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As we approached a dubious police post, the conductor sighed.

“Should I give them, or do you prefer to do it yourself?” he asked the driver.

“Relax,” said the driver.

Something about the
word worried the conductor – enough to make him bring his head back
into the bus. He searched the driver’s face and did not seem to like
what he saw. “Look, just give them their 50 naira,” he said a little
urgently. “They will only waste our time otherwise.”

“I say leave them
to me,” said the driver, “No be everything be money.” The conductor’s
mouth opened but no words came out, so he closed it again.

The police officer
approached the conductor with a broad smile. The conductor nodded
towards the driver and the policeman stopped smiling and stopped
walking.

“How far?” asked
the driver jocularly. “See, we just start work now-now. This na our
first trip today. Make I go come back. I go see you later.”

He started to drive
away when the policeman suddenly screamed, “Stop him! Stop him!” and
another officer materialised from nowhere and placed his body in front
of our vehicle.

“Park,” he barked, gun raised. There was a collective groan in the bus.

“Just give am
money, make we go,” said a woman behind the driver. But it was too
late. The police officers had remembered their duty.

“Driver, come open your boot,” said one. The driver tried to placate him, gone was the braggadocio.

“Officer,” he said, “Come. Look. See my hand.” The police officers refused to “see”.

“My friend, will you come down?!” shouted the other one. “Who be your mate? You think say na play we come play here?”

The driver turned
off the ignition. The school boy sitting beside me who had been
listening to music on his phone and nodding to the beat, removed his
earphones. “Wazup?” he asked no one in particular and as no one paid
him any heed, he returned to his music.

“The driver was too
stubborn,” said a frail-looking man with a feathery voice. “The
conductor told him what to do but he wanted to show sense. Na God know
when we go leave here today.”

The driver glared
at him and got out of the bus, accosted by the police officers who
followed him to the boot. We could hear him pleading, but they were
adamant.

“When somebody wan
help una, una no dey know,” sneered one of the cops. Inside the bus,
the conductor shook his head, still amazed at the attitude of his
driver.

“Now they will not take anything less than N200,” he said sadly.

For a while we
continued to hear the conversation: the driver’s voice falling as the
policemen raised theirs. The boot was never opened. There was a lull
and the driver came back in, muttering about people who like to reap
where they did not sow.

“Na today you know
that one?” said one of the men sitting in front. “You should have just
given him the money as usual instead of wasting our time.”

At that point, the
driver could not take it any longer. “Was it his money?” he asked.
“‘Give him money, give him money’. You give me money to keep for him?
Nonsense.”

“Driver, I beg let’s go,” said somebody at the back. “We have already wasted enough time here.”

The driver hissed
and drove on. After a while, the conductor asked, gently in Yoruba,
“How much did they collect eventually then?”

The driver took his
time changing gears, and then replied: “Those thieves collected 200
naira. But it will never again be well with them or with their
children’s children. The bastards.”

The boy with the earphones took them out and looked at me.

“That’s 100 percent increase,” he said. Of course, I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“What is 100 percent?” I asked him.

“I heard everything,” he replied. “Instead of 50 naira, he ended up paying 200.”

I looked at him. “So you think that is 100 percent?”

He looked a bit confused and put his earphones back in. Standards have indeed gone south.

Thousands of angry Egyptians defied a curfew on Saturday for the second day
in a row and stayed on the streets to push their demand that President Hosni
Mubarak resign.

The army had warned that anyone who remained on the streets after 4 p.m.
(1400 GMT) would be in danger, but as the deadline passed, protests continued
in central Cairo and the port city of Alexandria, witnesses said.

Soldiers took no immediate action. They seemed relaxed and some protesters
chatted with troops mounted on armoured vehicles, the witnesses said.

On the fifth day of unprecedented protests against Mubarak’s 30-year-rule,
it looked increasingly as if the army held the key to the nation’s future.

The president ordered troops and tanks into Cairo and other cities overnight
and imposed a curfew in a bid to quell unrest in which dozens of people were
killed.

In an effort to appease the protesters, he dismissed his cabinet and said he
would listen to demands for reform.

The protesters, many of them young urban poor or students, are enraged over
endemic poverty, corruption and unemployment as well as the lack of democracy
in the most populous Arab nation. They pledged to press on with protests until
Mubarak quits.

The unrest, which follows the overthrow of Tunisian strongman Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago in a popular uprising, has sent shock waves
through the Middle East, where other autocratic rulers may face similar
challenges.

Several thousand people flocked to central Cairo’s Tahrir Square on
Saturday, waving Egyptian flags and pumping their arms in the air in unison.
“The people demand the president be put on trial,” they chanted.

Troops made no attempt to break up the
demonstration and protesters encouraged them to support their cause.

The scene contrasted with Friday, when police fired teargas and rubber
bullets and protesters hurled stones in running battles.

While the police are generally feared as an instrument of repression, the
army is seen as a national institution.

