President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be re-enacting the same behaviour believed in large quarters to be the major reason why he lost the March 28 presidential election.
This is by his failure to publicly address Nigerians to show that he empathises with them in the face of the biting fuel scarcity and electricity shortfall that is plaguing the nation.
Although the intervention of the joint Senate committees on upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry yesterday led to the suspension of the strike by major oil marketers with loading and distribution of the commodity already restored, many Nigerians argue that the President failed to show leadership at a time it mattered.
It could be recalled that last year when over 250 girls were kidnapped from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, President Goodluck Jonathan was by the next day dancing away at a campaign event in Kano.
Also, at the time when Boko Haram insurgents attacked the military base in Baga, also in Borno State, killing soldiers and hundreds of civilians in the assault, South Africa’s federal lawmaker, Julius Malema, utterly berated President Jonathan for rushing out publicly in condemnation of the terrorist attack on a newspaper firm in France when he failed to make a remark on the Baga bloodbath.
With these antecedents, some Nigerians and concerned foreigners have already concluded that the outgoing President is merely being his usual self by choosing to keep mum when he should have addressed the nation to soothe frayed nerves on the ongoing energy crisis ravaging the nation and instil hope on the populace.
Speaking about this, Abuja-based fiery social critic, Mr. Nnamdi Kingsley, declared that “You can’t have the United States citizens or British subjects face half of what we Nigerians are currently passing through without Obama or Cameron immediately addressing their people.”
From reactions on the social media, discussions on newsstands and calls made by Nigerians to radio stations monitored by DAILY POST in Abuja, it was observed that the obvious consensus is that the present situation in the country is one where the silence of the outgoing President is not in any way golden.
These Nigerians express disappointment that the President has had course to speak in public within the last couple of days, without using those opportunities to at least utter a word on why Nigerians have been made to greatly hunger for fuel and electricity and what hope lies ahead.
Lamenting that all we hear from President Jonathan of late is that we should pray for the incoming administration, a radio caller noted that “he (the President) definitely knows deep down in him that with the rot his government is leaving behind, Buhari will need a good dose of prayers to succeed.”
To one Musa Daniel, who was seen by this newspaper arguing the matter in a news stand yesterday, what has happened to the country and its citizens “lends credence to the perception that the President is really clueless; He cannot speak on the matter because he himself has no understanding of the situation. What do you expect from a President who surrendered the management of the economy to a minister for who he devised a strange portfolio as the coordinating minister for the economy?” he asked.
His position resonated with a good number of other free readers at that particular vendor’s stand in Maitama area of Abuja who said that it would have made all the difference if Jonathan had used last Sunday’s inauguration service at the National Christian Centre in Abuja to avail Nigerians of the modest efforts his outgoing government has been making to make petroleum products readily available to Nigerians at the petrol stations and make them understand that he feels their pain and frustrations.
But a day before, the Finance Minister, had addressed journalists telling them that the oil marketers just wanted to make Nigerians to suffer by refusing to lift the product.
She wondered how they wanted her to pay them N159 billion as exchange rate differentials without verifying their claims.
It was on this note that Stephen Jimeh dismissed the need for Jonathan to speak further when the Finance Minister, has “consistently told us that the oil marketers are sabotaging and blackmailing the government that has prioritized payment of fuel subsidy in the face of dwindling revenues”.
He claimed that the President, being naturally reticent, must have been working underground to normalize the situation. This, to him, resulted in the President’s close ally, Ifeanyi Ubah, pulling out of the strike by major oil marketers on Sunday evening and urging his colleagues to do same. Jimeh also told those arguing with him to “remember that Jonathan has gone a long way in fulfilling his promise to rout Boko Haram militants from parts of Nigeria they had occupied. Hence, he will not intentionally want to leave office on the present sore note”.
Another free reader, who identified himself as Abubakar, reminded the others of January 2012 when Jonathan, foreseeing the inevitability of the present energy stalemate, ordered the total removal of subsidy, Nigerians spilled to the streets and occupied Nigeria “until the federal government was arm-twisted into settling for a partial removal of subsidy”.
