Subsidy Removal: The Gathering Storm

The emergency sitting conveyed by the House of Representatives members on Sunday,? January 8, 2012 continues to dominate public debates. The subsequent dismissal of the motion of the House by President Goodluck Jonathan and his kitchen cabinet have incurred the wrath of many Nigerians and some members.? Fred Itua reports.

“What President Jonathan is trying to do is just a show of power. If you recall, the president made a similar statement about the ban on Nigeria’s Super Eagles from participating in international games. He rescinded few hours later. For him, that is an act of weakness. The president has also assured Nigerians that he will tackle the insecurity challenges in the country and it appears Nigerians don’t take him seriously anymore. So this fuel subsidy tussle is the president’s own way of telling Nigerians that he has woken up to his responsibility and that is where he got it all wrong.”

The above statement was made by a member of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee? who is interfacing with the federal government and the organised labour.

The covert warfare between the House of Representatives and the Presidency, vis-a-vis the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) started on Monday,? June 6, 2011, when the House through a bi-partisan effort elected its principal members. The PDP and the Presidency anointed Hon Mulikat Akande-Adeola for the position of Speaker but was shut out. For the first time in the political history of Nigeria, principal officers of the House were elected by its members, thereby throwing to the waste bin the hitherto zoning formula of the ruling PDP. In the aftermath of the power tussle, the Southwest lost out woefully in the whole exercise. The South East and North West got the lion’s share.

However, the covert warfare reached its climax on Sunday, 08 January, 2012, when the House conveyed an emergency session against the advice of the Presidency and the leadership of the PDP. In a unanimous motion, the House mandated President Jonathan to halt the removal of fuel subsidy to avert an industrial strike and wide protests by aggrieved Nigerians mindful of the mass movements that have toppled governments in the Arab world.

Spokesman to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati hurriedly issued a statement describing the emergency sitting as “an alleged attempt to incite the Nigerian people against the government.” He also referred to the resolution of the House as ‘a mere expression of opinion’. The Attorney-General of the federation, Mohammed Adoke (SAN)? on the other hand referred to the motion as ‘advisory’. A similar motion by the Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives in February 2010 empowered Goodluck Jonathan to act as the president. President Jonathan’s cabinet members didn’t refer to it as a ‘mere expression of opinion’ and ‘advisory’ by the National Assembly.

The deputy House Committee Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Victor Ogene in his reaction to the statements credited to Adoke and Abati, said:

“We have three hundred and sixty members representing more than 150 million Nigerians, including that of the presidential adviser and the attorney general. Same for Mr President; they all have their representatives in this same House. So if you are saying that the views of these representatives of the entire Nigerian people are merely advisory or an expression of mere opinion, then you are saying that the entire 150 million Nigerians, including themselves do not have an opinion on this issue.

If the executive remains intrasegent and refuses to strike a compromise with labour as expressed by the House of Representatives through the same motion, the House will go ahead and invoke its lawmaking and appropriation powers to actually put subsidy in the 2012 budget and by the time we do that, let’s see who in the executive will come and tell us that it is an expression of opinion or that it is merely advisory.”

Beyond the drama and razzmatazz hovering around the fuel subsidy debate, there is another conspiracy brewing among members of the House of Representatives. Some members of the House confided in LEADERSHIP that signatures of House members are being collected by some aggrieved persons in the House who feel the president should be impeached.

Hon. Victor Ogene during a press briefing with National Assembly correspondents last week, dismissed the said conspiracy, but not with so much conviction. “There are no intentions to impeach the president. The rumours been circulated that some House members are collecting signatures to initiate the impeachment process of President Jonathan is false and unfounded,” Ogene stated.

Could House members be pandering to the dictates of some civil society organisations calling on the National Assembly to initiate an impeachment process for the president or there is more to it?

It will be recalled that the 4th National Assembly had similar disagreement with the Obasanjo regime; impeachment attempts were made by some aggrieved members. What were initially dismissed as mere rumours gained momentum when Obasanjo’s job was on the line. Should this conspiracy whispered in low tones be brushed aside or should the presidency swing into action to calm angry members??

The question some pundits are asking is whether or not the president can survive any impeachment move? Others have queried if the House can muscle up enough courage to initiate it or it’s just some stunts by members to prove to the president that they are relevant? Considering the dwindling support base of President Jonathan among the citizens occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal, would this purported move spell more doom for his administration?

Legislators anywhere in the world are like gods. They have the constitutional powers to checkmate both the executive and the judiciary . While the powers and privileges of a president are enormous, the legislators still wield the longest strokes that can cause irreparable collateral damage to any sitting president.

A glaring example is the case of the United States power tussle between members of the Congress and President Barack Obama. If the same power struggle should ensue, can President Jonathan survive the tsunami? Considering the ethnic division occasioned by his election as the president, does he have the support base to survive any war with the Representatives outside his immediate political party: PDP?

The amicable or harsh resolution of this fuel subsidy dilemma coupled with the gaffes of President Jonathan and his cabinet members in the weeks to come will determine where the pendulum will swing to.

Notwithstanding, the revolutionary spirit of some reps and their support for the yearnings of the masses will go down in history as indeed remarkable.

It will interest you to know that we created this out of our minds; it is a product of Nigeria minds. We are controlling the product. For the first time we are bringing to bear a Mobile telephone revolution and the ICT revolution. This will also serve as a source of job creation for the youth