Let them eat yam!

The government has compromised, the President has made a huge gesture, theoretically this is a victory for democracy and consultation. The fuel price he has proposed is 71 Niara, still higher than the heavily subsidised 65 Niara a litre but significantly lower, than the original hike to 140 Niara /litre. What remans to be seen now is whether the Unions really were fighting the petrol issue or was it opportunism by the opposition. Loudly the have proclaimed the it is not about regime change that they are only interested in the welfare of the Nigerian people, but in Britain we have learnt where this can lead, Chartism, and the Rebecca riots which were moral and justified morphed in to Militant Tendency, who effectively destroyed the labour movement. If Arthur Skargill had been able to separate his own political ambitions from miner's welfare we might still have a mining industry in the UK.

The continuation of the strike will further plunge the Nigerian economy over the edge and into the pecuniary abyss, but like "two jags Prescott" in the UK the leaders of the opposition in Nigeria whilst able to spout left wing slogans all fly first class with their famillies and probably own large ares of Saint John's Wood in London and are as far removed from their constituants as medieaval nobles were from their serfs.

 Yet they rant and rave but, me thinks they do protest too much!   Have they asked them selves what their constituents will be eating during the strike, i fear the answer might be some what French.  


There is no more bread! Well let them eat brioche!

STRIKE

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

The Strike in Nigeria is beginning to drag, the economics of the government’s position are obvious, however, in a country where the majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day obvious mathematical solutions are evidently inhumane. Years of bad management and the lack of investment in free schooling, welfare medicine roads cannot be turned around by a quick fix. Also years of corrupt governance cannot be forgotten, even if cannot President really means to invest the money in education and welfare, the track record of the Nigerian Administration does little to inspire the population to trust that the money saved by the cutting of subsidies will not be siphoned off into numbered Swiss Bank Accounts.  Nigerian Senators are some of the highest paid politicians in the world, the population is one of the poorest, it will take a high change in political culture to restore faith and confidence in government. Nigeria and the world must hope that it is not too little to late.