One of the most intriguing things to observe in the current fuel subsidy matter is to see Senator-elect (at that time) Adams Oshiomhole sitting on the government side to negotiate with the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). He sat on the side of those who urged labour not to go on strike and to understand that government was acting in the best interest of the people. It was, indeed, the irony of life and politics. Anyone who knew how Oshiomhole led the NLC when Olusegun Obasanjo was President of Nigeria and how labour held that government hostage over the matter of halting fuel subsidy would come to terms with the expression that no condition is permanent.
Oshiomhole rode on the back of his popularity as labour leader to become a political icon and near godfather in Edo State. He became governor in the state, chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a dominant force in politics on account of his resilience against removal of fuel subsidy. The Nigerian people rallied round labour and gave Oshiomhole the support that made the late irrepressible lawyer and social critic, Gani Fawehinmi say he was disappointed that the former labour leader wanted to be governor of Edo State when he ought to be angling to be President of Nigeria.
Indeed, politics in Nigeria is a game of lies. What are the former labour leader’s new findings that he did not know when he was president of the NLC? What has changed when the union virtually frustrated the Obasanjo regime so much so that the former President was forced to make a broadcast wherein he noted that the labour leader was acting as though the Nigerian people elected him President, insisting that he, Obasanjo, was the President, not Oshiomhole. Why should the former labour leader not want those currently in the saddle to shine from the same circumstance that placed a ladder for his political career. Now he would sit to tell labour the kind of things he refrained from hearing in his own time.
Politics in Nigeria is, indeed, a game of lies. Eleven years ago, President Goodluck Jonathan tried to tinker with fuel subsidy and all hell was let loose. The most fierce civil unrest in the land, tagged Occupy Nigeria, was deployed to deter him. Ojota, in Lagos, was the centre of the unrest. The move was shot down, and a mild adjustment was made in the price of petroleum. Jonathan was bashed and plastered with the term ‘clueless’ because he moved to do the needful. Sponsors of the civil unrest turned Ojota and Yaba into a gathering point for protesters who were entertained by musicians and served food to sustain the unrest. Jonathan was crucified for attempting to take away a subsidy that all economists have identified as a leech on the nation’s finances. Governor of the Central Bank at that time, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, warned that if the subsidy continued unfettered , the nation would come to its knees over time, such that it would only live by borrowing. The protesters and their sponsors simply shouted ‘crucify him’! The glaring fact now is that they knew that Jonathan was on the right track, just that the crown did not fit his head, in their view.
Politics in Nigeria is a game of lies. When the campaign to bring the APC to power was in the offing, its presidential candidate, now former President Muhhamadu Buhari, said there was no truth about the existence of subsidy. He said it was a scam. He knew he was economical with the truth, but the target was to tell Nigerians a lie that would stick and turn their angst against the man in the saddle. He came into office and preferred to live with the fraud as did his predecessor. At that point Sanusi’s prediction had begun to manifest. Nigeria could no longer bear the burden of that fraud called subsidy such that the nation embarked on a borrowing spree to survive. The chicken has come home to roost. The truth now stares the nation in the face. It is no unknown truth. It is nothing sudden. It was just that politics in Nigeria is a game of lies. Buhari could not reverse himself in the face of crippling paucity of funds. He kept borrowing until it began to look like the nation lived on borrowed funds.
The 2023 budget of N21.8 trillion was the biggest in the annals of Nigeria but nearly half, N10.9 trillion, is deficit. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on whose lap it falls to implement the document, would either continue the borrowing spree or do something drastic. On his first day in office, he did that same thing Jonathan wanted to do for which the politicians who thrive on lies termed him clueless. He announced that “subsidy is gone” because the government would collapse if he did not make that clueless move. Now, politics means that Oshiomhole, who led strikes that crippled government, would tell labour not to do the same thing he did. Politics means that Tinubu would turn round and make the same move he allegedly was against as a major sponsor of Occupy Nigeria. Politics means that the clueless President Jonathan actually had the clue Tinubu and his team needed to make any headway in government. What has changed? The subsidy matter in Nigeria is an irony to buoy the glaring fact that in Nigeria politics is a game of lies.