While the NUC/TLC and civil society anti-fuel subsidy removal protest, led by the state coordinator, Casely Omon-Irabor Esq. and Zonal Secretary, Maritime Workers Union, Comrade Augustine was on, another group, Good People of Nigeria, led by Prince Sani Usman, stormed the streets with a pro-subsidy removal rally to counter their efforts.

Chief Robert Clark is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and specialises in arbitration and oil and gas law. In this exclusive interview with Sunday Vanguard, he bared his mind on the state of the nation and the ongoing nationwide strike over the removal of fuel subsidy. Chief Clark insists that the Governors’ forum is corrupt and majorly responsible for the President’s decision to remove the subsidy on petrol. He also advises the Federal Government on ways out of the current logjam.

THE management of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has announced that audited Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) already in tanks at various depots of petroleum marketers in the country will not qualify for payment of subsidy claims.

The protest in Osogbo, the Osun State capital has been so orderly with men of the Nigerian police, Civil Defence deployed to maintain law and other.

Below are eye witness accounts and latest developments as reported by citizens in various parts of the country on the ongoing strike/protest against removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government by the Labour and civil society groups. Excerpts:

Again, the Nigerian policymakers got it all wrong. The reason for the removal of the fuel subsidy does not make sense. It is not the solution to Nigeria’s economic recovery.

The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, has said that the removal of fuel subsidy will accelerate the growth of the nation’s shipping sector to improve on revenue generation and greater productivity.

Part 1 in this series ended with the rationale for discontinuing subsidies. The second part will summarise the key objectives of the SURE Programme. Then it will start with the in-depth analysis of the programme and leave it to Nigerians to decide if the programme is convincing.

‘Presently, the Federal Government is rationalising all the parastatals to bring down the cost of governance. We are looking into the area of governance and bringing down cost in a systematic way’….

There is no doubt that the sudden removal of the controversial fuel subsidy in the beginning of the first quarter of 2012, after years of debates on the issue and corruption surrounding the subsidy, is unsettling to most Nigerians.

As the controversy on fuel subsidy continues to rage, and the federal government’s announcement of a new price regime for petrol on January 1 is being contested by labour, it has become imperative to look at the dynamics surrounding the fuel subsidy debacle which as at the time of filling this report has claimed casualities.

Haram! That is the word to use in describing the sudden removal of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS. No doubt, Nigeria is wobbling and the prognoses are such that a shock therapy is needed or else, the centre would cease to hold again.