AS President Goodluck Jonathan walked into the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, last Wednesday, for the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, he was stone-faced, unsmiling and devoid of the usual banters normally heralding the commencement of such engagements.

That was a bit abnormal, given the fact that he was seen to have emerged victorious in his week-long battle with labour leaders who had unleashed a total strike on the nation, following the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. Labour confirmed that the decision to reduce the price per litre of fuel to N97 from the N141 that it had shot up to as a consequence of the deregulation was unilaterally taken by the president. But it apparently achieved the desired objective of breaking the crippling strike and restoring the nation to normality.

Jonathan’s mien on Wednesday would suggest that he was in no mood to celebrate that. It was obviously the right attitude because there is nothing to celebrate. If anything, his hard task of re-ordering the nation has just begun.

The nationwide strike has collapsed. Labour may have their tails tucked in between their legs for their failure to achieve their aim of a total reversal, but they afforded Nigerians a platform to send a powerful message to the president; no one takes citizens for granted.

It could be said that the deregulation policy is now generally agreed to be a good initiative to right a lot of wrongs in the petroleum industry, especially the insatiable greed of the oil cartel. It should also make more money available for the development of necessary infrastructure across the country, stimulate the economy and bring more job opportunities to the teeming unemployed. But the timing of its implementation has been less than desirable. Jonathan’s government had been short-sighted in introducing it without putting  in place enough palliatives in place to mitigate the effects; it was not thoughtful of him to have set it off on the  New Year’s Day when many people had travelled out of their stations and had arranged their budgets in a particular way to return after the holiday. He had similarly been short-ranged in underestimating the effects of the sudden introduction of the policy on a people that were not adequately sensitised.

Just like that, those who planned to return to their bases were hamstrung because their budgets could no longer accommodate the transportation as planned; prices of virtually all commodities had skyrocketed and for salaried workers, much of their earnings had been expended over the holiday. Therefore, Nigerians rose in unison and in righteous indignation against Jonathan who now has every reason to pacify the anger.

He has spoken about his desire to change the country for the better and   fight corruption; he is intent on strengthening national institutions, reviving the economy, and making life more meaningful for the people. These are just words, intentions. Nigerians cannot wait to see the manifestations of the promises he made to them before the April 2010 presidential election. Having put the subsidy strike behind them, Nigerians are now well disposed to giving Jonathan a chance which he must take to redeem his battered image.

The starting point of this,apart from the battle against corruption in high places,may just be the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE) which can be his redemption song, if only he musters the political will to follow through with its provisions.

SURE objectives,broadly speaking, seek to mitigate the immediate impact of petroleum subsidy discontinuation on the population,but particularly for the poor and vulnerable segments. This applies to both direct and indirect effects of subsidy withdrawal. It hopes to accelerate economic transformation through investments in critical infrastructure projects so as to drive economic growth and achieve the Vision 20:2020 and to lay a foundation for the successful development of a national safety net programme that is better targeted at the poor and most vulnerable on a continuous basis.

But all these will remain laudable objectives on paper, unless Jonathan and his government do enough to translate them into concrete realities.  As he showed on Wednesday, these are no smiling times. He must, indeed, demonstrate seriousness towards satisfying the yearnings of the people who have been squeezed for too long. It is a sure way to regain credibility.    

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