PEOPLE POWER IN AFRICA - A WEEK THAT CHANGED NIGERIA FOREVER

On January 1, 2012, New Years Day, President Goodluck Jonathan gave the Nigerian citizens a New Years gift. Like a thief in the night who waits to strike while his victim is sleeping, Jonathan peremptorily announced a nearly 300 percent increase in the nation's fuel price. Jonathan had promised Nigerians that the removal of the fuel subsidy would not occur until April, 2012 but ate his words. The move was unpopular and a man who promised to be a fresh air less than a year earlier while begging for Nigerian votes fouled the political space in the nation. The man who grew up in abject poverty before Providence catapulted him into national and international limelight turned his back on the Nigerian masses. At a time when millions of Nigerians were in the countryside celebrating the holy festival of Christmas, Mr. Jonathan who says he is a Christian, displayed the highest level of irresponsibility and insensitivity to the plight of his country men and women. Many holiday seekers were financially tapped out and a responsive government ought to know that you do not inflict pain on your citizens arbitrarily but since Mr. Goodluck Jonathan rose to power on the crest of a popular mandate of the Nigerian people a year ago, he has not only squandered his pan-Nigerian mandate, he has become anything but good luck to the Nigerian people. Nigerians of every economic stratum rose up in unison against the anti-people policy of the Jonathan Administration on January 1, 2012 by shutting down the nation. The Nigerian economy which relies on fuel and operates on land, sea, and air activities were halted and grounded for one week. Occupy Nigeria demonstrations erupted across major capital cities of the world.

The first-ever well-coordinated nationwide demonstrations and Nigerians' revolt against increase in the pump price of gasoline have now become a book in the United States. The book, titled: “People Power in Africa: A Week That Changed Nigeria Forever,” is written by Dr Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo and Dr Margie Marie Neal of Chicago. The two writers were in Nigeria during the nationwide purgatory and have captured blow-by-blow account, the nationwide protests across Nigeria, from Abuja, Kaduna, Makurdi, Kano, Gome, Birin-Kebbi, Maiduguri to Ilorin, Ibadan, Ijebu-Ode, Lagos, Awka, Benin, Osogbo, Akure, Abeokuta, Warri, and Port Harcourt, Calabar, Benin City and other towns and villages. The 250-page book, which is printed by a Colorado-based publishing outfit, will be available first as an EBook in Nigeria beginning July 1, 2012.

The authors began the Introduction to the book with the origin of the contentious issue of subsidy withdrawal on petroleum products in Nigeria describing the beginnings with the Yakubu Gowon military regime at the height of the world energy crisis of 1973 and the various successive governments except during the regime of General Muhammadu Buhari of 1984/1985 and the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua –the only two administrations that reduced the prices of gasoline for Nigerians. The authors narrated the anatomy of the debacle called withdrawal of petroleum subsidy by Mr. Jonathan on New Year's Day and the part played by Dr Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's current minister of finance the architect of the unpopular policy and the agent of the two world imperialist agencies: the IMF/World Bank in Nigeria. The authors supported their analyses with cornucopia of data, facts, figures and statistics on the deception of the Jonathan Administration's claim that there indeed were subsidies on petroleum products in Nigeria. The book called out the leeches that are bleeding the Nigerian people under the national huge oil racketeering of which Mr. Jonathan and the First Family are foremost beneficiaries. The book contains rare and collectors photographs-about 500 photographs-of the 7-day nationwide protests and those who provided leadership for ordinary Nigerians. The book is a well-written and well-documented historical accounts of unarguably the most successful and well-organized nationwide strikes against an unpopular government which all Nigerians should have a copy for posterity.

It is free online as an E-Book which will be available to all Nigerians both at home and abroad beginning July 1, 2012.

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK
“This book is dedicated to the fallen heroes of people power in Africa and those who gave their lives to Nigerians' resistance to oppressive policies of the Jonathan Administration during the week that changed Nigeria forever.

To Mr. Abiodun Ademola Aderinde who was shot dead by the Nigerian Police in Ogba, Ikeja Lagos, and Mr. Muyideen Mustapha murdered by the Nigerian Police Force in Ilorin, Kwara state

To Messrs Abdulmalik Rabiu Badawa and Bashir Musa Zango of Bayero University Kano murdered by the Nigeria Police Force in Kano while asserting their legitimate civic rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly as enshrined in Articles 18, 19 & 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Conventions of December 10, 1948 of which Nigeria was a signatory. To the memories of other fallen patriotic and fearless Nigerians who would never be identified or known during the one week that changed Nigeria forever”----Dedication Page

