to hide, why are you afraid of the street rising to demand an end to corruption? Maybe you think the tide will get so strong it will sweep you away, Lol!
Dude, on the day the common man rises, what will you charlatans and deceivers do?

@topic
I am calling on todays youth to get an education about your country and seize the phucking street. Nigeria belongs to all of us, let no viper run rings around you; it is a collective fight or we all lose.

@beef
We are with you, we must fight and take back our country.

koruji:

You have no credibility is the point.

Abeg, go and sleep! All your excuses are very pathetic and childish indeed. Have you been up to no good with the peoples money, or just what is this silliness about?

The man on the street is not concerned about silly partisan foolishness of the type you have unsuccessfully tried to inject into this thread. A corrupt person is a thief regardless of whether they are in ACN, ANPP, APGA, DPP, LP or PDP. Do you think your vulcaniser cares about what party the thief down the street that is ruining his babies future belongs in?

Dude, please pass by. You have been seen through and should be thoroughly ashamed for trying to derail a thread calling on everyone to stand up to corruption.
It is either you are a coward, afraid to stand up, or you are corrupt. Don't worry, this is just the warning call; the time is coming when we will sharpen our knives and sling our AK's, we will see whether you will be man enough to stand in the way on that day.

Johndoe100:

@beef
We are with you, we must fight and take back our country.

Exactly. Its time for each and every one of us to stand up and be counted.
I don't wish to "koruji" on the day my kids ask, "daddy, what did you do to save my future as a Nigerian?"

Let us seize the damn street or die trying. I am tired of complaining about Nigeria where even the best plans fail, because interests and forces decide to shoot them down for personal gain.

what will happen if the useless police pick up arms and begin shooting,

Beaf:

We shoot back.

@ Beaf, Did you remember making the statement below

You are a dunce indeed. But there are many dunces in the country, which is why some have been known to attack policemen carrying automatic rifles with hammers and stones.


Did you receive a sudden vision?

Don't mind the mumu. He thinks he is so smart - looking for people to make fodder for GEJ trigger-angry police.

Like I said before, Beaf is [size=14pt]knowingly bipolar[/size] in the cause of supporting GEJ.

emiye:

what will happen if the useless police pick up arms and begin shooting,
@ Beaf, Did you remember making the statement below
You are a dunce indeed. But there are many dunces in the country, which is why some have been known to attack policemen carrying automatic rifles with hammers and stones.
Did you receive a sudden vision? 

^^^ My brother, Na so oooo.

This beaf guy guy cant be trusted, he speak with both sides of his mouth.

Anyway, i am not surprised, i found out the meaning of beaf, it simply means loud mess or fart

Brouhahahahaha!
Another method used by traitors to further their evil agenda. Let the dummies buy into this script set by PDP paid thugs.


UYCO be warned! They are coming to hijack your movement. They are your enemy, they enemies of Deltans. Do not allow yourself to be fooled by this lies. Once they get hold of any of your plans against Uduaghan, they will send in killers!

Discern your emails and make sure you filter those coming from Nairaland.
The only potent treatment for snake is cutting the head. Take my advice and remain save.
God bless UYCO.

@beaf,
when gej came on board, some of us never wanted him while most niigerians including you saw him as the messiah. after the elections, the support for jonathan has been on the down side yet some still believe in him including u. please if at this point, you have decided to shift ground, it will be a wise thing to make your stand known. just as many nigerians do not trust jonathan's intentions on the removal of fuel subsidy, many of us here do not trust your intention for inviting us to the streets where you and your boss will slaughter us without mercy.
if you are calling for protest against corruption or corrupt officials, are u not aware that u are inviting us against gej whose wife is no 1 on the country's corruption list?
pdp is the govt in power and gej is the key player. a president who cld not afford robber sandals during his school days finds joy in increasing electricity tariff even when the supply is not there. he finds joy in extending or elongating tenures of those failures turn rulers and now the most anti poor masses decission of removing fuel subsidy the only benefit an ordinary nigerian gets from the govt in a rich country like ours.
who will believe that in a country where lives are lost without questions, looting of public funds is a culture, federal roads are mere dead traps and govt shares public funds like lottery funds , our schools are only existing by names and a very long lists of odd situations, jonathan thinks making us suffer more hardship as a pupil.
God will catch them because their strengths have grown beyond human power but if gaddafi cld be wasted like a common criminal, then anything can happen.

Only a fooolish eediot and simpleton will follow a snake like Beaf to such protest.

homerac7:

Only a fooolish eediot and simpleton will follow a snake like Beaf to such protest.

We might sit on opposite sides of the political fence, but corruption does not know political party, which is the lie a lot of you tell. I generally expect better from you than the output of the usual foolish clowns who have spoken above.

You people are just cowards who come and mouth off on NL, but whose d.i.cks shrivel when told to put actions to your words. You do not have to follow me, a battle against corruption will acheive the same result, regardless of where Beaf is. Why can't you lead your own street if there is any seriousness about you? Why can't you sensitise the vulcanisers, hawkers, students etc on your own street?

You are only displaying the cowardly Nigerian mentality that is waiting for someone else to come and save them, whereas all the tools are at their feet.