ORGANISED labour insisted on Friday that it would shut down Nigeria on Tuesday because of government’s refusal to do something positive about the pains inflicted on Nigerians by fuel subsidy removal.

Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) across the states of the federation told Saturday Tribune on Friday that the directive of their national headquarters for an indefinite strike starting from Tuesday would be firmly carried out.

They advised Nigerians to stock their homes with food and other essential items so as to minimise the effects of the shut down.

National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has said that its members who are mainly commercial drivers will not be participating in the organised Labour planned strike, stating that the plan was “ill-timed and in bad faith”.

The leader of the union, Alhaji Tajudeen Badiru Agbede stated the union’s position after an emergency meeting with all the state chairmen, secretaries and treasurers in Abuja.

He said his members after reviewing the situation, decided to back out of the proposed NLC strike the timing of the planned strike “is not in tandem with the current economic reality”.

“Our members are going through a lot of hardship, so participating in any strike will create more harm for our members.

“We felt the strike will not serve any purpose to our members who are mostly commercial drivers who are operating in an informal sector of the economy. We are not salary earners. Ours is work and eat. Our members depend mainly on what they make from their daily operations. So, to embark on any strike action will have serious negative impacts on our members’ daily earnings

“Again, there are some members who purchase their vehicles through hire purchase options, and these category of people are mandated to make repayment either on daily or weekly basis, so any strike action will affect the repayment agreement and the company or dealer or banks that gave out vehicles will not take any excuse”.

Agbede appealed to NLC to give the government enough time to work out modalities on the best way out, stating that going on strike now will only compound the problems.

He urged commercial drivers to disregard the planned industrial strike by going about their daily operations and to report anybody who tries to force them to join the strike to law enforcement agencies.

The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero has reacted to a restraining order from the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, (SAN)

The Order cited by Fagbemi dated June 5, 2023, through an exparte motion restricted the union from embarking on a nationwide protest over the removal of fuel subsidy.

However, Fagbemi said that the proposed strike action slated for October 3rd “is in clear violation of the pending interim injunctive order granted on June 5, 2023, restraining both Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria from embarking on any industrial action or strike pending the hearing and determination of the pending motion on notice”.

Reacting to Fagbemi’s claim on Saturday, the NLC in a communique signed by Ajaero and made available to THE WHISTLER said it was shocked that Fagbemi is referring to a restraining order issued on June 5 through motion exparte which the Ministry of Justice in a formal statement had said lapsed due to non-diligent prosecution.

“We find it pathetic that Mr. Fagbemi strives to operate from the high moral ground by advising Labour Unions on the need to protect the integrity of courts and observe the sanctity of court orders.

“Who is causing more injury to the sanctity of the courts? Those seeking to convert a restraining order obtained under the cover of the night to a perpetual injunction or the victims of this terrorism?

“For once, we find it appropriate to reveal to the world that the court refused to sit during the pendency of the order to take our response to that order.

“To gag us, to bind us, to tie us to the pole for life without a chance to hear us out will constitute not just malicious conduct but grievous injury to our fundamental human rights as enshrined in the 1999 constitution as amended.

“We refuse to be gagged. We also want to remind those in power of their history when they were out of power, we similarly, find it necessary to remind Fagbemi that equating a restraining order to a perpetual injuction will do no small damage to our legal and judicial system” NLC said.

According to Ajaero, there are two ministerial portfolios whose offices constitutionally do not admit partisanship in the discharge of their duties. These are the Minister of Labour and Employment and the Minister of Justice. In addition to their regular duties, they are expected to play the umpire role.

“Also, the Attorney General is advised to note that the letter, spirit, principles, and intendment of the National Industrial Court are quite different from those of the regular court to which he is accustomed.

“We are the foremost pan-Nigerian organization with an unrivaled patriotism and an illustrious history of popular struggle pre-dating our national independence.

” Accordingly, we do not need a lecture from anyone on national interest, national security, or the preservation of our sovereignty, ” it added.

Justice Nancy Maldonado of the District of Northern Illinois District has reserved a ruling in the case of Atiku Abubakar against the Chicago State University (CSU), seeking the records of President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had filed a fresh motion to challenge Tinubu’s plea for CSU not to release privileged documents in his academic records.

The president, through his lawyers, had asked Maldonado to delay the order of Judge Jeffrey Gilbert, a magistrate, that ordered the university to release his academic records to Atiku.

