# HASH-TAG PROTEST – Inside The Barrel of A Cannon

When the master chef starts to mix a weird concoction of a strange, delicious recipe, guests who know what is brewing, can anticipate their taste buds to zing!

Labor screams 200,000 naira. Govt. hedges with an offer of 60,000. Labor refuses to budge. Govt pats Labor on the back and drops 70,000. Labor smiles home happily. In the open market, that would be a cheap bargain. Labor needs a shop face-lift and to put fixed, non-negotiable price tags. Gov buys as is, or finds cheap labor elsewhere. Now, nobody would be crying of hunger, and protest.

Dangote refinery, the messiah to fix our fuel crises, has been coerced into the conglomerate of Not-Working Incorporated, Nigeria’s multi-trillion dollar booming business. We now have a powerful mafia in the oil industry, says Dangote himself!

Leaders who enjoyed sound education from schools with well-equipped laboratories, have now destroyed the school system and sent their kids abroad. But not every kid went abroad to school.

Now, domestic students are encouraged to do anything to score excellent marks. Teachers dare not complain about a kid’s bad behavior. Kids are sent on errand to bribe NEPA officials to look the other way. Meters are by-passed, certificates are forged to land a plum job. Thugs are hired and armed to hijack election results. Young, electoral officers are bribed to manipulate election results. Kids now become men. But what manner of men?

Leaders being the product of society, they start to pad the budget. They say ‘Nay’ to a proposal to oversee military budget spending. They play the ostrich. Youngsters turn to internet scam. Govt clams down hard, SARS unleashed. They protest. They are met with brute force. They are boxed in. Elections are over, and there are no dubious errands and slush funds flying around. What do you expect, except hunger?

So, we have turned full-circle, and face-to-face with our iniquities.

The screams for protest are only a fragment of the recipe being concocted in the cabinet kitchen.

We now have a loaded cannon.

Anything, even wind can set off the hairy trigger.

Those who can run are running; those who can hide have ducked;

Who can stop the loaded cannon from releasing its missile? Not a plea from religious leaders, chiefs nor local authorities can contain the push, except…

Food?

Keep away from violent protest.

Keep safe.