Back from brink
FUEL price protests by Nigerians have combined with a violent insurgency to move Africa's top oil producer closer to what many fear may be a breaking point. The same political vices of corrupt leadership and abuse of power which George Orwell skewered in his 1945 novel Animal Farm have corroded Nigeria's politics since independence in 1960. Angry popular backlash against these is fuelling the latest violence and unrest in the country.
This anti-establishment fury brought Africa's second largest economy to a standstill last week. Citizens from all walks of life have taken to the streets after President Goodluck Jonathan's government announced on January 1 it would scrap a motor fuel subsidy, more than doubling fuel prices.
The volcano of public rage has erupted at the same time that a spate of bombings and shootings by a shadowy sect is threatening to fracture the country's sensitive north-south divide. This religious faultline has caused sectarian conflict claiming thousands of lives in the past.
Some are now asking whether this dynamic but troubled country of 160 million, carved by colonial rulers out of a jigsaw of ethnic and religious groups, can still hold together or risks plunging again into all-out conflict and even break-up.
Many still remember the divisive 1967-1970 civil war over secessionist Biafra that killed over a million people and caused mass starvation, dislocation and suffering.
"As the ripples of incessant bombings and massacres resonate ... fear, anger and hatred have been woven into the very fabric of the nation's life," Soni Daniel, deputy editor of Nigerian daily Leadership wrote in an editorial on Saturday.
The nationwide fuel protests have become an outlet for thousands to vent their grievances against what they see as a venal ruling political class and incompetent government, which is struggling to tackle an insurgency in the north.
Unions launched strikes against the fuel subsidy removal and these are estimated to be costing the country $600 million a day. They also threatened to shut down Nigeria's 2 million barrel-per-day oil industry, rattling global energy markets.
Talks between Jonathan and labour unions at the weekend failed to reach a compromise, but the main oil union said it was not joining the walkouts for the time being.