By Ishola Balogun & Ebun Sessou
Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Convener, Save Nigeria Group, SNG,  organisers of the protest against the removal of petrol subsidy at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos which lasted five days in this interview with Saturday Vangurad, bares his mind on some issues that hindered the continuation of the protest, his views about Nigeria Labour Congress/TUC negotiation, and his plans to sustain the struggle despite the deployment of soldiers that aborted the protest last Monday.  Excerpt

How were you able to organise the protest?

It is not the work of any man but God’s work. It is divine intervention in the affairs of the country. Yes, we planned, and we will keep that to our chest because we will do it again and again. But again, the truth is that Nigerians have been pushed to the wall. The people have been looking for opportunity to vent their anger and the oppression that is on the land and when we led the campaign, they joined us and that was all.  Nobody was paid anything.

 Why did you attempt to continue with the protest after the President’s broadcast reducing the pump price to N97 per litre?

Save Nigeria Group and its allies never called for a strike. We called for the protest and if they have put or rolled out tanks of soldiers there, we would have been there because we told the people that we would be back on Monday. But we are not going to play into their hands to let them kill people and let them blame us for it.

As civilized people, we do not encourage any form of violence. Even the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola in his speech testified, as the Chief Security Officer of the State that our rallies were essentially peaceful. Yes, we would have been there but for the presence of tanks and for blocking the road for us to get there;  they said they had orders from above that if we crossed the line, they would shoot us. We retreated.  It was not fear of death, but what could happen in an uproar that could backfire on everybody. We did not want to lose all that our heroes died for and we will not be part of those who will play into their hands to truncate our hard earned democracy.

Does it mean that you were not working in concert with the Labour as far as the protest was concerned?

Working in concert with Labour is a function of many factors. They did not get in touch with us and we did not get in touch with them. Then the rallies and strike commenced.  Although we spoke back and forth during the rallies; we were never consulted before they buckled and now said they were going before Belgore.  What they were told will never happen because you do not fix the price and go to negotiate. You negotiated.

But they said the federal government unilaterally fixed the price; and in order for peace to reign, they are going before Belgore. In our press conference recently, we gave them a week which has lapsed. We will resume our own protest because Save Nigeria Group, SNG is not an affiliate of Nigeria Labour Congress.

What is your view about the government’s claim that the protest was hijacked?

They should list the names of those who hijacked the protest. If a man makes a statement, he should support it with facts. Since they are not rabble-rousers, they should specify the people who hijacked it. Before anyone raises a political undertone to what we are doing, SNG remains a non-violent political society organization. It existed before 2011 election. When the same Jonathan was being denied access to power, we marched the streets. He didn’t pay us for it. We marched in Lagos and Abuja, nobody paid us for it. Name the politicians who paid us for that!  It is on record that President Jonathan tried to send $50,000 to me through Orubebe, we rejected it in November 2010. So, who is big enough to hijack us? Let him name the person who hijacked us. They are rabble-rousers.  It is lying propaganda, because they had murdered sleep and they cannot sleep anymore and they are looking for who to blame for their excessive profligacy that has led Nigeria to this present debacle.

What is your take about the role played by Labour in the whole situation?

I was not in the room where they did the negotiation. They have communicated to the whole world that the federal government unilaterally imposed N97 on Nigerians. We think that is a vicious raid of the limited resources of the poor people of Nigeria. It is unfortunate that the man who once upon a time had no shoes now wants to make sure that Nigerians don’t have no legs. I wouldn’t speak for Labour because I wasn’t part of what happened in the room.

Nigerians seemed to have accepted the new pump price. Why do you want to resume protest?

Our rally is ‘victory rally’. It is to remind Nigerians that they have the power to compel their government to do what is right. To bring accountability and transparency back into governance; that Nigerians deserve better than what they are getting; and let them not lose the steam to always demand for their rights.  How many Nigerians have you interviewed and they told you they have accepted the new pump price? They need that petrol and so, they will still buy it. Everyone of them buying including the soldiers deployed to Ojota Freedom Park and the policemen on the streets and their families that are suffering can’t afford it. They are praying in secret that ‘Lord send the Deliverer’. And now we don’t have the Messianic complex. Thank God, when Lagos was being occupied by the military, Kano was still alive with protest as well as Kaduna where millions of people trooped to the streets.  And Abuja is going to be stormed soon by Occupy Nigeria; we will continue to demand for our right – freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression.  They are our fundamental rights and no government can intimidate us to go and hide in the hole and not being able to express these rights. So, it is a victory rally to show that the government was so high handed and that it was on the horse of pride, riding so high, eventually had to eat its own words and cut back from N141.