In their full briefing to the court seeking a review of Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s order, Tinubu’s lawyers asked the judge to save him from suffering severe and irreparable damage by placing an emergency hold on a recent order for his university records to be released.

According to the President, the damage he would suffer would be impossible to mitigate if the order directing the release of his academic records to Atiku is not delayed for possible vacation.

Tinubu’s prayer was, therefore, granted by Judge Maldonado and a stay on the ruling of Magistrate Judge Gilbert was ordered, and the Judge decided to hear the application afresh.

Judge Maldonado then directed Tinubu’s lawyers to file papers on their client’s behalf not later than Monday, September, 25th, on why a subpoena should not be issued against CSU to release the documents.

Ruling on the case on Saturday, Judge Nancy Maldonado said she reserved the ruling following the deluge of emotional emails by interlopers, mounting pressure on the court.

The judge said, “Separately, the Court notes that Court staff has received extensive email communications from members of the public related to this case.

“The Court understands the significant public interest in this dispute, but the Court will not consider any third−party or ex parte submissions.

“Rather, the Court’s review will be limited to the parties’ briefing and the official record on the docket.”

The judge ruled that with all the submissions made, the date for the ruling will be communicated to all the parties.

Eight of the twenty-five kidnapped choir members of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Oke Igan, Akure, the state capital, have escaped from their abductors.

Recall that the choir members were abducted on Friday afternoon while travelling for a brutal ceremony in the Ifon community in the Ose Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking on the incident to Vanguard, the Commander of the state security outfit codenamed Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, confirmed the escape of eight of the abducted victims.

Adeleye said that personnel of Police Anti Kidnapping, Amotekun Corps, in conjunction with the Nigeria Army, are on the kidnapper’s trail in Owo/Ose axis to ensure that the remaining victims are released.

Also speaking, the spokesman of the State Police Command, Funmi Odunlami, confirmed the abduction of the victims.

Odunlami said the vehicle conveying the victims, with the inscription of the church, was abandoned around the Elegbeka area, in lfon.

He added that the anti-kidnapping squad and other tactical teams have been deployed to the area to rescue the victims and arrest all involved in the crime.

Elections in Burkina Faso are not a “priority” compared to “security”, the country’s military leader Captain Ibrahim Traore said Friday on state TV, almost a year after coming to power in a coup.

Traore, who had promised a return to democracy with presidential elections by July 2024, also announced planned changes to the constitution to make it representative of the “masses”.

“It’s not a priority, I’ll tell you that clearly, it’s security that’s the priority” in a country plagued by jihadist violence, he told reporters, referring to the elections.

When Traore seized power he gave himself “two to three months” to improve security in Burkina Faso, but one year on, jihadist attacks still blight the West African nation.

Judgement: Tinubu’s Minister, Deputy Governor, Senator Storm Ogun Tribunal
Journalists barred from covering Sokoto Tribunal judgment
At 34, Traore was the world’s youngest leader when he was sworn in as interim president, vowing to win back territory and support a transition leading to elections in July 2024.

Traore said he planned a “partial change” to the country’s constitution, saying on state TV the current text reflects “the opinion of a handful of enlightened people”, to the detriment of the “popular masses”.

Burkina Faso said on Thursday that four officers had been detained a day after the military government announced it had thwarted a coup attempt.

The junta said late on Wednesday that the intelligence and security services had foiled the attempt the previous day.

The military government said it would seek to shed “all possible light on this plot”.

  Emmanuel Eni, a former top agent of the dark kingdom also told the story of how the Name of Jesus threw Satan down at one of their meetings in the underwater world. Hear him:   “One day, a girl named Nina came to me.  She was a very beautiful young girl but lives mostly in the sea, the underwater spirit world.  She was an ardent agent to the Queen of the Coast (goddess of the sea) and very wicked.  She hated the Christians so much and would go any length to fight Christianity.  I first met her during my visit to the sea.  Nina came for an errand from the Queen of the Coast. We left immediately and reaching there I learnt of our having a conference with Lucifer.  Satan, in this meeting, gave us the following instructions: to fight the believers and not the unbeliever; because the unbelievers were already his.  When he said this, one of us asked: ‘why?’  He said the vision was that God drove him out of ‘that place’. He refused to call the word ‘heaven’. And curiously throughout our various meetings with him he never mentioned ‘heaven’.  Rather he would always use the word ‘that place’, because of pride, and therefore he does not want any Christian to get there. 

