denko: The Osun State governor, Mr Rauf regbesola, has confessed that the opposition parties in the country spearheaded the January nationwide mass protest against fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government, and exposed the trillion naira subsidy removal fraud.

Beaf:

Ogbeni, congrats for causing needless deaths across the nation. May their blood haunt you.

Demdem:

Iddiot, they were killed by security forces under the overall leadership of the Retardeen from Abuja. The guilt of these death will follow him to his grave.

Beaf:

They were killed because they were paid and used by subversives. May the blood be on your heads.

*Strike would not lastfor more than two days – President’s men

*’We can break the ranks of labour’

By Jide Ajani

But for the misleading counsel and false assurances given to President Goodluck Jonathan by some of his ministers and a few state governors, the president may have done more to avert the commencement of the strike action called by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade UnionCongress, TUC, Sunday Vanguard can reveal.

The suggestion that Jonathan may have done more to ensure that the strike did not get off the ground, it was learnt, was sequel to security reports provided at a meeting, held, penultimate Monday, January 2, 2012, inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

The meeting, which had a few ministers , security chiefs and a former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, in attendance, was called to review the implications of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol, about 24 hours earlier.

Sunday Vanguard was informed by a source privy to the meeting that the prognosis, according to the security chiefs, was very terrible. Jonathan was said to be have been made to understand that everything that ought to be done to avert the strike should be done. The briefing made it very clear that should the strike go ahead and last beyond a week, “there would be serious implications for this administration”.

Although the source said the language at the meeting was very weighted, “there was no mistaken the fact that the prognosis was very bad”.

Specifically, it was understood that one of those in attendance at the meeting pointedly stated that allowing the strike to go on for “up to 11 days would mean total disaster and eclipse” for the Jonathan administration.

(SEE DETAILSIN ‘TORN BETWEEN THE ROCK AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA’ in Subsidy Series)

At the end of the meeting, thepresident’s body language reportedly suggested that something would be done earnestly to avoid the mass action.

However, information reportedly suggests that one of Jonathan’s cabinet members from the North Central Zone, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, along with another minister from the South South geo-political zone, Elder Orubebe, prevailed on the president not to shift or accede to labour’s demand.

The Information Minister was said to have impressed it on Jonathan that reverting to N65 would be seen as a sign of weakness and unseriousness. He may have been right!

Secondly, according to SundayVanguard’s source, the president was made “to believe that the strike action would normally kick off on the first day as threatened by labour but would quickly lose steam by the second day.

It was gathered that the impression conveyed to Jonathan was that the strike action would not go beyond “just two days before it loses steam”.

The president, the source further revealed, was misled into believing that, like past strike actions, the involvement of security agencies would contain its spread.

Lagos and the Federal CapitalTerritory, FCT, Abuja, were the main focus of attention.

“It was this advice that President Jonathan took hook, line and sinker”, the source said.

Finance Minister and Head of Jonathan’s Economic Management Team, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, were also of the opinion that the president did not need to back down.

And whereas Jonathan was said to have made private moves, one of which was to prevail on some state governors to assist in persuading members of the House of Representatives not to sit last Sunday and the telephone calls he made to some state governors to assisting in ensuring that the strike action was not allowed to go ahead “and if it did, must be drawn back,” the president could not achieve his heart’s desire: To pile what was thought to be maximum pressure on the NLC. It did not amount to anything because the leadership of NLC still went ahead.

A few governors reportedly misled the president.

Jonathan, believing what he heard during private conversations “with some state governors, went away with the impression that state governments could tame the monster of the strike.

The governors reportedly assured the president that “they were in talks with the leadership of labour in their states and that moves to break their ranks were almost completed”, a source close to The President disclosed.

“Some of these governors, just as they did during the crisis over zoning and the contest for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, deliberately set President Jonathan up so that he would stick to the N65 and be made to look like an unpopular president on the one hand and on the other hand the fact that he had bargained with them late last year to ensure the removal of the subsidy so that they can have more money,”the source said.

“If some of them had told him the truth, he would have known better that what he was going to confront from last Monday would be so massive that the international community would focus more on other issues of corruption in government, a matter that is at the root of the subsidy issue”.

Some of the governors gave assurance to the president on the basis of the need not to allow “hoodlums to hijack the protest in some states of the federation and go ahead to engage in reprisal attacks as a consequence of the Christmas Day church bombing in Madalla, Suleja and some kept their words”.

That was why, for instance, the Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime, acted fast by ensuring that there were no rallies or street marches in his state.

It was for the same reason that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State also swung into action to prevent Muslims from being attacked in his state.

Plateau State, where the strike is als obeing observed, saw a situation whereby workers merely stayed at home without marching on the streets.

Sunday Vanguard was further told that when the strike commenced on Monday, it was a stunned Jonathan who saw first-hand how Nigerians reacted.

