FG’s unsure SURE-P policy

President Goodluck JOnathan

By Paul Arhewe

The imbroglio that greeted Federal Government's petrol subsidy removal in January coerced it to quickly embark on transformational campaigns. The Goodluck Jonathan administration used every available media and forums to propagate what Nigerians stand to benefit if the total subsidy on the produce is discarded. Palliatives to cushion the foretold suffering the common masses would experience when the full policy implementations began were hurriedly both announced and promise.

No sooner the representatives of Federal Government and Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) met to broker partial removal of subsidy than the government put on a new garb and changed its transformational campaigns into a transitional paradigm. To me, that overt departure was the initial signs signifying that the surety in this Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment (SURE) Programme (SURE-P) is really uncertain.

Why government can’t subdue Nigerian protesters

Nigerians protesting fuel subsidy removal

In recent times the world has witnessed several protests and revolutions in countries where people are dissatisfied with their governments. The Arab Spring started with one man in Tunisia, when Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight and the fallout was the dethronements of the Tunisian President , Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

In Egypt and Libya, President Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi respectively lost out in the power game. While the latter paid with his life and those of some of his children, Mubarak who is bedridden, is currently undergoing trial for mass killings while his Tunisian counterpart is in exile in Saudi Arabia. In all these anti-government protests, despite the killings and maiming, running into thousands, the people usually emerge victorious. For instance in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad has killed over 6,000 people since last March to suppress the protest calling for his ouster. Despite this high death toll the protesters are still unrelenting.