By Chikodi Obioma
ONE popular maxim among people who are indigenous to South Eastern part of Nigeria is that obu ihe ojo mmadu ihapu ara nneya wee nua akpu (it’s an abomination for a child to suck the boil on its mother’s chest in the stead of its mother’s breast). Again, it is an abomination (aru) for people to stand in the middle of an ocean and begin to wash their hands with saliva (O bu aru mmadu ino n’etiti oshimiri wee jiri asu kwuo aka).
The two axioms are illustrations of Nigerians’ nasty experiences in relation to petrol, which is a by-product of crude oil with which God blessed the country abundantly. Crude oil started being the beginning-and-the-end of all socio-economic activities after agriculture that “breastfed” the country was abandoned. Every now and then, Nigerians will be on the throes of one petrol palaver or the other.
Most times, fuel scarcity will hold us at the jugular. When this happens, Nigeria’s poor will agonise staggeringly…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
