PORT HARCOURT: Mrs Chigozie went to the popular Mile 1 market in Port Harcourt Wednesday evening to buy food items. As she was haggling with meat sellers, she did not know when she suddenly burst into tears. Later when she pulled herself together, she muttered to those around that she was forced to start weeping when she realised that the prices of things in the market had gone up by over a 100 percent.

Many indigenes of the Abia State who returned for Christmas and New Year celebrations and were caught up by the sudden rise in price of fuel are now stranded in their villages as they cannot afford the astronomical increase in transport fare on account of the increase in pump price of petrol.

ISAIAH Danmaliki (not real name) works with one of the Federal Government parastatals in Lagos State. But for the recent increment of the national minimum wage he lived on a monthly salary of N18,000 before now.

GOVERNMENTS and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific Christmas Day bombings of churches in Nigeria to “Boko Haram” – a shadowy group that is routinely described as an extremist Islamist organization based in the northeast corner of Nigeria.

Excerpts of the interview, conducted in his sitting room at Ologoama with over 50 villagers, overflowing his living room to the balcony, front and back of his compound as spectators.