It is sad to think that those compatriots we lost, died in vain.
Theoretical democracy. . . More like demoslavery.

Were are those morons who said the protest will be nigerians arab spring!!! Arab spring ko!! plantain chips nii!!
Gullible morons

its unfortunate dat most pple do not just get it. this protest has gone beyond fuel hike. it encompasses d bad in our nation particularly corruptn & mismanagement. i thought we had a unified platform in d face of d protest all over to put a stop to these but alas we couldn't sustain it. albeit if we had continue wit d struggle maybe just maybe a change might surface. now d so call cabal are laughin whereva dey are while d common man resume his prayer for change in our nation.

Roti_me:

I think after all, we should appreciate the nlc and tuc leaders! Though many things might be obscure to us. Everyone will get his/her reward wether good or bad 4 his actions. Kudos to nlc and tuc leaders!

I don't appreciate traitors.

I see__it seems like this was a plan btwn FG &NLC_NLC/TUC chairmen acted as if their previous meeting with FG wasn't fruitful so as to redirect our thoughts from thinking that they were bribed to thinking they were under pressure_ahhhh! Nw i got the calculus__bros J na badt boy lmao!! I hail yhu jaree!!

thank God, i just hope they have an arrangement to make the price per litre smaller in nearest future

Guys,

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. It is not easy to be a labour leader in this country. There could be threats of assasination not only to them but to thier entire family. There are situatuions in which people are forced at gunpoint to accept bribe and shut up or their generation is wiped out. I may not really blame them cos u might never know the true situation.

Too bad we have lost it as a nation.

The whole show of FSR/STRIKE/PROTEST is what hollywood will admire. Every move was planned and executed. Corruption has finally been legalised.  

If Soldiers can't allow us on ground then we shit our protest to the internet,BB, Twitter,2go and facebook.

No retreat, No surrender

philip0906:

may satan punish u and amadioha strike those fingers used in typing this shyte. . .baboon  

HAHAHAHAHA Satan and amadioha can never punish whom they do not own.  OMG , people like u make this forum balanced.

plaetton:

I expect you marshall stronger counter arguments, but I guess that would be expecting too much.
Knock knock! Anybody home?
I guess not.

Thank God we hv people like u in this forum.  without people like philip0906, the equation wont balance .  Thats the beauty of democracy

Instead of NLC to fight dis course to d last.

Corruption was legalised in Nigeria decades ago. This protest started as fight against removal of fuel subsidy but became a fight against corruption by the youths. Trust the oldies who are deep rooted in corruption to ruin the whole war and redirect the course.
I am left wondering who will be judging the accountability of the FG in this Fuel Subsidy Fund and what those milestones TUC president mentioned really are! If we the masses don't know those milestones, how are we supposed to be judge that things are going as planned?
Its all a rat race.

If no life was lost it would have been a case of narrow loss say 1 - 2 to GEJ but in this case it is NLC/TUC 0 - 7 GEJ.

From the first time i do not support this strike of a thing because the so call NLC is corrupt organization from the inner chamber. Have you ask your self why the so called NLC did not go for strike for our bad government , bad road, no refinery working, no government bus transport , no  housing   estate for the masses and so much corruption from local government to president . i expected them to go on strike for all those thing not to wait till government put money on the fuel. because they new they will gain personally from the fuel price. we have to learn from this. people cant keep using us to achieve their personal selfish  interest . fuel price is not the only problem we have in this country . why waiting to fight government till they hike fuel price. for me it doesn't make sense at all. we should wise up and open our eyes.  shine your eyes well well.

lesson 1
whoa!, the ASUU strike is/has really taking/taken its toll on the minds of some people.
1. "Subsidy" which may or may not have existed. Its removal wasnt necessary for national development.
In a country, whose annaul budget is 39trillion naira, what is a mere 1.3 trillion, which was inflated by the way.
Law of common sense states. . .this is me propounding my own theory, when faced with a problem, ending the case doesnt solve the problem, instead annihiliating the problem solves the case. The problem arouse from the outrageous increment in the cost of subsidy from 300bn - 1.3tr, and this incident was pinned to the notorious act of a CABAL.
Which is easier remove the cabal scoundrels(say 100 persons) or subsidy(Nigerians, Non-cabal members)?
Someone, brought in an analogy, saying GEJ(the surgeon) forgot to give anaesthesia before the surgery. . . I beg of you to modify your comment. . . The right thing to say would be our president with all senses engaged took out our life support and has promised surgery(palliatives).
Secondly, 25% cut in basic salaries is equivalent to how much revenue the government has gained by reducing subsidy.
Thirdly, the reinvestment committee have their priorities misplaced, you dont build a house by laying the foundation first, something more important preceeds this, which is costing, how much does nigeria need to become the much anticipated El'dorado? What is the timeline given?
I feel they should invest in production, not just in the oil sector but all of them, from mineral exploration(tin, gold, copper, buxite etc), agriculture, maritime, fishing etc. . . An old adage say "na money them dey use take find money". !note all these could have been done without subsidy removal.
Lastly, its only in the previous year that the price of subsidy increased, therefore the government has succeeded in saving say + or - 300bn, to what extent can this figure aid in nation building? (On the flip side weigh the damage it could do) Between now and 2015?
When/if you can answer the last 2 question? Do seek my attention.

