THE fire sparked by the January 1, removal of fuel subsidy may have significantly thinned out at home, among Nigerians in parts of the United States, it is still generating a cacophony of altercations. The face-off among Nigerians here, was trigerred after some US-based Nigerian actvists temporarily hijacked a Diaspora townhall meeting scheduled to be addressed by Foreign Affairs Minister of State, Prof Viola Onwuliri in New York last week.The 'hijack' has, however, split the Nigerian community abroad, especially with some questioning the motives of the activists and the method they had adopted to register their discontent with the government policy back at home. While some, especially the activists who carried out the showdown and their supporters insist that such a forum in the US was a waste of 'scarce public funds', others are claiming that the disruption infringed on their rights to interact with the federal government and its officials.Led by the Nigerian Democratic Liberty Forum, NDLF, the activists, submitted that 'we were appalled by the unquestionable profligacy displayed by the Nigerian government in sponsoring the Minister on a whirlwind tour of such cities as Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, California, and New York.'Another group of Nigerians, under the banner of an apparently newly formed body, Committee of Nigerians for Constructive Engagement, accused the NDLF group for having 'executed a predetermined plan to deny all in attendance opportunity to add our voices to recent burning policy debates about Nigeria, particularly the subsidy removal and insecurity issues.' They argued that 'the best way to move Nigeria forward is through constructive engagement,' between Nigerians and the government.But the problem may have started even before the New York meeting at a similar forum inChicago.WHILE'those at home were expressing their dissatisfaction over the sudden removal of the fuel subsidy by the federal government, here in the United States, Nigerians also embarked upon solidarity rallies in some major cities from New York to Washington DC, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and few others in some European cities. Within a week in New York alone, the NDLF organised three rallies including one with the famous American group, Occupy Wall Street.At about the same time the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Prof. Ade Adefuye and the Nigerians in Diaspora Organization, NIDO, were also putting together a forum where pressing issues of national importance, especially the fuel subsidy and the Boko Haram crisis were to be discussed indoors. It was meant to be a forum where the government could set out its reasoning, especially on the fuel subsidy removal, while also listening to the views of US-based Nigerians.Chicago was picked as the host city and on January 14, the forum held with quite a large turnout of Nigerians in the US meeting with the Ambassador and other top diplomats in tow. Just as events were opening in Chicago, news came that the Foreign Minister of State, Prof. Viola Onwuliri would also be leading a delegation to join the meeting.In fact sources close to the NIDO, which organised the event, said the Minister who heard about the forum few days ahead was so keen to participate that she asked if it could be postponed for her to join. The organisers, however, stuck by the original plan. Eventually Prof Onwuliri showed up with a small delegation that included a former Ambassador, Jerry Ugbokwe, also a former House of Representative member and himself formerly a US-based Nigerian for 15 years until 1999. Ugbokwe is now the Secretary of the Presidential Committee on the fallouts of the subsidy removal.The Chicago meeting was a very tensed one as Nigerians drawn from different US citiestook the government representatives to task on the fuel subsidy and the Boko Haram problem. Manyof those who spoke raisedcritical questions, some of which the Ambassador answered while promising to forward others to Abuja.Interestingly, Amb. Adefuye managed to keep what was a heated meeting under control with a lot of wits, humour and confidence-inspiring interventions even as the Nigerians poured out at times their frustration about both the fuel subsidy removal and the insecurity challenges in the country.In a meeting that lasted over seven hours and was jam-packed, there were screamings, people yelled and then they bantered, and even dined together. But the Ambassador received kudos from several of the speakers at the Chicago meeting, over and again for calling the gathering. Several of the Nigerians at the meeting were professionals including tens of university professors, medical doctors, doctorate degree holders, lawyers, journalists among others who stayed from 5pm on that Saturday till almost 2am the following morning.While the discussions continued, the Foreign Affairs Minister of State arrived quite late to the event! But that was not a big problem to many people in attendance since it had been previously announced that she was on her way, and her lateness did not delay the take-off of the meeting.It was, however, the content of her speech while the question and answer session was in progress, that caused the gathering's major disruption.Several of the Nigerians in attendance were not impressed by the Minister's speech which was detailing her resume, including where she schooled, how and where she became a professor, and other personal information.Eventually, Dr. Malcolm Fabiyi, who was a former Student Union President of the University of Lagos, and Mr.O. VictorOlapojoye, both