Petrol & Gold Plated Chicken Wings

On strikes
Since last week there’s been talk that there will be a strike this week; something to do with protesting the 100% increase in VAT that was implemented without warning, and the sale of refineries, and the hike in petrol prices and who knows what else is being protested.

My friends at work welcome the thought of a few days off work that’s not taken out of our annual leave (ha ha.) A strike would also mean escape from the punishing traffic. So you could say the strikers have our full support, whoever they are.

I didn’t have a clear picture of what was going on because keeping up with current affairs in this country could be a full time job. I’d have to resign from my current job and stay glued to the TV and papers so I could draw up an accurate schedule of who’s striking where/when/why; who’s disgruntled or being ‘marginalized’ etc etc. All that and my job?? No way. I’ve dumbed down. No more Miss Intelligent-Conversation-About-The-State-of-The-Nation. Its far too tiring. Plus there’s too much going on here. As Mike Chinoi used to say on CNN: “there’s a Chinese curse…(I hope I’m getting my facts right here)…may you live in interesting times”. These are interesting times…just in an alarmingly negative way.

Like I said, last week I didn’t have a clue what the issues were - I was too busy trying to meet my various deadlines - all I knew was that the chicken wings & pepper sauce my team orders nearly every day from the joint across the street went up from N500 to N630! Overnight. There was commotion. Everyone made a lot of noise and demanded to know why. Y said he didn’t even think they were *real* chicken wings; they’re so tiny that they look more like pigeon wings. I couldn’t debate that with him because I have no idea what fried pigeon wings & pepper sauce looks like, and Y probably has more experience with that sort of thing.

“ N630 for chicken wings?? Are they gold plated?” I needed to know, so I asked the lady at the other end when I called to place our order but she didn’t get it. She actually said no, they weren’t gold plated.

I’m always the one calling to place the orders so they know my name at the joint across the street. I do the calling because I’m in possession of the only copy of the menu & pricelist in the office, which I keep locked up in my drawer because you really cant trust anyone these days. People always ask “Where’s the menu?” Give it to them, they run off with it, (never to be seen again) and what’s a girl to do without her daily dose of chicken wings??

Its not like we can no longer afford the wings, it just didn’t seem like we were getting any value from the deal at the new price. “It’s because of VAT” the lady said.

I’m ashamed to say that that’s how I found out there was an increase in VAT, even though my mum had mentioned it at home a couple of times… I’M STRESSED! I CANT RETAIN ALL THIS INFORMATION!

Then on Saturday morning when Benjamin came to work he said he saw long queues at the petrol station, so I asked him to go and join the closest one and fill up the tank. He came back 3 hours later and said that he didn't buy any petrol because just as he got to the front of the line “those people come close de station”.

“What people?” I asked.

“The people wey dey strike because dey wan sell de refinery.” (You see how many issues I have to keep up with? You see?)

That’s when I found out that there are two groups planning strikes this week. The first is the Labour Congress, over the increase in VAT and the prices of petroleum products. The second group is…er…the group that “close de station”.