“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about doing things that matter.” Martin Luther King Jnr.

As far as I am concerned, last Saturday`s governorship election in Edo State was not about Governor Godwin Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu. It was a referendum on the Muhammadu Buhari government.

According to Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister of United Arab Emirate (UAE), the job of government is to provide happiness for the people.

In his book, entitled 'Flashes Of Thought', he stated that "when governments evolve and develop services to make people`s lives easier, they contribute to their comfort and happiness. When governments create opportunities for people, this makes them happy. When governments offer the best education, they equip young people to build their future and so to achieve happiness for themselves. When governments provide excellent healthcare, patients cannot be happier. When governments develop infrastructure, they reduce the amount of time wasted travelling, which undoubtedly contributes to people`s happiness and comfort. When justice is served, the whole society is satisfied and reassured.”

But the question here is, does Nigerian federal government that is operating with the mindset that Nigerian masses were specially created to suffer, ever bother about the happiness of its citizens? Does a federal government that rules with the mindset that it can do anything and nothing will happen, ever bother about providing happiness for its citizens?

For more than four months the nation was completely shut down as a result of the menace of the coronavirus pandemic. Just few weeks after business and other activities began to open, the federal government increased the price of petrol and electricity tariff. The increment happened just 18 days to the Edo governorship election.

For a political party that is going into a very important election, taking such a decision was a very bad one because it clearly showed that they don’t really care about how the citizens feel, most especially when other governments are still providing palliatives to their citizens to cushion the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the business and other means of livelihoods.

But the problem here is that the APC led federal government has gotten used to getting away with everything. In fact, impossibility is no longer in the party`s dictionary. A party that can ‘win’ election where it has no presence, let alone being popular. So, they had the confidence that they would also get away with the Edo governorship election, fuel hike or no fuel hike.

I remember some years ago in the United Kingdom where an increase in the price of bread by just two pence led to a nationwide protest. For five days British citizens were on the streets protesting. Schools, banks, everything was shut down until the government intervened and appealed to the bakers association to revert to the old price before normalcy returned to the country.

As a Labour Correspondent of The Sun newspaper between 2003 to 2007 When Adams Oshiomhole was the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), I know how many times Nigerians were called out to the streets to protest against increase in fuel prices by the then Olusegun Obasanjo government.

It was during one of those protests that Comrade Chima Ubani, the then Executive President of Civil Liberty Organization (CLO) and a Vanguard newspaper Photographer died in a car accident. As if Comrade Ubani had premonition of his death, exactly one week to the day he died, I was interviewing him at CLO. head office at Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos and in the course of the interview, he told me that life continues after death, so he was not afraid of death but that his main concern was who would succeed him, because there were no more genuine activists in the country. In fact, that was the main reason why he called Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezike, the current Executive Director of CLO to leave Enugu and come over to Lagos.

His fear is what has been playing out since his death because Labour unions and civil society groups (LASCO) have all sold out. They have all compromised.

We did not know that all the while that innocent Nigerians were been called out to the street to protest against fuel hikes, and some losing their lives, somebody was using the masses to build his profile as a messiah and also to position himself for political power.

We did not know that all the while Nigerians were been called out to the streets to protest, Nigerian masses were been made for dinner by the labour unions and civil society groups, who were merely working for their pay masters who were in the opposition political parties then.

We did not know that all the while that Nigerians were been called out to the streets to protest fuel hike, the Labour Unions and Civil Society groups were the pressure groups of the parties in the opposition.

That is why in 2012, when Goodluck Jonathan removed subsidy, hell was let loose unchecked. Labour unions and civil society groups formed ‘Occupy Nigeria’. They threatened fire, sulphur and brimstone for the subsidy to be put back. But in 2020, when Buhari removed he same subsidy, Labour unions and civil society groups went to sleep. They became dumb because their pay masters have come to power.

Within the last three months, federal government has increased the price of fuel for more than four times and the labour unions and civil society groups are watching sheepishly because they cannot eat their cake and have it. Nobody goes against his pay master and come out unscratched. The consequences are always grave. That is the situation that the Labour unions and civil society groups have found themselves at the moment in the country, between the devil and the deep blue sea.

They know that they have lost credibility with the masses. Their under belly has been exposed. So, there is nothing again that would make Nigerians to take them serious. In fact, Labour and activisim is dead as dodo in Nigeria. If they doubt it, let them call Nigerians out to the street again and see what they would get.

So, I am happy and proud that the people of Edo State have spoken loud and clear on behave of other Nigerians that we are not happy with the treatment that we are getting from our federal government.

The reason is because had the vote gone the other way, it would have been a kind of endorsement or vote of confidence on the pains that are being afflicted on us on a daily basis by the Federal Government who as I have said earlier, is of the opinion that God specially created Nigerian masses to suffer since what would happen in the other countries and hell would let loose, would happen in Nigeria and we would be going about our businesses as if not nothing happened.

Since on several occasions that federal government has pushed us to the wall, instead of us fighting back, we melted into the wall.

So, I say bravo to Godwin Obaseki and Pastor Ize-Iyamu because they were the vessels that Edo people, in particular, and Nigerians, in general, used to send this clear message to the federal government, which means both of them are winners!

ABOUT THE COLUMNIST

Peter Anosike is a well-known journalist and development economist.

His book, Dangote’s Ten Commandments on Money (Lessons on How to Make Money from One of the World’s Richest Men), was rated as one of the best development books in the world by Wall Street Journal and FORBES. The book has been adopted as a workbook for grooming entrepreneurs by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). Anosike’s other of his books include, How To Be The Best You Can Be and Look Forward and Lean Less On Your Past – all trending in Smashwords along with Dangote’s Ten Commandment on Money and How To Be The Best You Can Be. You can follow him on Facebook and Linkedin.

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