“…Mr. Jonathan is neither a breath of fresh air in Nigeria nor a man of goodluck. He is nothing new but a veritable magus of the same old degenerated and backward-looking clique that is retarding the progress of Nigeria. He is completely empty and has no clue on the way forward for Nigeria. He is completely otiose on how to tackle the sundry issues confronting Nigeria. Things are as much as they are; insecurity in the land, poverty and diseases have increased, lawlessness and gangland activities are on the rise and the circus show, embezzlement, pilfering and corruption have become monstrously hydra headed under Mr. Jonathan. He is a troglodyte and a complete disaster to Nigeria and his Niger Delta people. A supposedly doctorate degree holder who refused to debate with his fellow presidential candidates and went ahead to debate himself by committing grammatical blunders on national television and was so incoherent and inarticulate of his vision for Nigeria. A blundering and waffling president who told his country men and women he doesn't know how to create jobs for unemployed Nigerians. A president who doesn't know that ambassadors of a nation do not represent the president but the nation; a man who has no heart to appoint his own chief of staff and has become a carpet bagger to a clique that dictates to him. A man who has no clue about the legal procedure on how to change the name of a federal institution and put the cart before the horse after he was told of proper procedure. This is the tragedy of Nigeria and supposedly Africa's giant. The brightest and smartest are in Nigeria but the retrogressive clique retarding the nation continues to saddle the Nigerian people with dullards and dunderheads who hardly know their right from their left. This man has not fulfilled one of his sundry empty promises during the rambling speeches he went about delivering across the nation during the electioneering campaigns. A dithering president who has been held hostage by a lecherous cabal and right before his eyes, Islamic terrorists have literally taken over the nation and he is clueless on what to do. The first indication that it would continue to be business as usual under Mr. Jonathan was after he was voted in as president in April 2011 and it took this man almost three months to assemble his team. For someone who told Nigerians that he would hit the ground running on Day One; for someone who was vice-president for three years, a governor and deputy governor and acted as president for nearly a year, it was alarming that he had to wait for 90 days to assemble his team. When he finally did, it was the same old, old or what we in America call “hokie-dok.” I explained and pointed out the implications of this “hokie-dok” mentality to Mr. Jonathan in a piece in The Nation newspaper shortly after his inauguration in May 2011. Even at his inauguration at the Eagle Square on May 29, 2011, his inauguration speech was neither inspiring nor re-assuring and I knew Nigeria was in trouble again for yet another “wasted" four years (2011-2015).

Then on January 1, 2012, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan massively squandered the remaining goodwill he had as Nigeria's president. On New Year Day, January 1, 2012, President Jonathan extinguished hope and declared war on the Nigerian people. This man who was given the mandate of the Nigerian people less than a year earlier threw the mandate away. The man of Goodluck became man of Badluck. The man who promised hope replaced it with despair. The president who said he was a man of fresh air fouled the Nigerian space. President Goodluck Jonathan turned himself into the Number One Enemy of the Nigerian people. He declared war on hapless Nigerians and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the Nigerian people decided to fight back and fight nasty. In the past, the Nigerian people had taken all kinds of insults and humiliations from their mis-rulers but on January 1, 2012, they could not take it anymore. As Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, there comes a time in the history of oppressed people when they can no longer take it and then say; 'enough is enough.” Nigerians got to that stage on New Year Day. They unleashed their fury and People Power in Africa took a new dimension. They confronted their oppressors and shut down the Nigerian nation. For one week, Africa's most populous nation lay prostrate. For seven days, Nigerians changed the course of their history.

As Mr. Nkem Ifejika, political analyst and news correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aptly noted“…A rallying cry around the removal of the fuel subsidy suddenly became a demand for accountability from government and for lawmakers to curb their excesses. And as Nigerians return to work, it won't be business as usual. The key point of any "revolution" isn't how long it lasts, or how many people take part, but what the results are. When you have a former top World Bank official and minister of finance begging the Nigerian people for their trust, you know times have changed. And when the man voted Central Bank Governor of 2010 appears humbled and contrite, it is time to sit up and take notice. So what have the protests achieved? Fear is dead. Unity is possible. Engagement is inevitable. Protesters' gathering in such numbers is unheard of Nigeria. Rarely has there been anything as unifying as the fuel subsidy protests. From Kano in the north to Lagos in the south, Nigerians had one cause. Sure, the presence of soldiers on the streets intimidated people, and cut short the protest on Monday. However, the reaction was more one of anger than of cowardice. The people had their victory last week when thousands of people demonstrated every day. Anything after that was always going to be a bonus. Against the backdrop of attacks by the Islamist group Boko Haram in the north and pockets of reprisal attacks in the south, this was a precarious time for Nigerians to take to the streets. But during protests, Christians formed symbolic shields around Muslims as they prayed. In Kano, Muslims visited churches on Sunday as a sign of solidarity. These were not the actions of a nation at peril, but of a disparate people clinging together, refusing to be divided…” Marx and Lenin may have died, their ideology may have been discredited but their rallying cry on the marginalized and oppressed people in any society to unite and fight their oppressors is still much alive. Nigerians from all walks of life demonstrated the power of the people on New Year Day. We were in Nigeria rather serendipitously to witness history. For 7 agonizing and grueling days, all the marginalized hoi polloi took to the streets in their millions to tell their oppressors that the arbitrary increase in the pump price of petrol would not stand. The Nigerian people proved that sovereignty belongs to the people. For a hapless citizenry already traumatized, abused and misused by their leaders, history was made and the people power was unleashed on an insensitive political class inebriated with power and consumed by its own selfishness and callousness. Nothing is like the power of the people. Nigerians are no more fools, they have been sensitized by events around them and Nigeria will never remain the same again. Here are the stories of ordinary Nigerians doing extra-ordinary things and powerful Nigerians joining forces with patriotic citizens to change history and here is the story of one week that has changed Nigeria forever….”

Excerpts from the Foreword
By Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo, PhD

& Margie Marie Neal, Ed.D