Gen. Oshiomhole is in town!

By

Mike Ikhariale

Like they say in the classical Sapele pidgin English parlance, trouble de sleep, yanga go wake am, so it seems for the yet to be fully established (it is still more like a sole administratorship than a democratic outfit in the absence of ministers) second term government of President Olusegun Obasanjo that has now found itself prematurely mired in an un-winnable battle with the Nigerian poor and the disadvantaged as well as those who are innately disgruntled with the regime under the able commandership of General Adams Oshiomhole, the diminutive but irresistible Napoleon of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

Until, very recently, the labour leader was beginning to wear more designer outfits than the typical comradely khaki drill of the ordinary factory floor hands that form the foot soldiers of his industrial army.

Not so anymore. Just like real war-time commanders, Comrade Oshiomhole is now dressing and, in fact, looking more like an army General, seemly more like generals Rommel and Montgomery than those of the fatherland army that have since earned for themselves the public opprobrium of being coward coupists, treasury looters and fraudsters, no thanks to the bad and lingering examples of our numerous past generals-in-politics.

What is it that brought General Oshiomhole to town? Answer: Gbadanomics! Simply put, Gbadanomics is the local petroleum economic theory that is being enthusiastically fashioned by the lucky Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi who, straight from college and still a lad, was fortuitously enlisted into the military government of Lagos in the olden days of Brigadier Johnson.

 And since then, the man has remained in the precincts of power, actively doling out what, for want of better term, we have chosen to call “Gbadanomics”. In its simplest form, Gbadanomics is the official belief that Nigerians will always pay any price that is placed on their God-given petrol products.

This theory has certain inescapable assumptions. First, citizens have no choice over the matter. Second, government would always be able to say that the selling price, no matter what, is subsidised, simply because the people do not know the actual price of the commodity and, thirdly, the continuous flying of the colourful kite of deregulation and the promotion of the voodoo of privatisation even as the government intensifies its hold on the oil industry for reasons of patronage, corruption and inefficiency.

It is interesting to note that within Gbadanomics, prices are not determined by the orthodox forces of demand and supply, but by some official sophistry dictated by bodies like the PPPRA (and as forcibly moderated by strikes and industrial dislocations), that nominally seeks to equate the pump price of fuel in Nigeria with those of the US and Germany and some other far-flung places, without telling the helpless people what it costs to feed, to get medical treatment, move along the highways or even operate the “common GSM” in those places, as well. It is a one-sided theory that relies on two factors: the ignorance and the predictable helplessness of the people. Simple! 

So it is that anytime Nigerians see Rasheed Gbadamosi on the telly beaming with all blessedness and exuding tell-tales of overfeeding, whether under Babaginda, Abacha or Obasanjo, they take the straight notice that a huge petrol price increase is on the way.

And about that, they have never erred because Gbadanomics has no second edition; it is the same old story. Over the years, government has relied on huge price increases as a ready source of cheap cash that is routinely abused and heartlessly embezzlement by those who run the business of government. From 26 Naira, the Obasanjo government has again jacked up the pump price of petrol to 40 Naira, basing the more than fifty-four per cent increase on the time-honoured Gbadanomics.

We are not going into the details, the nuances and dialectics of Gbadanomics here. That must be reserved for another day. What we are concerned with for now is the new mien of the Nigerian labour leader, Adams Oshiomhole. He is really looking tough and with a touch of a Rambo on the loose. The President, who is also the nation’s oil Minister, has told the hapless citizens of the land that is reputedly flowing with oil that the new price is divine and therefore not subject to debate.

We have heard from Mr. President himself how fuel is being used to enrich the already rich; how smuggling is now beyond the government; how the poor would be blessed by high prices; how wayward and hedonistic Nigerian husbands and wives have been driving their cars filled with cheap fuel SHARAA and YARAA!!!

The big boss doled out the shara, yara thesis while attempting to respond to General Oshimhole’s seminal lecture to some praise-singing market women on the evils of fuel prices hikes before an audience of irresistible yes men.  The president and the PPPRA, skilfully deploying Gbadanomics, have given the nation the one-sided argument that there is “subsidy” on fuel in Nigeria but without the simplest courtesy to tell the nation how that “subsidy” came about.

