‘‘In this most pitiless of countries in Africa, where citizens are groaning continuously and suffering miserably, everything must change. A small clique of unscrupulous, selfish, ambitious and criminally stupid managers of our affairs must give way for a new order. Nigerians must stand up to be counted, in the quest for a new Nigeria. All patriots must insist on a new foundation for Nigeria in the 21st century.”- Quoted in Nowinta’s book, 2009: Where We Are (page 138)
Pebbles With Igbotako Nowinta
As I was organizing my thoughts concerning this piece my mind kept going back to January 2012, when Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s civilian administration unleashed a devastating blow on the people of Nigeria.
It was indeed a very unpleasant way to welcome the traumatized masses of into a brand New Year, knowingly that they had exhausted the little they gathered for the yuletide and the New Year celebrations of 2012.
Expectedly, yours sincerely and other civil society leaders in Edo state, Nigeria swang into action, organized the people and challenged the government for jacking up the pump price of petrol.
Quite unfortunately, after series of daily protests that were staged nationwide; protests that in some isolated cases led to tragic casualties of innocent, law abiding, poor Nigerians ex-President Jonathan succeeded to placate all of us.
Jonathan succeeded because the price of petrol was never the same again, while the suffering and smiling continued on the streets of Nigeria.
The Subsidy Re-investment talk; palliative measures and other phony promises were thrown aside as soon as the protesters vacated the streets across the nation.
Most painfully the Subsidy Re-investment ploy became a subject of gigantic corruption, while teenagers belonging to People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) chieftains became overnight contractors and allegedly ran away with billions of naira paid into their accounts in the name of fuel importation.
Refineries were left to dilapidate; turn around maintenance was never carried out because the money voted for it was shared among the then owners of Nigeria.
Till the dying days of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s regime fuel turned into a scarce commodity, while the nation groaned uncontrollably. Things were really bad!
What followed was the wind of change that tore to pieces the mantle of shame, deceit and retrogression worn by the PDP Lords for sixteen terrible years in Nigeria.
Suddenly the fear of Buhari became the beginning of wisdom as long queues gradually disappeared from the filling stations throughout Nigeria.
People began to wonder what type of magic the All Progressives Congress (APC) introduced that led to the normalization/availability of petrol nation-wide.
For those who did not know the satanic mafias/cabal that benefitted from the non-availability of fuel in the country were unhappy that their lucrative bloody business has been disrupted. They waited and conspired in silence!
How do I know that the Independent Marketers and others in the long chain of loading, transporting, supplying, even the dispensers at the filling stations are normally buoyant whenever there is petrol scarcity?
Few days ago I went to purchase fuel in Petroleum Essential Company (PEC) not too far from my residence in Oluku, Benin City, Nigeria.
I bought fuel at N120 per liter and by the time I came back in the evening of the same day the guys operating the filling station have pushed up the price to N130 per liter.
I got another shocker the following day as I entered the same PEC station to buy fuel to power my bore hole machine (that was 24th of December 2015), where the price was shot up to n140 per liter.
Now who was manipulating the price at the PEC filling station? Is it President Muhammadu Buhari or who?
Even as the Minister of State for Petroleum, Emmanuel Ibe Kachukwu has toured all the petroleum facilities across the country and said repeatedly that there is enough fuel in the country to go round everybody, the reality on the ground has not changed.
I wonder what the Special Task Force on Petroleum in Edo state, set up by the government, for instance is doing where all of us have become easy prey to the nasty, Sherlock and ruthless extortion going on in almost all the filling stations in Edo state.
I know that this brazen day light robbery of motorists by fuel attendants is going on in virtually all the filling stations in Nigeria!
It is disgusting and absolutely seething to see how some of these fuel dispensers arrogantly conduct themselves within the filling stations.
I saw one openly emptying bottles of beer into his stomach as I drove round town on Christmas day!
This is not to talk of the usual criminal adjustment of pumping machines at most of the filling stations in Nigeria.
As the fuel scarcity bites harder by the day, something drastic should be done to stop and nail down all those who have turned themselves into vampires sucking our blood with relish in the name of artificial fuel scarcity.
The other day government was saying that men of the State Security Service (SSS) have been ordered to move against those causing us unwarranted hardship and smiling to the banks in the process!
I am yet to hear of any arrest in that regard. For once government should deregulate the oil market; scatter and stop the subsidy mess.
We have had enough of trauma in the name of filling our tanks!
Nowinta wrote Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria
