Indications emerged late Thursday night that Nigerians may continue to occupy the streets and sit at home following the failure of the labor and the government to reach a compromise over the vexed issue of fuel subsidy removal. The meeting called at the instance of the Senate President David Mark was deadlocked.
Although Senator David Mark said that there was significant progress, labor said that its industrial action that brought Nigerians out, camping on grounds with carnival-like floating and denunciatory speeches and placards will continue.
Sharpedgenews.com learned from sources present at the meeting that the government engaged a combination of cajoling, subtle threats and tough demands to tell labor that it would do whatever possible to get the people off the streets. The labor reportedly stuck to its guns on the need for immediate return to the previous regime of N65.00 per liter. The government is maintaining that such ground-shifting would lead to a titanic crack in the nation’s economy.
The country’s Industrial Court sent a summons to popular lawyer Fred Agbaje, to answer charges of contempt on his claim that the ruling restraining the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress strike as a “black market injunction.”
The protests that follow the strike action are growing to behemoth sizes every day, especially at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota, in Lagos. And there are serious concerns on the possibilities that could come out of the situation in Nigeria.
The country’s Central Bank Governor, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said that the country may hit a fifteen percent inflation following the removal of the subsidies. Mr. Sanusi continues to claim that the removal of subsidy is not an ideological affair but a necessity for common sense and sound economics.
The privilege elites are said to be scrambling for the next plane out of the country. Some of them have had to resort to the same corrupt practice to get on first class flights because of the fear of total breakdown of law and order. Some Nigerians, who completely have a wrong reading of the demands of the marchers, also sell the ignominious idea of military intervention. But there are cautionary voices against such misguided fifth column mantra and attempt by disgruntled politicians to hijack and manipulate the feelings of the masses.
So far, it seems that the police has curtailed its proclivity for bloodshed. On the eight day of the protests in Nigeria, there has been no report of extra-judicial killing. About nine protesters died from the first seven days of the protest.
