From my vantage point in a housing compound removed from any main road in Yola, things have been very quiet. The rest of the country, not so much:
BBC's bullet points.
From Reuters, who puts the new price at N150:
Economists say the subsidy filled the fuel tanks of middle-class drivers at the expense of the poor, encouraged massive corruption and waste, and handed over billions of dollars of government cash to a cartel of wealthy fuel importers. ...Nigeria's Daily Times has been keeping tallies on who is arrested and who released. 300 policemen have reportedly joined the protests. One person confirmed shot, another rumored.
"Our struggle is not just against fuel subsidy, it is against bad governance. Jonathan has shown that he can't be trusted," Issa Aremu, vice president of the National Labour Congress, told demonstrators.
"He said he was engaging in dialogue and all of a sudden he went ahead and increased the price." ...
the funds are transferred to a special account in the central bank which would fund poverty alleviation programmes, Jonathan's statement said.
Previous governments have also tried to end subsidies, but eventually backed down. I confess being divided. The "Economists" Reuterse cites and "The Economist" magazine make very good points. I'm rarely in favor of going cold turkey on policies of this magnitude, if the political process will allow it. It might provoke fewer riots to go more slowly, allowing the price of fuel to increase a certain percent every month for instance, but it puts up more and more opportunities for someone to block it and stop progress. UPDATE: Here is the World Bank arguing for phasing out fuel and utility subsidies in Angola.
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