Point One

U nless something gives in the brewing test of will over recent increases in domestic price of petrol and electricity tariff, Nigeria is about hitting a storm of civil unrest that portends fresh dislocations in the national economy. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) will this Wednesday, 23rd September, head to the trenches with 79 civil society groups and ally labour unions on ‘an indefinite industrial action and national protest’ over the policies of the Muhammadu Buhari administration that it argued had left Nigerian workers and their families in life threatening penury. The action will kick in upon expiration of a seven-day ultimatum issued by the union in a letter last week to the President. Few days further down – that is, Monday, 28th September – the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) will as well pick the gauntlet in what it threatened would be a “total shutdown of the country’s economy,” if issues at stake aren’t addressed by the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum it issued. Congress Pre...

Legendary Williams Shakespeare, in his work The Tragedy of Coriolanus , characterised ordinary Roman citizens of the 5th Century BC called plebeians (or ‘plebs’) as a fickle lot easy to manipulate. For that reason, heroic Roman soldier Caius Marcius, who was honoured with the name ‘Coriolanus’ after his gallant conquest of the city of Corioles, had nothing but contempt for them. But the plebs were ultimately to determine Coriolanus’s fate, because when the Roman senate proposed making him a consul after he vanquished the Volscian army, Coriolanus was requested to go canvass votes from the people; which he did only reluctantly because of his contempt for them. The plebs initially agreed to give Coriolanus their votes, but they soon recanted at the prodding of some tribunes who convinced them that he was an enemy of the people. This drove proud Coriolanus into a rage upon which he unleashed an abusive rant on the people. But without their votes, he could not be made consul; and in anger,...