GEJ says subsidy protest was staged - Daily Times

President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the January nationwide protest over the total removal of subsidy from petroleum was stage managed bya class of Nigerians who wanted the status quo of corruption in that sector to remain. He said it was not carried out by ordinary Nigerians who wanted to communicate their grievances to their government. Jonathan, who spoke at the 52nd Independence anniversary lecturewith the title, Nigeria: Security, Development and National Transformation, said it was the responsibility of Government to provide the enabling environmentfor development but it was left forthe citizens to ensure enforcement. Reacting to the issue of the January protest raised by one of the discussants and the Director of Centre for Democracy and Development, Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, President Jonathan said, “Let me touch on what Prof. Ibrahim said about the January subsidy protest,yes you said the citizens were right, in a way they may be right, in a way they were also misinformed. If you had followed the last Earth Summit in Brazil, about two countries came out to condemn the issue of subsidizing hydro carbon all over the world. They stated that subsiding hydro carbon does not bring development. “Look at the demonstrations backhome, look at the areas this demonstrations are coming from, you begin to ask, are these the ordinary citizens that are demonstrating? Or are people pushing them to demonstrate. “Take the case of Lagos, Lagos is the critical state in the nation’s economy, it controls about 53 per cent of the economy and all tribes are there. The demonstration in Lagos, people were given bottled water that people in my village don’t have access to, people were given expensive food that the ordinary people in Lagos cannot eat. So, even going to eat free alone attracts people. They go andhire the best musician to come and play and the best comedian to come and entertain; is that demonstration? Are you telling methat that is a demonstration from ordinary masses in Nigeria who want to communicate something to government? “For me, if I see somebody is manipulating anything, I don’t listen to you, but when I see people genuinely talking about issues, I listen. I am hardly intimidated by anybody who wants to push any issue he has. I believe that that protest in Lagos was manipulated by a class in Lagos and was not from the ordinary people. “Government everywhere must create environment for development and transformation, so I agree the lead must be the government but the people must be the implementator if we must transform our country”. Jonathan also alleged that because of interest in 2015 election, the media were being used to abuse the privileges of the Freedom of Information Act tothe point of overheating the system. “The key issue we are discussing is about peace and development and of course we all know that there is no way you can talk aboutdevelopment when you have a lot of crisis. In fact some people make more money when there is crisis and when there are crises it’s like a country in a state of emergency, anything goes. “Crisis is one aspect but generally if there is no peace is extremely difficult for the ordinary people tosurvive though big players in economy may survive. Ordinary citizens having small and medium enterprises cannot come out to do business during crisis and of course it affects the economy. So you must have peace to develop. “Peace is one of the cardinal marks of a leader. In the monarchy in the olden days, the king had maximum power, but for your kingdom to be stable, you must have the military strength. So without stability of any state we cannot develop. “I agree totally with President Kufour who really gave us the breakdown of the kind of securitysituation that we have. “When you talk of insecurity of using bombs and guns to kill people, what has been described as physical security, but in terms of social security, food security, health and the justice system all have to do with the security of individual. “But I believe what we face in Nigeria though not peculiar to us; one of our greatest problems is what I described as political security. “Government can continue to provide physical security but also very important is the political security. When you have unendingpolitical conflicts in Nigeria, the country cannot develop. “I believe political security is a big issue. There is this axiom that the pen is mightier than the sword. The sword is used to kill and destroy, but what we use the pen to do is also very critical. When you have society with these unending political conflicts, it is there on the media whether print,electronic or social media, it brings a lot of insecurity to the system and sometimes people begin to doubt your government.