BACK TO WORK EVERYBODY,THIS IS NOT ARAB COUNTRY, UP GEJ
PLEASE WHERE ARE THE PALLIATIVES?

Why are NIgerians so insultive and aggressive? Do you pay these guys for the service they r rendering? In the past one week they have been jumping from Lagos to Abuja to coordinate protests and attend meetings. Where were you when he was attending meetings in the dead of the nite? Definitely on your beds. I bet you grumblers were not even part of the protest
ers on d streets. What you are good at is to insult your leaders on Nl.Did you take out time to look at his eyes yesterday? They were bloodshot,tired and confused. They tried their best even if it wasn't good enough according to some persons. Please let's be civil.The NLC is not responsible for Nigeria's problems.They still have a pending case with the NIC

This is pathetic to say the least. With this, the government had won completely because it is a strategy all from the beginning. Jonathan and his cohorts knew that Nigeria will resist the subsidy removal/fuel price hike. So they increased the price to 141 and after protest and agitations reduced it to N97. At N97, the subsidy (if it truly exist) had been completely removed. (Lets beginning another verification if the oil cabal are still getting any subsidy); but the FG will say they have removed 50% of subsidy hoping to remove the rest when Nigerian begins to see the results of the 50% withdrawal. The government have one advantage which is NIGERIANS CANNOT hold for long when it comes to protest and strike. No mater how we try, we don't have the same gut like the Arabs who can stay on street for more than a month. So the plan was that when the govt eventually "reduce" typical Nigerian go say "at least they have tried" and conclude that we should move on.

As per NLC/TUC, I have problem with the way they handle the latter part of the protest especially after meeting with govt but since they have achieved a reduction, they have tried their best. You can't rule out threats to their lives and their family members. I'm sure the same masses will turn their backs on them if they still insists on N65 because they are already getting tired. At least we cant compare buying at N141 and buying at N97. The only problem here is that the prices of everything that had gone up will NEVER  come down. This is where the masses lose out

We need to know one thing - with the new price, is the subsidy still completely removed or 50% removed. It may be that it is completely removed but the govt will claim it is partially removed to pave way for further looting on a future claim of total removal. So we must monitor if the oil cabal are still getting  any subsidy from now on.

Forget about all those palliatives, Audit, EFCC, transparency and so on, it is back to business as usual fr the government. They have gotten their wish at least by 90%.

May GOD help us in this country

My problem with the NLC
they acted as the mouth piece of the people.
They urged dense, brilliant, ignorant protesters on, to demand for a non-negotiable N65 PMS
Alot of protester incured alot of damage, both mentally and physically.
There is a textbook to write about this, but here is the problem, in the same vein that these things were done, they should have expressed an affection of bravado by holding one last rally to address the populace on the conclusion they have reach.
Whether or not its accepted thats a diiferent issue, but instead withou decorum they settled on the sly. . . Leaving everyone desultory

Pure water can never go back
to N5, d cost of transportation will still be d same. So pls tell me, wat was d strike for?? Nlc shouldnt ve strike wen the subsidy was removed

sooo whr re all the cybe lions #65 or war generals, when re we having the war

Kpa kpa kpa kpa kpa tp Nigeria legion of cowards, and totally useless confusionists, this is a well played out script, better luck next time to yall

i love naija, small shakara and labour fall yakata,,,or mybe na ghana must go bags do the trick

all lazy bones dust your shoes, work starts 2morw, no more cannivals @ ojota

somebody pop something

97 naira is a joke

Nlc can neva b relied upon

Its now or never. If that is true. What a disappointment.

I said it from day one that labor were going to shoot themselves in the foot. They have showed great inexperience in the handling of this crisis. This is where you have to duff your hat for Oshiomole. Having been a part of many protest myself even from my school days, I knew they had made some very major blunders with their approach. Their blunders left a lot of loopholes in the strike and boxed themselves to a corner. Some of their mistakes were:

1. You never ever take an extreme stand in a government labor dispute. You can take a hard stand, but you must always leave room for negotiations. Labor from day one allowed the sentiments of some clueless NGOs to influence them and took an extreme stance. They said they would never go back to the negotiating table until the government announces a reversal. No government will ever succumb to that. That is at best completely st.u.p.i.d and will always backfire. Labor is employed by government not by NGOs. It is like the fight between a husband and wife. Any third party that comes in between will eventually get the stick. In this case, labor became the unfaithful wife that decided to bring in an outsider to intimidate her husband. Foolish move!

2. When you do 1 above, you put yourself on the back-foot when you eventually come to the table. Also 1 above made the negotiations to start very late. At this time, the FG had gathered enough feedback and security reports to plan better and call the shots.

