As, for example, Vanguard reports in Subsidy: Achebe, 37 others back protest:
Still, I think it's a shame that this particular issue gets mixed in with other, far more troubling local problems -- as, for example, the protest also notes: "Nigeria is witnessing a new escalation of sectarian violence, culminating in explosions that have killed or seriously wounded scores of people at churches and other centres of worship and local businesses."
The oil subsidies themselves seem to me near-indefensible, and while their removal causes obvious immediate hardship the (long overdue) sooner they are abolished the better; see, for example, The Economist's recent plea, End them at once !
Nigerian literary writers, led by Professor Chinua Achebe, Sunday, reacted to the ongoing face-off between the Federal Government and the organised labour which culminated in calling a nationwide general strike, today, by the labour saying they "stand with the Nigerian people who are protesting the removal of oil subsidy which has placed an unbearable economic weight on their lives."This face-off has been a long time coming (well, it's been threatened since the government announced they'd cut the subsidy, and came to a head when the cut went through with the beginning of the new year).
Still, I think it's a shame that this particular issue gets mixed in with other, far more troubling local problems -- as, for example, the protest also notes: "Nigeria is witnessing a new escalation of sectarian violence, culminating in explosions that have killed or seriously wounded scores of people at churches and other centres of worship and local businesses."
The oil subsidies themselves seem to me near-indefensible, and while their removal causes obvious immediate hardship the (long overdue) sooner they are abolished the better; see, for example, The Economist's recent plea, End them at once !