Fuel queues are back. Since the weekend the lines of people have been steadily growing. On the route to work we passed a filling station that was just opening up. From the way people were dashing to their cars from the shade of trees, I guessed they'd been waiting there for a long time.
It was the Gubernatorial primaries this weekend. And its the presidential ones next weekend. It can't be a coincidence that these things are happening at the same time. When the flow of refined petrol products into the country is controlled by the powerful big men, some of them running for president, it would probably be helpful for them to have people thinking about something else other than politics.
On the Arab Contractors road out to work there are four filling stations, the Mobil, the Eterna, the Conoil and the Oando. In the car ahead of us was dawdling, getting in the way of my cab as we tried to turn. He seemed to be just stopping in the middle of the road for no reason. We passed the car, an old red Peugeot. Driving was an elderly gentleman in a kaftan and a cap, his wife wrapped in bright fabrics. The car was full of baskets, which I assume was full of produce for Wuse Market. He was peering out of his gold rimmed bi-focals at the Eterna petrol station. Closed. His wife looked over the road at the Mobil, closed too. They crawled to a stop and the last I saw of them was looking around, not exactly sure what to do next.