The cup is half full

And so it was, that after a week of intense strike action and protests, the NLC and TUC suspended the strike after the President reduced the pump price to N97/liter.

The overall aim was for a reduction to N65, so that other issues like greater accountability and transparency in the petroleum industry and in government expenditure would be addressed, but after the compromise, Labour is seen as having sold out by not a few people.

Anyone who follows the history of the NLC and its strikes will realize that only reductions in price have ever been the issue. They never add anything to the wider national discourse. Strikes have been an end in themselves as far as they are concerned. Essentially, the NLC and TUC acted true to type.

Unfortunately, that approach is no longer sufficient. Strikes over pump price increases and minimum wage cannot be the only issues that bring about active citizen participation in governance. This particular strike was different because it involved so many people who are not part of what is referred to as ‘organised Labour’. They mobilized, marched and took on considerable inconvenience to state their displeasure with government policy. It is this group, separate from Labour, hungry for real change and possessing considerable numbers that feels most disappointed by the outcome.

It should not be all doom and gloom, however. A lot has gone on since January 1st, which presents a window of opportunity to begin to address the many fundamental issues Nigeria has. The first step is to overcome the apathy of people towards governance, and public interest is now at an all time high. A friend of mine told a story about how the security guards in his estate asked him about the budget this past week, and that one instance says so much about how much more interested the electorate is.

What the week long protests prove is that the apathy barrier has been broken. It also proves that whatever personal credibility President Jonathan brought to the office has been damaged, perhaps for good. A lot of people said they voted ‘Jonathan not PDP’ last April, but now it is clear that the man and his party cannot be separated. Soldiers occupied the streets of Lagos on Monday to stop any further protests in the aftermath of the NLC’s suspension of the strike. Nigeria is clearly still stuck in a pre-1999 mentality. The right to peaceful assembly was denied, ordinary people as well as journalists were harassed. Not even the CNN and BBC were spared. During the protests, radio and TV stations were censored over their coverage. Democracy in name only.

All the while, faceless groups in support of subsidy removal were given free rein in the press. Pro-subsidy ‘rallies’ were organised, with participants collecting their allowances. Several government officials tried to form a narrative that the protests were sponsored by opposition figures. No one can afford the kind of crowds that came out last week.

One of the greatest mistakes anyone can make is to tie the agitation of Nigerians for better governance to a particular person or political party. Much of Nigeria’s political leadership has been corrupt for decades, and very few of them are salvageable. The major parties are also mostly clones of the ruling PDP. There is no salvation from any of them.

There is more and more evidence that Nigerians can come together to set an agenda for their nation, independent of any special interest. It is a power they must leverage on to somehow forge a new national reality, away from the ethnic and religious sentiments, as well as the mediocrity of the last four decades. It will not come overnight. In fact, those who will commit to the project of a better Nigeria will spend the majority of their lives fighting for it. Temporary setbacks are just points on the learning curve.

An immediate rallying point is the disaster that is the 2012 budget. The spontaneity of the protests must morph into deliberate pressure on the government to trim its excesses. There is no time to lose.

Everyone who marched in the last two weeks has reason to be proud, and we may yet look back on January 2012 as the month when Nigeria truly started to change. The message has gone out from Gani Fawehinmi Park and other protest venues across the country: People will no longer ‘adjust’ anymore to the consequences of reckless governance.