As the clock hit 12 on the 1st of January, shouts of halleluyah echoed from homes and a few churches, fireworks and music also followed as the night turned into day. And then came the announcement that the fuel price had become 141naira per litre! fuel Subsidy had been removed...Protests began and the Nigerian Labour Congress declared a strike action.
Protests started on the 9th of January and from day one, the Nigerian people sang the same song. Not only was the removal of fuel subsidy condemned, the people released pent-up emotions flowing from past inefficient government policies.The common denominator being that the people lack trust in the government and are tired of corruption in the polity.
The protests revealed another side of the Nigerian people! The unity of purpose has been awesome and the solidarity unparalleled! Christians, Muslims, traditionalists, elites, masses, illiterates and literates alike came together within and outside Nigeria to sing the same song: "Enough is Enough". Even a blind man can see amidst gross darkness that the Nigerian people are hungry for change...
Seven days have past and it seems the government won't budge in the hope that Nigerians would relent. They wish! *Yimu* And even if we relent i am happy for Nigeria! I am happy that the year 2012 has ushered us into the beginning of the end of an unjust era, the beginning of the end of corruption, the beginning of the end of insensitive and ineffective governance!Indeed, this is just the beginning!
Let the Nigerian people continue the fight even though the road be rough. Let us not give up, even when darkness overshadows us; For, in the words of the greatest president Nigeria never had,Obafemi Awolowo, after darkness comes a glorious dawn!
LONG LIVE NIGERIA!
ALUTA CONTINUA!
*yimu* in the Yoruba language is a sarcastic facial expression.