of whom were seated close to each other in the hall, openly objected that the minister was wasting valuable time with the direction of her speech at a time when the meeting was at its peak and several Nigerians were not sure if they would get the option to ask their questions considering the time.Eventually, people started to puncture the Minister's speech loudly and the atmosphere became further charged as a fewNIDO officials started in turn to shout other Nigerians down. This eventually saw the two Nigerians, Fabiyi and Olapoye, out of the venue. Matters quickly degenerated and the compere of the event, NIDO's Secretary, Chief Gabe Okoye, himself an outspoken US-based Nigerian, called for a break.Dr. Fabiyi, who holds a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Lagos and a PhD in same discipline from the University of Cambridge, and was selected in 2008 by the US National Academy of Engineering 'as one of the top 80 Young Engineers in the US;' and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is said to be probably one of the few Students' Union President of a Nigerian university to have bagged a First Class degree in Engineering; was sent out of the meeting.The meeting reconvened for dinner a little over an hour later.Earlier during the heated conflagration some of the Nigerians in attendance had accused the government of corruption, with some questioning the financial cost for the Ministerat such a meeting considering the presence of several diplomats who were based in the US including the Nigerian Ambassador. Even President Jonathan himself had just recently promised Nigeriansthat foreign travels would now be curtailed to those extremely important in order to cut government's wasteful spending.In an apparent reaction, Prof Onwuliri said at the close of the meeting that the issue of corruption had to start with individuals including Nigerians abroad, claiming that some Nigerians who are today in the US, had come to America with questionable papers, 'that too is corruption,' she retorted --- to the shock of many Nigerians at the meeting!This may have set the scene for the New York Town hall meeting that took place the following Wednesday January 18, when the Minister, Prof Onwuliri showed up late again for an interactive session with Nigerians in the city. Before the New York meeting the Minister had hosted a similar forum in Atlanta and afterwards in Boston, without any reported incident.At the New York meeting, after waiting for her for over an hour past schedule, Onwuliri arrived around 7.15pm and as soon as the opening prayers and the National anthem were rendered, a group of Nigerians coordinated by the Nigerian Democratic Liberty Forum, NDLF, decided to 'halt the meeting,' protestingthe minister's lateness.While the new Nigerian Consul-General in New York, Habib Baba Habu, was being ushered to the podium to introduce the Minister, one of the NDLF members, journalist-activist, Sowore Omoyele took the microphone and stated the objections of Nigerians to the 'insult' of the Minister's lateness among other concerns.Joined later by other New York-based Nigerians, the NDLF members present hijacked the town hall meeting in the city and held down the Forum for almost an hour on that Wednesday night at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan.Led by Mr. Bukola Oreofe, the NDLF Executive Director and Sowore of Sahara Reporters, theNigerians held up the minister and her delegationfrom addressing the meeting, singing pro-democracy solidarity songs, chanting against bad governance in Nigeria, demanding that the Minister returned home and'stop wasting public funds.' One of the protesters shouted atthe Minister that she had refused to stay in the hotel booked for her in Chicago and instead requested for a bigger hotel.According to Oreofe, 'we are concerned about the apparent profligacy by the Nigerian government which has taken the Minister to cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, now New York and we understand that she would be visiting five more cities in the US before heading to Europe.'He added, 'we consider this a reflection of the waste and corruption which the federal government has come to represent as they revel in unconscionable acquisition of wealth while the majority of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day.' Shouting down the Minister, her entourage which included Amb. Ugbokwe,the Consular General in New York, Habu Baba, and some other Nigerians, who wanted the meeting to proceed, the NDLF which had also organised protests two years ago to herald and call for the declaration of then Vice President Jonathan as Acting President,dared the Minister to go and talk to ordinary Nigerians at home.At first Prof Onwuliri stood up to attempt a chat with some of the protesters, but later sat down as she was rebuffed, while the rowdy scene lasted. She was seatedalongside, Habu and Ugbokwe ' all of whom sat on the 'high table'facing the audience.According to Oreofe: 'Go to Nigeria and organisetown hall meeting in one of Nigerian cities and address poor Nigerian masses who would be buying fuel for N97 per litre and who also continue to suffer the effects of the wanton and massive corruption by the Nigerian leaders and their cronies as revealed by the fuel subsidy scam.'The NDLFadded later in a statement that the group wanted to inform theMinister that Nigerians abroad 'cannot be hoodwinked by this purposeless junketing... which would only give her estacodes and give her an opportunity to make exotic shopping in capital cities of the world.'Aboutalmost an hour