Since that is the wish of Nigerians, he argued that nobody should blame the President for allowing Nigerians stew in their own juice.
Abubakar maintained that as one who is now having the last laugh, “it is not a must for Jonathan to comfort us on the matter he had warned us about and which the oil marketers are glaringly taking advantage of.”
But, reports coming from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory show that virtually all public and private institutions were shut down in the face of shortage of fuel and absence of electricity to maintain normal businesses.
Hospitals, churches, schools, banks, transportation companies, broadcast stations and telecommunication operators have become worst hit as they are either suspending normal operations, issuing notices of closure or scaling down on full business hours for lack of fuel and power to carry out their activities.
For much of last week, several airline operators announced plans to significantly alter and cancel their normal flight schedules. They blamed this on their inability to get aviation fuel for their aircraft.
Last Friday, Aero Contractors told their customers that, “Due to the current scarcity of Jet-A1 fuel being experienced in the country, we regret to inform you that all our flights will not operate regularly as scheduled”.
Thousands of travellers were seen at the airports in Abuja and Lagos stranded as most airlines cancelled their scheduled flights.
Two of Nigeria’s major telecommunications operators, MTN and Airtel, have all notified their customers to inform them that their services might be disrupted till the fuel supply situation in the country improves.
The text message from Airtel management to its customers two days ago read: “Dear Valued Customer, this is to inform you that due to nationwide fuel crisis our services may experience some strain. We are doing everything possible to manage the situation. Thank you for understanding.”
Also on the same Sunday, a similar message from the management of GTBank issued notice of early closure of its branches nationwide linking it to “The current shortage of petroleum products in the country has limited our ability to supply diesel to all our branches, in order to continue normal branch operations”.
“Due to this, we unavoidably have to close our branches nationwide at 1 pm, from tomorrow Monday, 25th May 2015,” the bank disclosed.
On its part, the management of MTN stated that “the current diesel scarcity in most parts of the Nigeria is posing threat to quality of services and the ability to optimally operate the network”.
“MTN’s available reserves of diesel are running low and the company must source for significant quantity of diesel in the very near future to prevent a shut down of services across Nigeria. If diesel supplies are not available within the next 24 hours the network will be seriously degraded and customers will feel the impact,” the telecommunications coy stated in an SMS.
Services in most churches visited in Abuja were not as pleasurable as they used to be as a few of them worshipped without their musical equipment and sound systems. They only relied on smaller generating sets to power their lighting facilities since they could not get diesel for their bigger gen sets.
The situation also affected attendance as some members stayed at home since they could not pay the increased transport fare they were required to part in order to get to church.
As the fuel scarcity takes its toll on businesses since the past seven days, parents are experiencing difficulties transporting their wards to school and back, as no filling station opened for business following the industrial action by oil workers.
Some schools’ management in Abuja and environs were compelled to order early closure of their schools for mid-term break, as most teachers and parents could not cope with the unprecedented pressure imposed on them by lack of fuel.
Still on Sunday, the Divine Scholars School in the Lekki area of Lagos informed parents that it was closing for mid-term break till June 1, although sources in the school said the forced holiday was caused by the biting fuel shortage.
This miserable situation was better captured by Ifeanyi Ubah’s Capital Oil and Gas, which in announcing its bid to end the biting fuel scarcity noted that the company, “has watched with so much pain, the suffering and hardship our citizens have been subjected to as a result of scarcity of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and house hold kerosene.
“We are deeply pained to hear that hospitals cannot perform surgeries, laboratories are unable to carry out much needed tests especially for emergency patients leaving such patients at risk of dying, radio stations are shutting down, communication is being affected as MTN and other telecommunications company have announced an impending shut down while homes, offices and key facilities nationwide are experiencing blackouts.
“In some parts of the country, petrol is already selling at an all-time high of N1,000 per litre. Our citizens have left their homes and are now sleeping in fuel stations, facing the risk of robbery attacks and other attendant risk”.
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