The recent increase in the price of fuel from N86 to N145 is the most incensate, unsympathetic and anti-people decision the PMB government has yet taken in its flip-flop one year of clueless and directionless govt. At a time Nigerians are already groaning under a grotesque over 500% increase in prices of ordinary consumables with the miserly non living wage of N18,000.00 unaltered, it is inconceivable that the government will add to the pains, anguish, pangs and sufferings of ordinary Nigerians whose only crime is that they “voted” for “change”.
This government has indecently reversed all its promises to the Nigerian people, treating them as inconsequential nonentities in its governance index. It is not about whether there are advantages in the increase. It is simply about honour, dignity and integrity in fulfilling election promises, which constitute a pact, pactum sunt servanda (agreements must be respected) with the Nigerian people.
It is commonsensical that a fall in the international price of crude oil should only lead to a further fall in the prices of PMS in Nigeria. No one needs to be an acclaimed economist to know thus simple truism. But, the Buhari government treats Nigerians with levity and disdain, as if they do not matter in its governance template and index. The already overburdened masses, who are groaning under excruciating economic woes are again told to go to hell.
Who did the government consult with on such a major economic reversal? Shouldn’t the government have first put the refineries back on track with addition of new ones before taking such a major economic decision? Yet the government is driven by the same people, who, only in January 2012, shut down Jonathan’s government with “occupy Nigeria”, when he increased the fuel price minimally. Where are the APC acolytes, who boasted during the presidential campaigns that Buhari would bring down prices of fuel to 40 naira per litre? They must now bury their heads in shame.
The PPRA has not been reconstituted by PMB in accordance with extant laws. Where did he, therefore, derive his powers to carry out this punitive and contemptuous act against the Nigerian people? I unequivocally condemn this latest act of promises summersault and call for its immediate reversal until some necessary palliatives are put in place.
Governor Fayose: The new Nigerian nostradamus (1)
Introduction
Nostradamus (Michel de Nostredame), is the famous prophet who reigned supreme in the 16th century. He is noted for having “predicted” the French Revolution, Napoleon, Adolph Hitler, the atomic bomb, 9-11 atrocity, JFK and RFK assassinations, and just about everything else that has happened since the time of his predictions. For example, with the end of the world predicted for last December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, there was much interest and anxiety in the apocalypse that was supposed to have occurred near the end of 2012. Nostradamus had predicted a great comet, Nibiru, or rogue planet, Planet X, which would impact the Mediterranean on December 21, 2012, causing great destruction worldwide. Thank God we are still alive.
Fayose’s uncanny predictions
Barely three days to the end of 2015, specifically in newspaper advertorials on December 22, 2015, Governor, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, had predicted 20 episodes Nigerians should expect to happen under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government in 2016. He predicted, just like Nostradamus, that the country was to experience great challenges the following year, 2016. Many Buharists or Buharideens, in their usual dismissive way, talked him down, using expletives against him. Some PMB cheer leaders tagged his predictions, as the rantings of a drowning politician. But, Fayose, the avant-garde, enfant terrible and nemesis of APC, has fast assumed a lone conscience of the nation, posing a strong one-man-riot-squad opposition, as against PDP’s feeble opposition machinery. Recall that PDP, having been used to the perquisites of power for 16 years, were ill prepared for their novel new role as opposition party. But, Fayose picked up the gauntlet. Were Fayose to be a prophet or pastor in the new generation Pentecostal Churches, he would by now be requiring the national stadium in Lagos and Abuja to contain his spilling teeming adherents and congregation of worshippers. Many of these people believe that “seeing is believing”, irking the Lord Jesus Christ to admonish: “except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John, 4: 48).
Some incurable desperados and political buccaneers do not care to read Corinthians 5: 7 – “We walk by faith, not by sight”. But, faith is different from hope. Hebrews 11: 1 – tells us that “Faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen”. Were Jesus Christ to be present physically with us today when Ayo Fayose’s predictions have virtually all been realised, he would have admonished Nigerians thus: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt” (Matthew 14: 31).
Even for these doubting Thomases, who, out of sheer political expediency, have refused to acknowledge naked realities on the ground, which even the deaf can hear, the blind can see and the numb can feel, read Fayose, and judge for yourselves; the realisation of his widely advertised December 22 predictions for 2016:
“Fellow Nigerians, I want you to take note of the followings that will unavoidably happen under the Buhari-led government in 2016. 1. Workers Strike: There will be so much industrial unrest, especially in the first quarter of the year. 2. Subsidy: There will be removal of fuel subsidy and petrol (PMS) will sell over and above N100/litre, leaving the masses in more serious hardship. Product will not be available and long queues in petrol stations will persist throughout the first quarter of 2016 and beyond. 3. Electricity: Power generation will drop to the lowest ebb. Still, Federal Government will increase tariff in 2016. 4. Unemployment: Millions of jobs will be lost in 2016, as against the three million jobs promised by the APC yearly. Most States and Federal Government will retrench workers, as evident in the over 2,000 federal university workers already sacked. 5. Economic Policy: Most private owned middle-class businesses will fold up because of bad economic policies of the Buhari-led government. 6. Devaluation: The Naira will continue to have a free fall, which will take it to as low as N320 to one Dollar. 7. Economy: The Buhari-led FG will have no solution to country’s economic problems. 8. Security: Boko Haram will keep spreading and the Shiite Muslims will get more emboldened. 9. Human Rights: Penchant for dictatorship will rise with rampant human rights abuses and disobedience to court orders. 10. Anti-corruption: Insincerity in the fight against corruption will continue and the fight will not only be selective and political, but targeted more at Southerners. 11. Elections: Attempt to forcefully control any of the South South States of Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa by the APC will lead to unprecedented deaths. 12. Economy: Crude oil price will fall to below and about $30 per barrel. 13. Anti-Press Laws: The masses, especially men of the media profession will rise against the FG’s plot to deny Nigerians of their rights to freedom of expression.
•To be continued