Ken Henshaw is the Secretary General of United Action for Democracy (UAD) and the Program Officer (Political and Economic) of Social Action. He was once president National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS). He told KELVIN EBIRI thatreal war to liberate the people from the shackles of bad governance is still ahead.How did the idea to occupy Nigeria come about'WHEN government came up with the idea of removal of subsidy, the NLC and TUC had a meeting with civil society organisations in Lagos and Abuja, and since then we have been working together.That was the first stage of collaboration. But prior to that, there existed two organisations that liaised between civil societies and Labour, they are Labour and Civil Society Coalition and Joint Action Front. So, had in the past this working relationship.But as it relates to the events preceding the events of January 1, 2012, the arrangement was such that at the NEC meeting of the NLC, where they took the decision to embark on strike, civil society organisations were there.It was a very strong combination.Who decided the strategy for this unprecedented mass action'At the meeting held after the pronouncement of N141 per liter for petrol, the intention of the NLC was to embark on warning strike of three days. The civil society convinced them that you do a warning strike when you want to negotiate, but at that point there wasnothing to negotiate. The negotiation process was going on when the government decided to jump the gun.So, the period of negotiation had gone and what was left was to insist on going back to N65 pump price. So, there was no need for a warning strike. An indefinite strike was declared by NLC, we chose the option of mass protest. The idea was that if civil society and Labour collaborate in this particular endeavour, it would make more impact.Why was such alliance not visible in a place like Rivers'The alliance existed at the national level, but in Rivers State, I must say the alliance might have existed, but it did not materialise into a working relationship. We have never had a meetingwith Labour, though we tried to contact them severally.Anyankwe Nsirimovu, who chaired the process in Port Harcourt, tried severally to contact the TUC/ NLC, but they simply refused to see us. It was on the Monday the strike commenced that we saw the chairman of TUC during our rally and he addressed the crowd. We agreedto embark on mass action the next day. We gathered at the Isaac Boro Park on Tuesday morning. The NLC and TUC were also there. But they had a different idea altogether. They planned to match to Government House, which is less than one kilometre away. When they decided to go there anddrop a letter with the governor, we stayed back. They later returned to the Park to pick their vehicles and left. We tried to remind them that the mandate of Labour was that we should popularise the struggle on the streets.NLC and TUC in Rivers State were not involved in mass action. For that reason alone, we refused to join Labour and went on our own.Was Labour and civil society equal partners in the 'Occupy Nigeria' campaign'No. At the onset, we assumed we were equal partners. We did not try to project civil society; we all went under the banner of Labour, believing we were equal partners. If we were equal partners, Labour would not have taken the decision to call off the strike without consultingwith its partners first.Do you assume that Labour leadership was compromised'I think somebody lost his guts. Somebody must have been intimidated, to the extent that someone lost his guts. All the other meetings, apart from the lastone held at night, where Labour agreed to call off the strike, were attended by civil society, where everyone insisted that government must revert to N65 per liter of petrol. But in that exclusive meeting between the leadership of Labour and government, Labour announced suspension of mass action and before we knew it, they had called off the strike. Within that meeting that lasted less than 30 minutes, something went wrong. Either, the leadershipof Labour got intimidated by the presidency or whatever, I will not want to use the word sold out, but something definitely went wrong.Did 'Occupy Nigeria' fulfill the objectives of the campaign'We are disappointed that the strike and mass action was called off at the time Labour did. We are disappointed that we did not get N65 per liter, but we are encouraged that for the first time since independence, we were able to galvanise the collective strength of the Nigerian people. Millions were in the streets saying one thing, 'no to bad governance and corruption.' It had never happened in the history of this country. The writers of Nigerian history have a lot to write between the events of January 1 '16. For the first time we have conquered fear. I saw things happen in Kano State that had never happened before. I saw Muslims pray and Christians formed human chain to protect them. I saw Christians go to mosque to speak and Muslims went to churches to speak.The government had been trying to solve the problem of religious bigotry and ethnic sentimentsto no avail, but within a period of the protest, the people broke down the walls.Nigerians tested their energy and realised they had it. If the government was not threatened, why did they roll out the tanks and brought soldiers to the streets' I think that from now on the government is going to be a lot more careful. Government will never take Nigerian people for granted any more. In that respect, we feel fulfilled. We have radicalised the Nigerian people. If government does not change its ways, there will be more mass actions with far reaching repercussion. We are disappointed