A political economy analyst, Bolaji Fesomade, has stirred debate on social media after calling for a protest against cooking gas marketers selling above ₦1,000 per kilogram.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Fesomade urged Nigerians to take action if marketers continue to inflate the price despite Dangote Refinery’s recent price reduction.
Call for protest
He wrote: “For those always eager to protest, now’s your time. If marketers sell cooking gas above ₦1,000 per kg, lead a protest against them. Dangote sells at ₦760 per kg. So go ahead — channel your ‘Nepal and Morocco’ energy toward the marketers. We’ll support you.”
Nigerians react
Fesomade’s post sparked a wave of reactions on social media, with many Nigerians sharing mixed opinions about his call for protest.
Francis Kotobo said: “@MasterBolaji i support u on the protest against price hike not only on gas but also on all the items but why don’t u, i & others calling for such protest pick a date, time & venue to lead the protest. Lets lead by example, lets not push others why we hide behind our tweets. IRE O.”
Black Genius commented: “🇳🇬ns are fraudulent in nature. We blame the politicians but we’re the same or worse. Even if Dangote sells to them at ₦200 per kg they won’t bring the price down. Anything that goes up in Nigeria hardly comes down. Awon oloriburuku thieves!”
Another user, Abubakar Ameen, wrote: “People aren’t afraid to protest, they’re just tired of protesting against symptoms instead of the system. Fix the system, and the symptoms will fade.”
Materpieace also added: “They can’t talk or even protest about this kind of thing because it doesn’t relate to critising the presidency, Nigerians doing businesses especially the ones in the cooking gas sector will never want this kind of news to be disclosed to public so they’ll keep making enormous gain using the strike as an excuse to inflict price increase as they already did in past few days.”
Seth Elisha wrote: “I agreed, we can not keep blaming the system while a few middlemen are holding us ransome. The marketers should be held responsible!!!”
The debate continues online, with many Nigerians divided over whether the protest should target the marketers or the government’s economic policies.