NIGERIANS IN SYDNEY CRY FOUL TO REMOVAL OF OIL SUDSIDY BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA(Sunday, January 15, 2012)

There was a protest gathering by Nigerians living in Australia(?), held at the Martin Place, pointing to the removal of the oil subsidy as ill-timing, vicious, undesirable, and inhuman, because of the extreme negative effect this has already impacted on the majority poor in the country(Nigeria). Quite a number of people spoke on this issue from different angles. Almost all the placards displayed full disagreement with the decision taken by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government. Mrs. Goodluck was equally called upon to help revert the current position of her husband, who is actually on top of the affairs of the Country My Own Views and Suggestions: a. I commend the efforts of the chief organizer(s), with Dedeigbo Mola obviously in the lead. I salute the courage he has and was able to display it very well. I also appreciate all those in attendance. They actually did well. b. I still lack the knowledge of whether it was just Nigerians in Sydney matter or Nigerians in Australia. Suppose it is the former, I feel strongly to suggest that Nigerians all over the Australian continent should be involved. c. The protest demanded more of pitching principles than how it went. This then meant there should have been an earlier formal and/or informal meeting preparatory to the grand protestshow at the Martin Place. There was absolute need for adhesion and cohesion in dispensing our well coordinated thoughts to the public, which have always dear in such gatherings. d. I wish to quote this Scripture to pass on a message: Acts 21:34 And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. We have a very serious issue back at home(Nigeria) where our parents, brothers, sisters, relations, etc. still live. How single and strong is our voicing out the problem matters. I will recommend that beyond this protest a committee be put in place not only for a possible communiqu to be highlighted and possibly delivered to the Presidency through the Nigerian Embassy here but where achievable, we device the actual means of getting to the Presidency, National House of Assembly, Governors, etc. We are truly capable of doing even more than that. When we hang or leave this in the internet(You Tube or any other), the fact remains that the leaders in Nigeria do not have time to access this. e. Many people, particularly non-muslims have been massacred by a faceless boko haram sect in Nigeria. In Plateau State, for instance, the raping, kidnapping, killing, looting, pogroms, subjugation, and subversion are ongoing. These dastardly acts on innocent people have again earned them a State of Emergency. I believe this is unacceptable because no Plateau man has ever taken a hatchet against any muslim. Rather, the indigenes have been giving their best to the settlers. Places such as Bauchi, Abuja, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, etc., have been experiencing horrific attacks by these people, yet no State of Emergency. I believe these are some issues Nigerians in Australia should cry out against. 1

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We need to appreciate that security issue in Nigeria is a dicey one. Every boko haram is a muslim who practices islam. It is equally true that Western Education and islamic education have always been at war with each other. No single muslim in Nigeria will not want sharia law to be above the Nigerian Constitution. Now if boko haram promotes these two, which muslim in Nigeria or anywhere else will not welcome the activities of this sect. Therefore, it is right to conclude that every muslim must be a boko haram in order to be relevant as a muslim. This goes to confirm what the President of Nigeria recently said: the current war ongoing in Nigeria under the disguise of boko haram is worse than a civil war. The President cannot deal with this alone as every fabric of the Nigerian government is permeated with the islamists, until experts among us here in Australia help define the way out. g. Nigerians in Australia may need to know that almost every MDA(ministry, department and agency) of the Federal Government has been hijacked by the muslims. Fact-find this and you will be amazed to know that islam means every business to decisively manhandle the non-muslims in the country. When boko haram recently called on all non-northerners(in essence nonmuslims) to depart from their region, it is according to an original plan. Thus, Sultan and all the sheikhs, imams, alhajis, etc. had to be silent over this. h. I think we should call on the President of Nigeria to hold a Constitutional Conference, wherein all Nigerians must come together to choose to remain together or be freed from the entrapment. Plateau State, once again, suffers today because it has been trapped by the islamists which always the machineries of the Federal Government to achieve higher goals against the ordinary indigenes. And no state is spared of this grand plan now and in the long run. i. Nigeria is spoilt nation and certainly, we cannot stand at a vintage point and simply accuse this or that. I rather suggest in the affirmative that let there be another coming together of a selected few who will brain storm on actual facts and then define the possible ways to make Nigeria greater than anywhere, provided we are ready to dwell as a nation. We are equally spoilt if abandon the country to its doldrums simply because we are comfortable here in Australia. j. Let us look beyond the oil subsidy removal, the corruption that has permeated everything Nigeria and Nigerian, the near-complete collapse in the security system, the sure drift into civil war between the non-muslims and the muslims, the high rate of unemployment (yet people like Sanusi Lamido are constantly given fresh appoints to islamic faithfuls), the collapsed educational sector, the shambled economic system, etc. Let us plan right here in Australia how to turn Nigeria into the hands of the majority poor. I personally have a few ways to discuss with willing hearts on the way to liberate our dear Country! Thank you.