in Labour that they could call off that strike at that time. Labour did not call mass action. Civil society did. We were on the street first before Labour declared strike.There were demonstrations in Lagos, Kano, Benin and so on before Labour went on strike. For them to come and suspend the strike and stop the mass action, it was like taking too much. They did that without consultation with the civil society.We gave Labour our support and they threw it back on our face. The greatest lesson for Nigeriais, that the Nigerian people tried to make a revolution through a borrowed platform, which is Labour. The task before Nigerians and civil society is to create a real or virtual platform that can galvanise the strength of Nigerians together, because Labour has betrayed us in the past and I suspect Labour will keep betraying us.What is it about 'Occupy Nigeria''It was a word that captured popular imagination. The word 'occupy' was not fanciful because it came from Europe or the United States of America. It was a better phrase that expressed what civil society organisations and revolutionaries in Nigerian had been doing. Prior to the last mass action against the hike of petrol pump price, we had been occupying.In the days of military dictatorship, we occupied the streets. Women had occupied flow stations in the Niger Delta, due to the devastation of the environment. Then, we called it sit-in or protest. But the word 'occupy' was empowering. It is like reclaiming your own space. There is a resemblance to that of Wall Street, but there is no connection between them.The 'Occupy Wall Street' people have no demand other than redistribution of wealth.Now, under the American capitalist system, people will say they are socialists. I think what they are asking for is a more egalitarian society or new social order.Here, we knew what we wanted. We wanted the price of petrol to be brought down and the so-called cabal, and the institution of corruption destroyed. We wanted better governance. On that count, we are far above the 'Occupy Wall Street'.How does the civil society intendto sustain the 'Occupy Nigeria dream''Yes. We have plans to sustain our activities. We intend to keep the dream alive and focused. What happened in sixteen days was a battle. The war is still ahead. For me, this process is a book of many chapters and we have just seen the first chapter. This is not the end for sure and even the government knows it's not the end.Imagine Nigeria of before, the probe going on now in the House of Representatives would be swept under the carpet. Look at the revelations and issues coming out. This shows that there is something wrong with the system and that is what this struggle wants to achieve.Why is the civil society still opposed to N97 per liter of petrol'We are because, N97 assumes that a bit of the subsidy has been removed. There is no subsidy in the first place. And the probe happening in the House of Representatives shows that there is no subsidy. We knew it that Nigerian people were being taken for a ride.The governmentgave a false impression of having spent N1.3 trillion on Nigerian people. All the while, they made people believe that immediately you remove subsidy government will be saving N1.3 trillion to implement the SURE program. Now it is obvious that that was a lie. We were not actually spending that amount. In the end, we might just be spending N240 billion, which is the money the government could have paid on behalf of Nigerians as subsidy. The whole 'Neighbour to Neighbour' campaign was a big deception.The Central Bank, Ministry of Petroleum and Ministry of Finance knew that this whole figure they were branding about was deceitful. The President may not have known what was happening. They have been confusing the President with figures.Aside the issue of fuel subsidy removal, is 'Occupy Nigeria' considering mass action against corruption and bad governance''Occupy Nigeria'campaign had two sides. While we were opposed to increment of petrol price, on the other hand we demanded that government should fight corruption. It is a movement. We are going to get the Nigerian people more and more involved in the national debate against corruption.We are going to keep the fire burning against corruption. The 'Occupy Nigeria' movement will get the people involved in the management of resources from the local, state and national level. We are going to do that using the tools of Freedom of Information Act, to the extent that the Nigerian people can be bold enough to take on issues of corruption in the society independently.We think that the greatest task before the 'Occupy Nigeria' is to fight bad governance and corruption. These are the issues we will be canvassing in the coming months.What's your take on the allegation by government that its perceived opponents hijacked the mass action'I think it is an insult for government to say that. The government failed to confront the issues. The mass action was fallout of years of mismanagement and ineptitude. Nobody funded any of the activities we did in Port Harcourt and anywhere else in Nigeria. Nobody gave us money for banners, posters, leaflets, and rallies on the streets. We did it because we are Nigerians and we will do it again because we are Nigerians.Any major challenges during the mass action'It depends onwhich part of the country you looking at. In the Niger Delta, the challenge was that President Goodluck Jonathan was from the Niger Delta. The tendency in the region was 'please lets give him a chance because he is our son'. And I will call that sentiment ethnic based. That was why we could not move crowd as the one in Lagos.
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