Posted on 01/03/2012 12:05:10 PM PST by ColdOne
LAGOS, Nigeria — Protesters furious over spiraling gas prices set fires on an expressway Tuesday and at least one person was killed in the violent unrest after Nigeria's government did away with a subsidy program that had kept fuel costs down for more than two decades.
One union leader described the federal government's hugely unpopular move as "immoral and politically suicidal," and urged Nigerians to resist "with everything they have." But Tuesday's protest showed that, once unleashed, the pent-up anger of the masses could be hard to curtail.
Angry crowds vandalized gas stations, intimidated owners into keeping their pumps unused and assaulted a soldier, showing how easily the fragile peace in Africa's most populous nation could spiral into chaos.
One young man threw jerrycans of engine oil off the racks at a gas station and tried to damage the station's gas pumps. After union leader and chairman of the Joint Action Front, Dipo Fashina, asked the young man to stop vandalizing the station, he did, but later started one of the first bonfires of the protest in the middle of the highway.
Other activists marched to the protest songs of the late Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti who fought against the injustices of military rule in Nigeria. His musician son, Seun, walked shirtless among the demonstrators, as his father used to, and also made attempts to keep things civil.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene in the megacity of Lagos said the protest had started with activists wielding signs and walking down a major expressway, but before long angry protesters lit bonfires and vandalized at least three gas stations. A wounded man later ran along the road shouting: "The police shot me, take me to
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
How long before the military steps in to restore order with machine guns?
We want free stuff too !!
Nigeria is such a toilet.. not a clean toilet either..
Things are really bad over there. I just got an email from a Nigerian Oil Minister wanting my help to get $35 million out of the country.
Owners should get a shotgun, destroy the gas station and pumps, and then when the idiots are not able to get ANY gas the next day, they can starve for all I care. Never understood the riot mentality.
Few, though, have seen any benefit from the country's vast oil wealth over decades of production, and a culture of distrust of government permeates Nigerian society.
So why don't the people get off their asses, go visit/live in other countries, develop skills and then go home and start businesses that employ others? I've known a few Africans and more than a few Indians who have done just that.
Does this mean I will get more or fewer scam letters?
Coming to America when the Great Teat runs dry...
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