AS Nigerians continue to grapple with and debate the after-effects of government's removal of fuel subsidy in January, poet and multidisciplinary researcher, Odia Ofeimun has declared President Goodluck Jonathan a hero for exposing the cabal holding the country to ransom. Ofeimun who spoke in Lagos Saturday, during an annual democracy lecture organised by the Centre for Constitutionalism and Demilitarisation (CENCOD), implied that by marching on the streets to protest the removal of fuel subsidy, ordinary Nigerians unwittingly fighting for the interests of the very cabal that was milking the country dry.
He said: "Let me put it frankly; everybody likes to celebrate that anti subsidy riot we all had. It was a great thing that Nigerians came out to show how much they can get angry about their own affairs. But you and I know that it was a great self deceiving thing that they had. On that very issue, let me be very honest with you, I had only one hero; I am not trying to pretend. I had only one hero, Goodluck Jonathan.
"He came out and said a cabal had taken over his government, that is to say a cabal has taken over Nigeria. All of us started saying 'name them.' Goodluck and his colleagues named them, and there was a sudden silence across Nigeria. I am not sure any of you can remember who did what after the cabals were named. All of us were silent because as we later discovered the so called cabals were the ones sponsoring all the political parties, they were the ones sponsoring many of the civil society organizations that were on the streets, and they were the ones ensuring that the very refineries that could have dealt with the issue, are not functioning.
Ofeimun agonised that the same cabal has taken over the upstream and downstream sector in the oil industry, just as they have been busy buying up the nation's assets including the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), "and virtually every area that is capable of determining what can happen to us as a nation in future.
"If we don't put these things in this blunt terms, we will go back on the streets again to do a demonstration in favour of those who are taking over Nigeria, and we will pretend that we are working for ourselves. I called Jonathan a hero, but that does not mean he has the solutions. That means that he was trying to tell you something; how helpless he has become."
