I am sure President Goodluck Jonathan and the people who elected him on April 16, 2011, by now, would have learnt one or two lessons from the current impasse.

When we talk of democracy, we mean independency within and among the three arms of government; namely Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. No arm of the three is superior, and no one is inferior.
Therefore, it will be totally undemocratic for any arm to undermine the others.

Removing subsidy has compelled millions of Nigerians to have a rethink about the present government.

In the first place, the life of 2011 budget had been extended till March 2012, courtesy of the 7th Assembly. The budget of 2012 had been submitted to the National Assembly and this very relevant body has not considered and passed the budget, since 2011 budget is still in force. Furthermore, the government knows those who directly or indirectly benefit from oil subsidy presently. Why can’t they be tracked down if any offence was committed?

In a system of democracy, no responsible arm of government would go for removal of fuel subsidy without due process and adequate consultation with the Legislative body and other necessary groups. No responsible arm will ignore the provision of law as regards adequate partnership in the affairs of the state. Since an issue like subsidy removal is a public matter, no responsible arm of government should ignore vibrant bodies like Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and civil society groups in coming to a conclusion.

In addition, no responsible arm would choose to jeopardize the peace and comfort of the vulnerable segment of the population. In fact, most Nigerians were stranded after the yuletide celebration due to the announcement of fuel subsidy removal, because transport fares and cost of almost everything nationwide skyrocketed from January 1, 2012 till now.

As it is now, the noble option for the Presidency is to apologize to the nation, reverse the price of PMS to N65.00 per litre, resume negotiation with both NLC and TUC, cut down salaries of all the units in the executive arm, reduce the recurrent expenditure, prevail on the Legislative body across board to slash their salaries and allowances, begin palliative measures nationwide, accelerate work on rail system, stem down corruption, pursue the Boko Haram  with same vigour the Presidency had extended to oil subsidy removal encourage employment for the youths and embark on empowerment programmes for the women.

These will endear the people to the President again and the trust may be ignited  once more.

I appreciate the resilience of Mr. President. I equally appreciated the zeal which some of his cabinet members had employed over the issue of oil subsidy from January 1 till date. But Nigerians would appreciate the President and his team more if they can attack Boko Haram menace, corruption and insecurity in Nigeria. We are gradually drifting to what happened in 1970. The calibre of men and women engaged to enforce deregulation, the huge amount of money spent from Jan 1 till date to ensure the strike action was defeated, the time and energy spent to ensure that Nigerians embrace and accept the terrible new year gift from their President, the preparedness and participation of our police and armed forces before and during the strike action, and the lobbying by the chosen Emirs, Obas, Obis, Spiritual leaders, political stalwarts before and during strike action have exposed the present government that it has all it takes to perform when it chooses to do so.

Be that as it may, all of the above must now be engaged fully to annihilate corruption everywhere and deal with Boko Haram that has set the ball rolling towards religious and tribal war in the land.

Every Nigerian must work sincerely to wrestle Nigeria from the imminent collapse.

Though the new price of  N97.00 per litre is not satisfactory, it is better for now.

Sam Babatunde is of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Ibadan, Oyo State.

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