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Today, a message came in from my school. Apparently, our resumption date had been extended until further notice due to the country's crisis. What did I do about this? I logged into my Facebook account immediately to talk about how happy I was about the news. Well, I deleted that post some hours ago. The only things on my mind at that time were 'at least, I won't have to wake up by 5:30 for a while' and 'I will have some more fun time at home' and bla-bla-bla. I later realised I didn't have to be all shallow about the situation because it was a lot more serious than that. The subsidies placed on fuel were removed from the 2012 budget and the price of fuel has risen from N65 to about N141 per litre. The people aren't happy about it. For the first time in maybe forever, a huge proportion of Nigerians weren't looking towards a new year. Nigerians who happily voted in 'Mr. Goodluck' had to go against him. In my opinion, I always doubted our President was up to the task the moment Boko Haram had the chance to instill fear on Christians. The people are not ready to accept the decision and the NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress) has declared a strike for all Nigerian workers. Declaring a strike perhaps isn't the best decision. But it's not our fault at all. You cannot trust a bodyguard who has a gun but no fingers. Nobody will ever trust this Nigerian government. They have failed to tackle the security issue in the country effectively and yet, they have brought in another issue themselves. The government claims to use the money for industrialisation. I was trying to explain to someone on Twitter about how the removal of the subsidy may somehow benefit us and the person made a statement which made me feel a bit ashamed of my country. She said 'Is it not Nigeria?'. Yes, of course it's Nigeria. It's like the boy who kept going on with the false alarm and finally when he was saying the truth, nobody budged. If you've failed to hand us a reason not to doubt you, then why Mr. Goodluck should we give you our trust?. This is real life and not a game of Ludo where luck can grant you success. Yes, we don't trust you! The removal of fuel subsidies is perhaps one of the craziest decisions I've heard of in a long time. Thinking of it economically, the benefits and very little compared to the disastrous effects. The poor are getting much poorer. In a country where a large proportion of the population live on less than a dollar per day, is it a wise decision to make things harder for them? Almost every price in this country revolves around petrol. Transport and production costs will increase. If there was a constant supply of electricity, it would have been much better. But in a country where almost every home owns a generator, something has to be forfeited in this case. The general price of goods will increase and that is not good in any way. Inflation is the term used to describe it. Millions of people in the country do low-paying jobs to survive and I would say, have been doing pretty well until now. How would you feel if you work so hard for very little money and the government that has the sole duty of helping you out is adding salt to your injuries. Just imagine how the average 'okada rider' feels right now? When prices double, the poor may have no choice but to get into illegal means of survival. The smarter ones may go into 419 business while some will hang guns on their shoulders in search of money at night. Considering the fact that many profit-based industries make use of this fuel to run their industries, an increase in fuel price might cause them to push off some workers to regain profit balance. Unemployment arises again and here we go, people go illegal. To cut a long story short, I believe the government should take measures to reduce the damage caused by the removal of the fuel subsidy. Perhaps, they could take in just 50% to reduce the effect of the removal or so and also to prevent the planned strike 'cuz I want to go to school. I have too many exams to prepare for right now. I'll keep praying for the Nigeria to stay stable and alive for many more years to come. I hope you're praying also. Have a blessed year ahead. =))

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