after, the New York Police were called in by officials of the Nigerian Consulateto restore order.When the police came, they led the protesters out, assuring them that they already made their point.Speaking later at the forum after normalcy was restored the Minister, Prof Viola Onwuliri said what the protesters did was not new to her, recalling her own days as an ASUU member and undergraduate. But she noted that the President had sent her to gauge the pulse of Nigerians abroad regarding the state of the nation.Amb. Ugbokwe in his comments, apologised for the late arrival of the Minister and said the protesters had right to express themselves. But he added that they ought to have given other Nigerians an opportunity to also express themselves.Ugbokwe, who was also with the Minister in Chicago and who also had offered an apology on her behalf then, recalled that he himself lived in the US for 15 years before returning in 1999 to contest elections in his own effort to make the change happen from inside. He reminded it was he that initially brought up the first draft of the Freedom of Information bill, which became law last year.There was then a question and answer session where more Nigerians expressed their disappointment with the state of affairs in Nigeria, how government officials jet out for medical attention abroad while hospitals at home are falling apart, and the impunity with which the Boko Haram sect was operating among several other critical questions.IF the government officials at the meeting expected that all the Nigerians who stayed out of the protest and remained at the forum would be less critical, they were soon proved wrong.Curiously even after the NDLF group were ushered out of the venue, there were still slight disruptions at least thrice at the meeting, including when some ofNigerians felt the Minister was not answering the questions.One of the Nigerians who spoke after the showdown was Ibrahim Mohammed, who introduced himself as a New Yorker, but who hailsfrom Kano. According to him, the federal government does not recognise the right of Nigerians, nor is it sensitive to the suffering of its people.Mohammed, who spoke with passion and clear exasperation with the rulers of the country, submitted that the Boko Haram problem is indeed a result of government negligence. He said 'we will continue to protest in a civilized way.'Another well-known US-based Nigerian who stayed behind, Ogugua Nwelu, simply wanted to know why President Jonathan did not conduct this sort of open and public consultations widely before removing the subsidy'Ogugua, who is one of the promoters of the bio-musical, FELA on Broadway, said the presidency should look inward for some of the people who are responsible for Boko Haram attacks.But there were also concerns that even while the meeting was still going on, some people had already passed on the claim on Twitter that the forum had been shut down.This bothered Amb. Ugbokwe. He said while Nigerians should protest as a right, there was no reason to be dishonest, sending out false information about the forum. Ugbokwe recalled that he was himself a former Students Union Secretary-General during the Ali Must Go protests.Later after the meeting, claims and counter claims about its fate followed in quick succession. For instance, the new group called Committee of Nigerians for Constructive Engagement accused Sahara Reportersof posting a video report of the meeting which was 'maliciously doctored' on itsweb site, 'showing the minister and her team seated during the national anthem, thus appearing unpatriotic.'The Committee then proceeded to post another version on the internet. Butits version seeemed to have deliberately blacked out the scenes of the protest even though shouting voices were heard in the background.However, it nonetheless accurately showedall the government officials including Minister Onwuliri standing for the National Anthem like all the other Nigerians at the event just before the showdown commenced.Commenting on the event, a New York based Nigerian Talk Radio Host of African View, Bookie Shonuga who was also present said the protesters 'should have respected other peoples' freedom of expression and not be so adamant about disrupting such a civil gathering on private property.'She added that 'the fact that some people disapprove of the (Sahara Reporters) organisation's sensational and confrontational style of reporting should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of the Nigerian government's policies.'But the NDLF shot back at its critics. Its Executive Director, Oreofe stated that it 'will continue to advocate that there is an urgent need for change in Nigeria. We want to assure our allies and well-meaning Nigerians that our goal is to ensure the enthronement of good governance in Nigeria. In the same manner that we condemned the wasteful town hall meetings abroad, we protested two years ago in the frigid weather of New York against the cabal that prevented then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan from assuming the Presidency when a comatose Umaru Yar'Adua was in a Saudi Arabian hospital.'What is, however, clear is: even if Nigerians have not agreed on the method of the expression of their dissatisfaction on the state of the nation, there is unity on the need for a change in the direction of the ship of the nation.The confrontation in New York has just shown that. Just like in the forums the Minister had in other US cities, which recorded no incidents, Nigerians were unanimous ' they want change!
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