3. They allowed opposition politicians to take over the protest. Now before some of you defend that, consider this. There is a big difference between a mas action called by opposition groups and industrial strike by labor. They both have different rules and different outlooks. On top of that, there was no unanimous opposition support because the opposition actually supported the removal but only kept mute because they didnt want to offend the people. This created a real loophole. The opposition did not have the full moral power to protest. some say it is within the rights of politicians to hijack such protest. Well I completely disagree in a multi political state like Nigeria. There is a complete distrust amongst the various sections of Nigeria. So any protest can easily transform into a clamor for power shift. That is the reality of the day. And that was what people like Bakare brought to the table. The problem with that is that, those who seek power shift cannot seek it through mass action except they have the total support of the country. Unlike Libya and Egypt, they dont have that total support.

4. This one is interesting. They didnt consider a very subtle but key loophole. They didnt consider the fact that, though they were fighting a "good" cause on behalf of the masses, the corrupt oil dealers where as much beneficiaries of the strike as the masses. This was a big irony. I saw that loophole from day one and expected labor to find a way to maneuver themselves out of that but they didnt. That situation brought a moral question to the protest. Yes the loud voices of the mob tried hard to shut that down, but it was never going to go away. It was always going to be a recurring decimal in the whole saga. It also created a big moral problem for the labor leaders. There was always going to be the suspicion they were being sponsored. There was always going to be the issues that a return to N65 was a return to a cabal controlled Nigeria.

These are just my thoughts. I think that labor showed a lot of inexperience in the handling of this strike. I dont think they were bribed by government. People are too quick to say negative things because they have never worked in government circles. The situation on the ground didnt need government to bribe anyone. There are people whose job it is to do these kind of negotiations and believe me, they are good at it. they are what you might call evil geniuses. They know how to exploit all these loopholes I have stated. Some where too quick to say GEJ was not on top of the situation. But the silence for 4 days by the government shows he was on the driving seat all along. The ignorance of many here on NL is that GEJ actually works as one man. He never works as one man. He works as a team. There are people paid to handle crisis and they are well funded to research and act. Their reports give government the tools to navigate these waters. They get it wrong sometimes, but they always know how to regroup and restrategize.

Those who keep saying that the labour unions have sold out are exactly the type of people that keep Nigerians from shaking the shackles of oppression from the political class.Why must you wait for a labour union to lead your 'revolution' in a country where over 90% are either unemployed or employed within a informal sector Even in the Arab world where the rate of employment within an organised sector is higher their revolutions were not led by some labour unions. The Nigerian labour unions did indeed provide the platform for you all to start your 'revolution' by calling out people but sustaining it goes beyond the labour unions!You guys were busy enjoying your song and dance in Ojota during your 'revolution' while these same guys you so casually vilify are being threatened by the central federal government with accusations of treason and instigating a state of anarchy in the country and would have pinned it on them if it actually went out of hand while you guys sing and dance in Ojota.

If you guys are so cock-bent on carrying out your 'revolution' whats keeping you Must you listen to the labour unions in a matter that clearly transcends an organised labour unions Please go ahead and march to Ojota and continue the 'revolution' and take on the soldiers armed with live bullets.That is actually what it takes to carry out a real revolution- blood,guts and courage not singing and dancing and indulging in a blame game after you have failed to sustain your 'revolution'

^^^ Clap Clap Clap!!!

@saint p, @ harmeenut, etc

I think it is rather preposterous and disingenuous  of you guys and others that think like you to suggest or imply that the NLC leaders were intimidated  by threats to them and their families. Someone on this thread  (can't remember his/her name) even said that that the eyes of the NLC leader were so bloodshot and as thus he was so tired and confused. The NLC leaders were obviously compromised and thus played along with the government. It was NLC that hijacked the protests by the Nigerian people.

It is a shame that the average nigerian like these guys above pluck ideas out of the blues and use that to justify an untoward action. The truth is that the NLC deceived the people. What explanation did the federal government give the NLC that is so sacred they could not share with the people.

Check the meaning of unilateral in your dictionary: it mean an action taken by only one side. So why call of the strike if the government is yet to acquiesce to your demands.

It was all a setup from the classical Nigerian market place: never quote the actual price of anything in the first instance. We all see it everyday in the market (after negotiating the buyers thinks he's gotten a bargain). The federal government wanted #97 all along and just used the #141 as the point of reference in the negotiations.
It is a shame that the government can not tell us the truth.

Nigeria is an oil producer and it is shame that we are allowing  the thinking of the western world to affect the policies of nation. Utilities like power, water and communication should ideally never be in the hands of foreign investors because that is analogous to Esau giving away his birthright to Jacob for peanuts. A joint venture with the government being the major stakeholder may work for a country like nigeria  where the technological know how is not readily available.

Iran's refusal to follow the model nigeria has just adopted (advocated by the West under the guise of the IMF and other dodgy parastatal) is the main problem the west has with Iran. Iran has other problems though but they are not issues that can not be resolved if Iran adopts the business model of the West.

What is the hope for the average Nigerian ?

Do not be surprise if the same set of people campaign for GEJ and or PDP come the next election ?

God will deliver us from ourselves.

It is time to hold our government accountable.