CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA: GOOD FIGHT WRONG STRATEGY

In a very simple terms, the fight against corruption in Nigeria suffered defeat during the recent protest in Nigeria. The protest tagged 'OCCUPYNIGERIA' or 'OCCUPYOJOTA' or 'OCCUPY.............' (fill in the gap) would have being that turning point in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, if and only if we approached the fight with a good strategy and focus.

Given, the initial fight was that of removal of fuel subsidy which made the pump price to jump from NGN65 to about NGN140, a decision the organized labor kicked against by calling general strike in the Country, this precipitate to various protest rallies across the Country.

I was at the OCCUPYOJOTA on the Monday morning to participate in the protest, after listening to speaker after speaker I summarily concluded that the fight has been lost. Most especially when the rally somewhat turned to Musical jamboree with artiste taking turns to perform. I knew from that point that the struggle will in days to come witness good turnout but yield no result.

In as much as the fight for reversal of fuel subsidy removal is in some form justifiable, we could have made the struggle a fight against struggle per se. Let's imagine that at the rally, various speakers accept government price of N140 but insist that the acceptance of that price must be on certain conditions that will now be the demands of the people. We should have told the Government that yes we will buy fuel at N140 but the President must cut the allowance of all political holders by 75%. He should reduce the number of serving Ministers to at least 35 instead of the current about 70. The senate president earns over NGN600million in a year and other senators pocket as much as NGN14million per month, all these we could have addresss at the protest and we would have insisted that they receive massive pay cuts.

Right now we have bought the dummy, fuel prices now pegged at NGN97 a far cry from our demands at variou 'occupy' general strike was called off and we are back to our various job post while the underlying fundamental issues were not address. Their for WE LOST AND GOVERNMENT WON!