   ‘He also told us that we should not fight the hypocrites.  ‘They are like me’ he said.  He continued his speech and said that his time was near; therefore, we should fight as never before and make sure no one enters that place.  So, one of us said to him, ‘we heard that God has sent someone to rescue mankind back to himself.’  Satan then asked: ‘who is that’? One member answered - ‘Jesus!’ And to our greatest surprise, Lucifer fell from his seat.  He shouted at the man and seriously warned him never to mention that name in any of our meetings if he loves his life. Yes, it is very true that at the mention of the name of Jesus every knee must bow, including Satan.”   Yes, the word of God is true! Very True. Every knee, including Satan’s must bow to the name of Jesus. What our friend Evangelist Eni saw was correct. That is what constantly happens in the spirit realm, but most Christians do not know because we don’t see it. Yes, like he said, it confirms the scriptures in Philippians 2:10, “So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Amen! Read more of this in my books Power of Midnight Prayer and Breaking Generational Curses: Claiming Your Freedom. You can find them on Amazon and all major books site in about twenty major world languages.

    What else do you want to hear?  All powers, dominions, authorities, thrones, evil conspiracies and agenda, grand masters, perfect masters, witches, dark angels, shamans, false prophets, heads of false religions, rulers of darkness and wickedness, evil spiritual gangs and alliances, spirits in the air, on the land and in the waters bow to  the name of Jesus Christ. That is the scriptures! And it cannot be broken. Yes, they know him very well in the occult world. The ultimate ruler of the dark kingdom is Satan and he remembers daily that Jesus disarmed, defeated and put him to permanent shame at the cross. He also stormed the Hades, harassed, humiliated and collected the key of life and death from him. Yes, the bible said that the greatest mistake Satan made was to allow Jesus to be killed at the cross. He still regrets it today. The death and resurrection of Jesus totally and forever disarmed the Devil and the operators of the kingdom of darkness. In fact, they did not believe he would come out of that grave.  They used everything to stop him. They waited for his last breathe and drop of blood, the bandaged him, put him in the grave, cemented the tomb, blocked the entrance with extra heavy stone and mounted a permanent heavy military guard at the place. But on the third day, the King of glory, the King of Kings, the Glory of Israel, the Prince of Peace, the beginning and the end, the mighty man in battle majestically, gloriously walked out of the place! And that is also why every plan, every road block, hindrance and effort against you will also fail! I love what he told John, “I was he that was dead and now I am alive!” Praise God! We will continue. Bless you! Please, share this message.

The just-ended 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly was President Bola Tinubu’s first outing at that important gathering of global leaders and on that first appearance, he left behind a lasting impression.

Addressing the gathering around 8pm local time in New York which was 1am in Nigeria, on Tuesday September 19, President Tinubu was in an excellent form. Watching him as he delivered his speech in measured tones, you would be proud to be a Nigerian, nay African.

At that global stage, at the biggest congregation of Presidents and Heads of government from all over the world, President Tinubu did not only speak for Nigeria, he spoke for Africa. He delivered what many called an outstanding speech. His speech was a defining moment for Nigeria.

That speech dwelt on a number of important topics including the past failures of Nigeria and Africa, poverty in the continent, flooding and erosion, conflict and wars, extremism, climate change, military coups and the case of Niger Republic, as well as the unsavory roles played by the rich Western nations in some of these issues. The highlights of the speech are as follows: President Tinubu began by noting some of the failures of Africa to include bad governance, broken promises and weak economies, while also identifying unfair treatment and outright exploitation from abroad as contributory factors. Reminding his audience of this history, he said if the theme of that UNGA session- “Rebuilding Trust and Reigniting Global Security: Accelerating Action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals Towards Peace, Prosperity, Progress and the Sustainability for all” was to mean anything at all, “it must mean something special and particular to Africa.”

To address the identified problems of the African continent, he identified solutions, which he said African leaders must strive to fix. He stated categorically, however, that Africa would demand the same level of political commitment and devotion of resources that described the Marshall Plan, which emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Realising that the underlying conditions and causes of the economic challenges facing today’s Africa are significantly different from those of post-war Europe, President Tinubu said Africa “is not asking for identical programs and actions. What we seek is an equally firm commitment to partnership. We seek enhanced international cooperation with African nations to achieve the 2030 agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.”

The President called on global institutions, other nations and their private sector actors to see African development as a priority, “not just for Africa but in their interests as well,” pointing out that due to both internal and external factors, Nigeria’s and Africa’s economic structures had been skewed.

Speaking specifically about Nigeria, the President noted that if Nigeria is to fulfill its duty to its people and the rest of Africa, the country must create jobs, create a better economy and a better future for her people and lead by example.