Just like Oshiomhole and other concerned Nigerians have pointed out on this oily matter, it is not correct to say that our oil is being subsidised. Rather, we should be bothered about the fact that Nigerians have indeed been subsidising the gaping inefficiency of the government and its functionaries, especially the NNPC, which has seen to the ruination of the refineries in the country in preference to the fraud-infested importation of the same product.

Why should Nigerian be punished for the failure of those whose assignment it is to run the oil industry? In real terms, Nigerians are the ones subsidising the gluttony of the government.

That much the President has acknowledged but only as a reason why the poor should continue to bear the burden brought into being by official irresponsibility. This is because those that would now have to forgo much of their lives are the same poor citizens who have “no alternatives” about the price hikes.  As far as oil is concerned in Nigeria, the only person that can talk about its subsidy is God, the one who, in His infinite mercy, gave the nation the product.

Certainly not the government. And if indeed there is subsidy, it must be the one that is been painfully made by the people who are unwillingly paying for the inefficiency of the government in the extraction and processing of this God-given asset.

Whatever becomes of the current effort by the Oshiomhole-led NLC to force President Obasanjo to reverse himself on the recently increased fuel prices, one thing Nigerians are not going to forget in a hurry is the sheer oratory and intellectual depth of the labour leader and, in particular, his newfound love for military-like drills. Oshiomhole, the labour general has proved to be a great debater, a patriot and a seasoned “action man” of military variety.

 I have no doubt in my mind that some people were genuinely scared about the field Marshall-like demeanour of the reigning labour kingpin. How else does one explain the unconstitutional barbarism that the state brought to bear on those who marched for their rights to a life free from unjust fuel taxes?

Certainly, someone, somewhere, seeing Oshiomhole in what looks like army uniform thought that we were back to the old anarchic military era of meeting lawful civil protests within mindless brutality! It was a costly mistake, especially as we are now pretending to be fit and proper hosts to the likes of George Bush; who must see some of our “dividends of democracy”.

At the end of the day, it ought to be recorded that the NLC leader made the point that President Obasanjo did not have better reasons than those that have been routinely dished out in the past by previous leaders who simply augmented the cash stocks available for illegitimate sharing by public officials via reckless and quantum increases in fuel prices.

 The only novelty this time around is that the President made use of the rather innocuous Council of State, a body comprising of political retirees and coup survivors, whose constitutional mandate is limited to merely advising the government on matters like the prerogative of mercy and national honours in usurpation of the job that is specifically set out under the constitution as that of the National Economic Council under the chairmanship of the Vice President, who has himself declared to a bemused nation that he did not know when the decision to increase the fuel prices was hatched.

So, at the end of the day, the battle line in the oil altercation could be narrowed down to that between the President of the federation, Obasanjo, on the one hand and the President of the NLC, Oshiomhole on the other, because all the constitutional bodies and agencies that were supposed to fix lawful prices for the nation in such crucial sectors like oil were not involved in the 40 Naira provocation.

For example, the new National Assembly appears to have been born into a rubberstamp mould for the ready use of the now rampaging president due to the way they were brought there in the first place and the sword of Damocles dangling menacingly over the heads of the new legislative leaders.

And as against the seminal erudition of Oshiomhole are the shara, yara rationalisations of the President.

 I am aware that the President had not yet formed a government before the decision was taken as no minister was in office at that time, excepting himself who also doubles as the nation’s oil minister.

That is why many see the whole development as that imposed on the nation by the President and his greedy men but now being ably challenged by the Oshiomhole-led unions.

And between the two combatants, OBJ and Oshiomhole, it is clear that in both the active rhetorical sectors of the oily war, round by round, the president has suffered quite avoidable KOs in the hands of Oshiomhole who would rather be the general of an army than the leader of harmless civil workers.

The next question now is: when will Nigerians enjoy the gift of oil as bountifully bestowed on them by God? The hope is that Gen. Oshiomhole would not sell out or capitulates midway, but instead, remain the real general he has proved himself to be.

Will Oshiomhole hold on or this is just another shakara or the much talked about presidential shara ra cruise?