Music and the Fuel Subsidy Protest

The hue and cry that greeted the fuel subsidy protest and strike may have subsided, but the effects would live with us for a long time to come.  

To be sure, there were many things that distinguish the action from the ones before it – the planning, organization and mobilization. It was such that people were often heard saying for the first time ever, Nigerians from the various social strata came out in unity against a government’s policy.

Yet, the one weapon that the organizers deployed up to the hilt was music. The use of music as a tool for mass mobilization was brought to the fore. 

When one of the characters in Williams Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, said “if music be the food of love, play on”, he was obviously referring to the Eros type of love – the type that exists mostly between two opposite sex. Little did he know that centuries after, some people in a “dark corner” of the world would tap into that statement to give meaning to another variant of love – Philia. This refers to displaying love through loyalty to friends, family, community and indeed nation. Call it patriotism, and you would not be wrong.

The organizers of the last general strike merely keyed into the people’s love for music and country to drive home their point. After all, love is a sensation through the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual senses. When music is playing, it stimulates your ears and moves your soul 

Not even the Arab Springs which many likened the action had such a dimension. It was an ingenious act that contributed by no small measure to the success of the industrial action. But how did we get here?

There had been some grumblings over the administration of the fuel subsidy scheme. Then the former Governor of Kwara State and now the Senator representing Kwara Central in the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, moved a motion for the investigation of the scheme – after much intrigues.

Saraki, in a motion entitled “A motion to investigate the current fuel subsidy management and consider the challenges it poses to the implementation of the 2011 budget,” noted that the Federal Government operates a fuel subsidy with the purpose of making petroleum products available and cushion the effect of the true market prices of petroleum products on the populace, adding that the fuel subsidy is a long-standing government palliative designed primarily to assist the Nigerian masses.

According to him, in the 2011 budget, N240 billion (N20billion monthly) was allocated, adding that of the N20billion monthly allocated, N11.2billion was allocated for domestic fuel subsidy (NNPC) and N8.8billion for domestic fuel subsidy (market).

He observed that although N20billion was set aside for subsidy on a monthly basis in the Appropriation Act 2011, in August 2011 the total figure expended was N165billion of which NNPC was N88billion and independent marketers was N77.7billion. 

Saraki noted that although N240billion was budgeted for the entire year, so far as at August 2011 N931billion has been spent. This was a variance of N771billion or 700% above budget.

 He said with the trend, by year-end, over Nl.2trillion would have been spent as against the N240billion budgeted in the Appropriation Act.

The lawmaker urged the Senate to set up a Special Committee to investigate and establish the structure of operations and financing of the fuel subsidy scheme.

A chain of reactions were to follow, culminating in the Federal Government’s removal of the fuel subsidy on January 1, 2012. Labour and its allies in the civil society organizations would mobilize Nigerians for a string of strikes, protests and rallies.

As customary of such actions, Labour served the government notice of the impending strike. But typically, the Federal Government was at once dilly-dallying and using a carrot and stick approach. While purportedly engaging Labour in dialogue, it rushed to the National Industrial Court (NIC) to get an exparte injunction restraining Labour from calling out workers on strike. When they could not stop the strike, it was said that the thinking in the inner recesses of the government was that after three days the strike will fizzle out as Nigerians lacked the ability and resilience to sustain such an action.

It was as if Labour and its allies heard them and went in search of the one thing that could attract Nigerians from all walks of life – and the answer was music, or if you like entertainment.

Thus, musicians of all shades and genres were on hand to add pep to the rallies. From Afrobeat star, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti to his younger brother, Seun Anikulapo-Kuti; Fuji star, K1-The Ultimate to 9ice to Dede, Idris Abdulkareem to Sound Sultan, among a host of others,including Nollywood stars. Besides, various tunes of the late Afrobeat creator, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, blared from the speakers at the rallies.

As the days went by and these acts began to churn out songs from their rich repertoire, the crowd surged From Ojota toYaba, Ikoyi to Lekki, the reports were the same: increased turn out.

Although Labour suspended the one-week action, which commenced on January 6, 2012 – after a lot of intrigues and suspense that may yet be another subject of discuss – the point had been made: that music is a potent instrument for mass mobilization and social reengineering a la the fuel subsidy removal protest.