ASUU threatens mass mobilisation against oil subsidy removal

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to mobilise Nigerians to the streets to fight against the proposed removal of oil subsidy by the Federal Government.The chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan, Dr Ademola Aremu, while speaking at a symposium organised by the union on the proposed subsidy removal, held at the Institute of African Studies, on Friday, said the union rejected the proposal in its entirety.Aremu, who joined other discussants, including Professors Isaac Albert, Tam David West, Kassey Garba and Adeola Adenikinju, said Nigerians were fed up with the injustices in the system and would be forced to react in the best way they could.'Is any refinery working in Nigeria despite all the monies spent and appropriated for turn around maintenance' I am not a prophet of doom but after Boko Haram, another group will still emerge because we are fed up with this system.'The system is full of injustices and as long as injustices exist in the country, people will continue to react in the best way they can, through deep seated grievances,' he saidProfessor Tam David-West, who described the proposed removal as sanctified falsehood, said Nigerians must go to the streets.'They must not do it and if they do it, we must all go to the street. People should not stay at home. Oil subsidy is a sanctified falsehood, absolute lies,' he said.While challenging President Goodluck Jonathan, Minister of Finance, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her petroleum counterpart, Mrs Alison Maduekwe, to prove him wrong, the former minister wondered how Jonathan stood on the way of the people.'He is saying there is no going back on oil subsidy. I say no, he will go back. It is a lie to say Nigerians are paying the least oil price in the world. Going by their analysis, Nigerian workers should be earning about N184,000 to be at par with their mates in the United States.'They have killed refineries through sabotage. You are asking the masses to pay for your inaction and to tighten their belt because their waist is loose, while you grow belly and cheeks in Abuja,' he said.Professor Isaac Albert, Director of the Institute of African Studies, noted that Nigerian leaders were deceptive and living in self denial of reality, lamenting that the country was collapsing.He wondered why leaders would want to make life more difficult for the downtrodden while government in Algeria had stopped taxing people for fear of revolution.
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