On the economic reforms he instituted in Nigeria, President Tinubu said he was mindful of the hardship that reform can cause, adding, however, that it is necessary for the country to go through this phase in order to establish a foundation for durable growth and investment to build the economy the people deserves.

While welcoming partnerships with those who do not mind seeing Nigeria and Africa assume larger roles in the global community, he said “the question is not whether Nigeria is open for business. The question is how much of the world is truly open to doing business with Nigeria and Africa in an equal, mutually beneficial manner.”

According to him, the critical aspects of the cooperation Nigeria and Africa would require are direct investment in critical industries, opening of ports in Europe and beyond to a wider range and larger quantity of African exports and meaningful debt relief.

Denouncing military coups, he warned that the wave of coups crossing parts of Africa does not demonstrate favour towards coups. “It is a demand for solutions to perennial problems.”

And speaking on the recent military coup in Niger, President Tinubu told the gathering that he was negotiating with the military leaders to help re-establish democratic governance “in a manner that addresses the political and economic challenges confronting that nation, including the violent extremists who seek to foment instability in the African region.”

On violent extremism, while stating that African nations would work to improve their economies to stem migration to other nations and also devote themselves to disbanding extremist groups on their turf, he urged the international community to strengthen its commitment to arrest the flow of arms and violent people into West Africa to fully combat the threat.

The President also sought global support and solidarity to secure the continent’s mineral rich areas from pilfering and conflict, while mentioning countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Mali, Bukina Faso and Central African Republic, which have all become centres of misery and exploitation.

While noting that climate change severely impacts Nigeria and Africa, President Tinubu declared that African nations would fight climate change but would do so on their own terms. “To achieve the needed popular consensus, this campaign must accord with overall economic efforts. In Nigeria, we shall build political consensus by highlighting remedial actions, which also promote economic good,” adding, however, that continental efforts regarding climate change will register important victories if established economies were more forthcoming with public and private sector investments for Africa’s preferred initiatives.

Closing his speech, President Tinubu left these parting words from Africa to the rest of the world: “I say walk with us as true friends and partners. Africa is not a problem to be avoided nor is it to be pitied. Africa is nothing less than the key to the world’s future.”

That fine address is not the only significant aspect of Nigeria’s participation in this year’s UNGA. There were other interesting aspects, which are no less remarkable.

On the sidelines of the General Assembly, President Tinubu met with some other presidents, global leaders, top businessmen and investors. For instance, on Wednesday September 20, he met UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, at his UN Headquarters office during which he called for international collaboration against illegal miners who pillage the resources of Africa and undermine African countries’ efforts to reform their economies.

Two days earlier, still on the sidelines of UNGA, President Tinubu had also held fruitful bilateral talks with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, where he canvassed stronger economic ties with that country, and with President of the Union of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union, President Azali Assoumani, during which he pledged Nigeria’s solidarity with AU to ensure the stability and prosperity of Africa. In another engagement, this time with the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Hissein Brahim Taha, President Tinubu noted that the OIC has a strategic role to play in the sustenance of peace and development in Africa and across the world.

On the much-talked about proposed meeting with US President Joe Biden, having met with him on the margins of the recent G20 Nations’ meeting in India, another meeting with the US President during the UNGA was no longer required and was not even on President Tinubu’s schedule, contrary to the impression in some quarters.

At the just-ended UNGA, as President Tinubu has always done at every available opportunity, he also used the New York summit to strategically promote Nigeria’s new business opportunities and canvass for foreign investments into Nigeria. He met with the global executives of ExxonMobil. Interestingly, the oil giant pledged nearly 40,000 bpd additional production in its Nigeria operation.

The President was also at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange where he told the whole world that Nigeria is open and ready for business, while ringing the NASDAQ closing bell. At the follow-up US-Nigeria Executive Business Roundtable, President Tinubu assured US business leaders and investors not to be afraid of doing business in Nigeria, adding that it’s a new day for business in the country, while noting that policy somersaults and inconsistencies, corruption, inclement business climate, multiplicity of exchange rates, among others have worked to hamper business and investments in the country in the past.

Perhaps the highpoint of the President’s activities during his first UNGA appearance is his engagement with the Nigerian Community in New York at the Millennium Hilton Hotel, UN One Plaza on Wednesday September 20. That interaction was very revealing to say the least. Put together by the Chairman, Nigeria in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the event showcased the very best of us, the Nigerian professionals in New York and in the entire United States, working daily, shattering boundaries, breaking records and giving our country a good name as opposed to the bad eggs dragging our name in the mud.

