As much I do not like to participate in any thing government related, the same cannot be said when the policies are downright disturbing. Every nation has its own fair share of struggles both developed and developing nations, the only difference is that the problems might differ.
My country is Africa's largest democracy and as such we're bound to have quite a number of issues. One of those has to do with quality of life for a very large population.
It's been roughly three months since we had a change of government and it has equally been a three months of emotional rollercoaster.
The first is the removal of fuel subsidy which perhaps would've eventually happened given how much had been spent over the years, but for a new government it was perhaps ill timed.
Subsidy is a kind of financial support granted usually by a government of a people on particular goods to help lesson the price they would've had to pay for it. In this case we've been having subsidization on petroleum products and it's subsequent removal caused an increase in price of petrol.
Transportation affects Virtually every sector of the economy in one way or the other, so this unexpected increase has affected a large percentage of the already difficult livelihood of citizens. Cost of living is now more expensive for an already struggling average citizen looking to put food on the table.
Of course the government will have it's own share of explanations to do as well as possible solutions. But unfortunately the only thing they could come up with was money relief to struggling households.
This solution is just delay of the inevitable because the real solution should've been to create avenues where these prices can balance out once again.
Relief for citizens is a welcome idea, at least the government is thinking of it's citizens. Alas the amount to be distributed is #8000naira which would translate to around $9.1(less than 10 US dollars.
This doesn't look like relief, but rather a mockery of the conditions of the citizens.
I do not have any antagonism with the new government and I'm also hopeful that things get better under the present administration. It's just a little too early to have this number of issues for a new government.
Today, there were protests in various parts of the country by the Labour Congress to bring to light the grievances of many Nigerians and to remind the government of it's many election promises during campaign.
We all hope it'll get better eventually.