Beaf: Everybody knew that the pro-subsidy protests were ethnically motivated and demonic. Now, the demons are confessing.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/41903-opposition-parties-behind-subsidy-removal-protest-aregbesola

What we demand now, is the list of oil marketers, smugglers and blood suckers that used the youth and sponsored the riots.

Ileke-IdI:
Where's the source?

[size=18pt]GEJ and his paid slaves sha, dem don come with tales by the moonlight. [/size]

So subsidy protest caused death across the nation? Another story?

Beaf: Everybody knew that the pro-subsidy protests were ethnically motivated and demonic. Now, the demons are confessing.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/41903-opposition-parties-behind-subsidy-removal-protest-aregbesola

What we demand now, is the list of oil marketers, smugglers and blood suckers that used the youth and sponsored the riots.

denko: The Osun State governor, Mr Rauf regbesola, has confessed that the opposition parties in the country spearheaded the January nationwide mass protest against fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government, and exposed the trillion naira subsidy removal fraud.

He said in a polity like Nigeria where organised life is gradually grinding to a halt with epileptic power supply, mass unemployment, dysfunction of all federal institutions, including mass misery, poverty and increasing disillusionment of the citizens, there was a yawning need for a viable opposition to provide leadership for the people; to lead them to to the promised land.

The governor stated this recently at a one-day lecture/merit award ceremony organised by the Niger State chapter of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, held at the UK Bello Arts Theatre, Minna.

Aregbesola, who was represented on the occasion by the state Commissioner for Land, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Muyiwa Ige, however, expressed regret that the nation’s democracy had floundered because the opposition had not played its existential role.

“If the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for instance, has its way, there will be no opposition parties in Nigeria. Indeed, the PDP, through the Federal Government, has systematically criminalised opposition and in every state controlled by the party, opposition members are hounded, killed, maimed and persecuted,” Aregbesola said.

Accordingly, he said it is this same evil spirit that drives election rigging and visitation of violence on protesters by the PDP, adding that this principle of zero tolerance of opposition is all ramifying.

djustice:

Beaf, abeg, we go quarrel o...!!! This your ethnic coloration of every evil committed by the demons in ACN is beginning to annoy me. I am Yoruba, and I don't subscribe to their stupidity. The Yorubas who don't like them are actually in the majority in the southwest. It's just that they've perfected the art of rigging elections and intimidating sitting presidents to do their bidding. When Jonathan wakes up to the fact that consulting them and negotiating with southwest governors is simply playing into their hands, we will drive them out, the interlopers that they are.

Tell Jonathan to concentrate on the important things. He said he's ready to fight corruption, yet Bola Tinubu continues to corner the best of Lagos State government owned property for his personal use. The latest one is the Eti-Osa Local Government Headquarters at the junction of Rewane Road and Glover Road, Ikoyi, which was sold to him for just N10m. Jonathan cannot be saying he wants to win the southwest and Lagos with one side of his mouth and at the same time be fraternising with our enemies and those who violate the constitution at every opportunity.

Which one do you people want? A united PDP or a divided one? You have successfully frozen the SW PDP out of National reckoning, and you don't hear us shouting. We understand. Your ethnically coloured accusations are now carrying your sacrifice beyond the mosque entrance. Be careful o!!!

djustice:

Beaf, abeg, we go quarrel o...!!! This your ethnic coloration of every evil committed by the demons in ACN is beginning to annoy me. I am Yoruba, and I don't subscribe to their stupidity. The Yorubas who don't like them are actually in the majority in the southwest. It's just that they've perfected the art of rigging elections and intimidating sitting presidents to do their bidding. When Jonathan wakes up to the fact that consulting them and negotiating with southwest governors is simply playing into their hands, we will drive them out, the interlopers that they are.

Tell Jonathan to concentrate on the important things. He said he's ready to fight corruption, yet Bola Tinubu continues to corner the best of Lagos State government owned property for his personal use. The latest one is the Eti-Osa Local Government Headquarters at the junction of Rewane Road and Glover Road, Ikoyi, which was sold to him for just N10m. Jonathan cannot be saying he wants to win the southwest and Lagos with one side of his mouth and at the same time be fraternising with our enemies and those who violate the constitution at every opportunity.

Which one do you people want? A united PDP or a divided one? You have successfully frozen the SW PDP out of National reckoning, and you don't hear us shouting. We understand. Your ethnically coloured accusations are now carrying your sacrifice beyond the mosque entrance. Be careful o!!!

pcicero:

Don't mind Beaf jare, he thinks all Yorubas are lovers of ACN. I will never support that party and its hypocritical ways as long as Bola Tinubu continues to corner the resources of Lagos state for himself and cronies and I am concerned as an indigene.

Beaf:

I beg my broda, no vex. Sorry if I passed the wrong meaning across.
When I say ethnically motivated, I am only talking about ACN's way of defining themselves as an ethnic group (which they are not) instead of as a political party. Anyone who argues with an ACN person is not far from either ethnic blackmail or having their ethniciy insulted. I will endeavour to be more careful with my words so that wrong meanings are not passed across.