The list of them at the meeting with President Tinubu is rather long. But let me mention just a few.

Colonel (Dr) Cornel Gabriel Isioye is one of them. Isioye is currently the Commander of the 818th Hospital Center in Utica, New York, overseeing over 700 soldiers and civilians. He is also the owner of Premier Family Dentistry in the Bronx, New York. There is also Oye Owolewa from Kwara State. Oye became the first Nigerian-American elected to America Federal Office in 2021. As Washington DC’s US Representative, Rep. Oye focuses on fighting for DC statehood, improving public health and safety, empowering DC’s youths and developing minority and women-owned businesses.

Ola Fadiran, a youthful Artificial Intelligence guru, was also at the event. He is the CEO of Chiplab, a firm that is on a mission to develop the semiconductor ecosystem in Africa. He and his team have already made rapid strides in forging strategic alliances with academic and industrial partners.

And of course, also at the meeting was popular Zuriel Oduwole. On January 6, 2017, the then US Secretary of State, John Kerry, honoured then 14-year-old Zuriel in Washington DC at the State Department for her tireless work advocating against child marriages and speaking for girls’ education across the globe. Zuriel has reportedly met with over 30 world leaders including presidents and prime ministers to address global social development and education challenges that children and teenagers face. Zuriel’s father was present in the hall when her daughter rose to speak. After her speech, an impressed President Tinubu called out her father to take pictures with him and Zuriel. Addressing the gathering, the President commended the Nigerian-Americans for making our country proud. Citing himself who was also previously in the US and returned home to contribute to development efforts as an example, he told them to be ready to come back home, saying “we need you back home, Nigeria is back again.”

A September 21, 2023, enterprise news report (i.e., a news report that’s not from a news release or a press conference) from the Daily Trust found that “Despite the numerous assurances by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that… subsidy is gone… the federal government paid N169.4 billion as subsidy in August to keep the pump price at N620 per litre.”

What happened? I thought petrol subsidies were evil, harmful, no-good drains on the economy that should be avoided at all costs. I thought the government had no responsibility to tame the savagery of market forces and to protect citizens from the full fury of the vagaries of international oil prices.

I thought the “invisible hand” was supposed to regulate prices unaided by any governmental intervention (which has been thoroughly disproved by the fact that petrol marketers arbitrarily increased their pump prices after Tinubu precipitously announced that subsidies were gone even though they were selling the old stock of petrol that had been subsidized by taxpayers.) 

I thought it didn’t matter that unaffordable and extortionate petrol prices are causing hundreds of thousands of Nigerians to starve and die, small- and large-scale industries to collapse, unemployment to skyrocket, the economy to shrink, quality of life of the average citizen to plummet, and Nigeria as a whole to regress to the Stone Age.

With the naira on an unprecedently free fall against the dollar and global petrol prices on the rise, it’s inevitable that a liter of petrol would have been at least 1,000 naira a liter by now if the “invisible hand” that conservative economists have invested so much faith in were left to determine the pump price of petrol. It’s conceivable it could climb to 2,000 naira per liter in the coming months if the government doesn’t interfere with the vagaries of the market.

Why is Tinubu committing “economic blasphemy” by misdoubting the power of the omniscient and omnicompetent Invisible Hand to take care of everything? Why is he intervening to stop the pump price of petrol from getting to its appropriate rate? Does he want our petrol to be so affordable that our neighbors will smuggle it?

 Does he no longer want to save money to build and renew infrastructure and fund education? (Never mind that we haven’t seen where the money saved from the withdrawal of subsidies since May has been put to productive use. Or that only the living and the healthy can use infrastructure and go to school.)

Well, I guess Tinubu and his ideological cheerleaders in and out of government are beginning to see what some of us have been saying for years: that subsidizing an essential commodity like petrol in Nigeria whose price affects every facet of life is not an option; it is an abiding moral imperative. 

The government’s primary reason for existing is to protect lives. As is by now evident, withdrawing fuel subsidies in an oil-producing country that is the poverty capital of the world, that has one of the world’s lowest minimum wages, and that has no public transportation system is a trigger for mass suffering and mass deaths.

 There is something else that must have informed Tinubu’s decision to stealthily halt the impending rise in the pump price of petrol: insurance against mass anomie and revolt.

