Intransigence

...and as the clock struck 12, a sleepy nation headed towards meltdown. Thanks GEJ...

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Questions...

Why is an agency like NIPOST getting NGN7bn when it can be run commercially?
What is the difference b/w head of Service and Civil Service Commission?
How many complaints did the Public Complaints Commission take in 2011?
Why is it worth NGN3.2 bn in the budget?
Why spend NGN343mn on computers for Aso Rock alone?
Presidency budgeted NGN477mn on foodstuff/catering, this is minus the NGN1bn budgeted for feeding.
At that NGN1bn, it means they have already spent NGN42mn in 2012.
This struggle is about waste, not fuel subsidy.

Chaos theory

As things go, there's nothing else in the news to talk about other than the nationwide protests over the removal of fuel subsidies. The noise being made has reached such a crescendo that the government in a fit of panic(?) has started to go on the offensive, albeit slowly. Some top government functionaries have also started began to defend themselves.

Yesterday, both the Minister of Finance and the governor of the Central Bank appeared on a television programme and somewhere along the lines, we were told that the governors of our states are the people behind the heavy new year present that we received.

However, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala did offer us a present in the sense that she announced that transporters had agreed with the government to reduce fares despite the fuel increases. Given that the vast majority of transporters in the country are private concerns who are set up to run for profit, we wonder quite how that will happen. Unless of course, the government wants to subsidise transport costs. Oops! That word again, subsidy...

The government on its own part has adopted a rather tough stance in the whole matter, what with the Head of Service reducing all of our federal civil servants to primary school pupils who have to sign a register and appear at work. Bobs, na wa o!

Sadly though, we do not harbour too much hope about the sustainability of this mass action. You see, the unfortunate reality is that Nigerians in general live a subsistence existence, day-to-day, and the urge to go out and find the day's daily bread is equally as important as the urge to tell the government to roll back a rather punishing policy. In reality, the urge for daily bread is even more important as the occupants of Abuja's satellite towns are proving.

Meanwhile in the day's funniest piece of news, the government has decided to investigate the activities of this elusive cabal. Something they should have done in the first place. The arrangement of carts and horses comes to mind here...

...and it's no sacrifice

Demola Aderinde began yesterday like any other, unaware that it would be his last. A few hours into the day, he was dead, shot at point blank range by a policeman identified as Segun Fabunmi, the DPO of Pen Cinema Police Station. We want to use this medium to offer our condolences to Demola's family, and to call for justice. We also want to strongly call for the reform of the Nigerian Police. The trigger-happy brutality is mind boggling to say the least.

Demola wasn't the only Nigerian murdered yesterday. In Kano another teenager was feared dead as protesters clashed with the police during protests against the removal of fuel subsidies. The government has ended up imposing a dusk to dawn curfew on the city.

Lagos was virtually brought to a stand still because of the protests, but it remains to be seen whether the protests can sustain, or what long term impact they will have given that some organisations are alleged to have insisted that their staff turn up for work come what may. And in a final twist to yesterday's tale, organised labour have said that they will sue the President and Inspector-General of Police over the deaths of protesters.

What we do know for sure, is that the strike is going on. For the moment that is...

What is happening?!?

No matter what side of the coin you are on, yesterday presented a very interesting debate as our Representatives engaged one another in a show down over the Executive arm of government's removal of fuel subsidies, an action which raised the cost of living of the average Nigerian by a whooping 117%. After all the speaking, the Reps asked the Presidency to halt action on subsidy removal. Whether he will consider their request remains to be seen, but we are not making such bets yet because the day before, the President had addressed the nation and asked us to bear with the pain because it was necessary. To show us that he is also feeling the pain, he by executive fiat, cut his salary and that of his officials, by 25%, but quite tellingly failed to even mention the deaths of 26 people in Adamawa state the day before.

Those deaths have been compounded by the fact that the police in Kano in the early hours of this morning have seized military uniforms from suspected Boko Haram members, an event that is sadly, likely to compound an already volatile situation of mistrust among the populace. A mistrust that is not necessary given that our problems are more than likely not religious, nor are they ethnic. Nigeria's problems are more economic, and we can only ask that you spare a thought for the Northerners being forced to flee Warri and Sapele and other parts of the South for fear of reprisals. They will, like the rest of us, be paying huge sums for transportation, and in order to finance their own government's incompetence.

An incompetence that is shown off quite brightly in the fact that 1600 buses were launched in Abuja yesterday to cater for a population of more than 160 millions. Mathematically, that translates to one bus per 100,000 inhabitants of this space called Nigeria, but as of the last count, the largest bus launched has a capacity of 32.

32 is an interesting number, because that is the number of people alleged to have been injured by the Nigeria Police in a charge of protesters at the Occupy Nigeria event in Abuja. The police, as happened in Kano a few days ago, chose the dead of night to make their charge. Makes you wonder if the increased fuel prices does not affect them...

For those of you in Lagos, we kick off the Occupy Nigeria movement today. In less than 30 minutes actually. Venue is Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota. Be there or live forever with the knowledge that you are a fucking coward.