Secondly, Labour went there to negotiate only for reduction of price. But we raised the issue of unappropriated expenditure of N1.3trillion that was paid for subsidy; that it was nothing but looting the treasury of Nigeria without any law because it wasn’t budgeted for.  It is an impeachable offence and the National Assembly must look into it. Now they are calling EFCC  which they were not doing before. Now they are saying they will pass the Petroleum Bill, which wasn’t there before. So, we have won and will continue to win until there is government that is responsive and responsible to the people of this country.

We will go to Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos. That place was earmarked by Lagos State for people to express themselves and we have our right under the constitution of Nigeria to associate, assemble and express ourselves. That is what we are doing. Nobody can intimidate us,  it is not the military era. The same Mr. President who cannot handle Boko Haram is now harassing civilians who are protesting peacefully.

How will you react to the allegation that you are personalising  issues going by some of your utterances at the park?

Let me make it clear, neither the Labour Union nor the TUC was behind the Ojota rally, not to talk of any politician or political party.  Today, the world is a victim of propaganda. The rally at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park is a civil protest organised by Save Nigeria Group and its allies. This is not a political campaign rally. No citizen has been paid to come. They have come on their own, some walking several miles everyday to get here. We didn’t pay them. No musician, artiste or Nollywood star has been paid. They came voluntarily and added their voices against an oppressive policy of the government.  Some alleged that we have been personalising the issue. We responded with three quotes; Proverb 26:2- “Curse causeless will not come.” It doesn’t matter who curses anyone, the curse will not work if it is not deserved. Also, Proverb 3:33, “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked.” Not the curse of the Pastor.  “He who have no mercy on the poor is a wicked man.”  According to William Gladstone, “Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race. No one needs to curse a selfish leader or person, selfishness carries its own curse.”

While Joseph Addison added that, “Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the storms of heaven, red with uncommon wrath to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin”, definitely there is.   There is no personal hatred. Did I hate him when I matched the streets for him? Did I hate him when I met him privately with the leaders of SNG to tell him that the country is going down the precipice again and gave him document that would awake him from his slumber. The man who hates another is the one who is killing himself. If Jonathan is a Christian, I hope he is and I am a Christian; he who hates his brother is a murderer and eternal life does not abide in him. Let us examine who hates the other. Is it the man who asked the military to go shoot us at sight because that was what they told the people who were marching towards the park. They said, “we have the orders from above to shoot anyone who crosses this line.”  Who hates the other?  We will continue to do what we are doing to liberate Nigerians from the forte of cruel oppressors.

Peace and stability are needed for development in any given society. If you were in the shoes of Labour, what would you have put on the table?

I would have demanded that the things that led them to remove the subsidy be removed first because nobody has any right to complain about the log in your brother’s eyes until the log in your eyes is removed. Mr. President who had no shoes in the past now wants to spend N300million to buy cutlery. Let him eat with his hands. Could he boast of cutlery when he was growing up? Mr. President wants to cut the garden with N200 million, he wants to spend N1billion on food. If they can cut the excesses and profligacy in the system, and wrap up the looting that is going on in the legislative arm, where they collect billions of naira for constituency allowance, are they contractors? Were they voted in to go and make laws or to do contract in their constituencies?  Now that Mr. President has decided to be buying buses for each local government, is he a local government chairman?  Until you restructure Nigeria along the path of true federalism and you prioritise the well-being of citizens, nobody should look for peace anywhere. Peace is not the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice. No peace will envelope a community that doesn’t value justice. So, what I will do if I were in the shoes of Labour would be to raise the banner and the standard of justice.  I would say no, you are spending money wastefully and you are the cause of this problem; let us adjust your excesses and then we would know the next step for deregulation.

A good government would have put laws in place before acting, and it would have prior to the removal of the subsidy, put safety nets for the poor and vulnerable people of the country. What they have done is a vicious raid of limited resources of Nigerians.