Although Nigerians can be some of the most incredibly docile and self-hypnotic people on earth, it’s stupid to assume that they will always be so. As someone once remarked, “The day when large numbers of men have to choose between feeding their children and providing a roof over their heads—is the day when nothing will stop the torches and pitchforks.”

In other words, there is a limit to human endurance of pain and deprivation. Most people won’t listlessly just roll over and perish because of persistent adversity. People with an overpowering will to live who can’t survive government-engineered suffocation of their lives (which withdrawal of subsidies amid endemic poverty represents) will turn to crime out of desperation. That’s why the crime statistics in Nigeria have quadrupled since May. 

But it’s going to get worse. For now, the victims of crimes are the poor and the disappearing middle class. The rich and the powerful are next if the current subsidy-removal-activated excruciation doesn’t abate. After the poor, the lower middle class and the middle class are dispossessed, the rich will become the next meal of the desperately poor. 

“Eat the rich” is an enduring, often metaphoric, revolutionary catchphrase usually mouthed by conscientious, socially sensitive middle-class intellectuals to denote redistributive economic justice, but it could become literal in Nigeria once it gets to the point when only the rich—politicians and their underlings, wealthy businesspeople, and other government-subsidized fat cats—have all the food. That’s why so-called bread riots are historically the most common triggers of momentous mass insurrections. 

Cynical conservatives in the West like to say subsidies for the poor are basically protection money to stop the poor from stealing and revolting. The rich in the West don’t want to be awake because the poor can’t sleep. The late Professor Sam Aluko captured it brilliantly in 1999 when he memorably said, “The poor cannot sleep because they are hungry, and the rich cannot sleep, because the poor are awake and hungry.”

That is why the welfare state was brought forth in the West. The International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences defines a welfare state as “a state that is committed to providing basic economic security for its citizens by protecting them from market risks associated with old age, unemployment, accidents, and sickness.” 

Ironically, it is the same welfarist West whose institutions (such as the IMF and the World Bank) encourage, in many cases compel, developing countries like Nigeria to strip the poor of basic economic security through the removal of subsidies. 

Of course, our rapacious, self-loving leaders who want exclusive control of the state’s resources for themselves and their families welcome the freedom from being responsible to struggling citizens that removal of subsidies represents. And slavish, unthinking ideologues of the “Washington Consensus” cheer on.

There is not an example of a single country on earth that has made progress on the basis of the cruel policies that the World Bank and the IMF impose on countries.  As Professors David Held and Anthony McGrew persuasively showed in their book, Globalization/Anti-Globalization: Beyond the Great Divide, “Developing countries that have benefited most from globalization are those that have not played by the rules of the standard [neo]liberal market approach, including China, India and Vietnam” (p. 226).

In fact, even America, the patron saint of capitalism, doesn’t practice the sort of cruel, extreme capitalism that Tinubu is practicing and that even his opponents promised they would practice if they got a chance to be elected president.

As I pointed out in my December 10, 2016, column titled “Dangerous Fine Print in Emir Sanusi’s Prescriptions for Buhari,” when it comes to the welfare of its citizens, America doesn’t practice on its soil what its institutions preach to developing countries.

I wrote: “But when the United States went into a recession between 2007 and 2009, it didn’t follow any of these neoliberal prescriptions. The dollar wasn’t devalued. Subsidies weren’t removed. The state wasn’t rolled back. The government didn’t retrench workers. Taxes weren’t raised. 

“On the contrary, the government increased expenditure. The financial burden on the populace was eased with lower taxes.  Government, in fact, sent lots of money, called tax rebate checks, to lower- and middle-income families so they could have money to spend, since recession is essentially the consequence of people not having enough money to spend. I was a beneficiary of the tax rebate, so I know what I am talking about. Financially distraught private companies (particularly car manufacturers and banks) were bailed out by the government.”

I don’t know if Tinubu and his team are finally realizing that the problem with fuel subsidy was the monstrous corruption in it and not the subsidy itself. Most of what passed as fuel subsidy was fraud. Any government worth the name should be able to tackle corruption and administer subsidies for the collective benefit of Nigerians.

But Tinubu was swept over by the idiotic anti-subsidy mass hypnosis that has engulfed Nigeria in the last few years.

This has ensured that Tinubu has had by far the shortest honeymoon in power. Why won't he? He promised to hit the ground running but instead hit the ground ruining— with his infamous "Subsidy is gone for good" declaration on inauguration day. He promised renewed hope but is giving renewed hell. He promised the dawn of a new era, but people are seeing the dawn of a new error after Buhari.