Army is key

One Middle East expert, Rosemary Hollis, of London’s City University, told
Reuters the army had to decide whether it stood with Mubarak or the people.

“It’s one of those moments where as with the fall of communism in
Eastern Europe they can come down to individual lieutenants and soldiers to
decide whether they fire on the crowd or not.”

In Alexandria, police used teargas and live ammunition against demonstrators
earlier on Saturday.

Al Jazeera TV reported police opened fire on protesters trying to storm the
Interior Ministry in Cairo, killing three, but the report could not be
confirmed.

According to a Reuters tally, at least 74 people have been killed during the
week although there was no official figure. Medical sources said at least 1,030
people were injured in Cairo.

Government buildings, including the ruling
party headquarters, still blazed on Saturday morning after being set alight by
demonstrators who targeted symbols of Mubarak’s rule

As well as Cairo and Alexandria, clashes have also occurred in Suez, site of
the strategically important canal.

“We are not demanding a change of cabinet, we want them all to leave,
Mubarak before anyone else,” said Saad Mohammed, a 45-year-old welder in
Tahrir Square.

Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, has held power since the 1981 assassination of President
Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers and his government still rules with emergency
laws.

He promised to address Egyptians’ grievances in a television address on
Friday but made clear he intended to stay in power.

So far, the protest movement seems to have no clear leader or organisation
even if Mubarak did wish to open a dialogue.

Prominent activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate for his work
with the U.N. nuclear agency, returned to Egypt from Europe to join the
protests. But many Egyptians feel he has not spent enough time in the country.

In an interview with France 24 television, ElBaradei said Mubarak should
step down and begin a transition of power.

“There is a consensus in Egypt in every part of society that this is a
regime that is a dictatorship, that has failed to deliver on economic, social,
and political fronts,” he said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist
opposition group, has also stayed in the background, although several of its
senior officials have been rounded up. The government has accused it of
planning to exploit the protests.

The deployment of army troops to back up the police showed that Mubarak
still has the support of the military, the country’s most powerful force. But
any change of sentiment among the generals could seal his fate.

Mocking Mubarak

Protesters in Tahrir Square mocked Mubarak’s sacking of his cabinet as an
empty gesture.

Mahmoud Mohammed Imam, a 26-year-old taxi-driver, said: “All he said
was empty promises and lies. He appointed a new government of thieves, one
thief goes and one thief comes to loot the country.”

“This is the revolution of the people who are hungry, this is the
revolution of the people who have no money against those with a lot of
money.”

The final straw appeared to be the prospect of elections due to be held in
September. Until now few had doubted that Mubarak would remain in control or
bring in a successor in the shape of his 47-year-old son Gamal.

It also poses a dilemma for the United States. Mubarak, 82, has been a close
ally of Washington and beneficiary of U.S. aid for decades, justifying his
autocratic rule in part by citing a danger of Islamist militancy.

Egypt plays an important role in Middle East peacemaking and was the first
Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he had
spoken to Mubarak shortly after his speech on Friday and urged him to make good
on his promises of reform. U.S. officials made clear that $1.5 billion in aid
was at stake.

The European Union and other foreign governments appealed to Mubarak to show
restraint and listen to the demands of the people but stopped short of
suggesting he should quit. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdallah expressed his support
for him.

Britain, Germany and other countries advised their nationals against travel
to the main cities hit, a development that would harm Egypt’s tourist industry,
a mainstay of the economy.

Banks will be shut on Sunday as “a precaution”, Central Bank
Governor Hisham Ramez told Reuters.

The stock market, whose benchmark index tumbled 16 percent in two days, will
also be closed on Sunday. The Egyptian pound fell to six-year lows.

REUTERS

As part of measures
aimed at enhancing the level of security across airports in the
country, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, on Thursday, announced
the restriction of non-travellers within and around airports.

The directive,
which is a fallout of Wednesdcay’s rumoured bomb scare at the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was made public by the director
general of the authority, Harold Demuren, at the agency’s headquarters
in Lagos. According to Mr Demuren, the directive was in accordance with
Part 17, Regulation 83 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, and
Section 13.7 of the National Civil Aviation Security Programme. “I
hereby direct that the following additional security measures should be
implemented immediately in order to forestall any threats and incidents
at the nation’s airports: Use of hand-held metal detector and explosive
detection system at the airport entrances and gates; restriction, as
much as possible, the movement of non-travelling public around and
within the terminal building; and adequate advanced information
concerning inbound cargoes meant for the nation’s airports must be
received prior to the arrival of the cargo,” he said.

Russia’s experience

The speculations of
a possible bomb explosion at the Lagos international airport followed
the recent bomb blast at Moscow airport that led to the demise of 35
persons. The rumour at the Lagos airport prompted airports users and
passengers to become suspicious of one another at the airport on
Wednesday. “In addition, passengers should be informed that they may
experience possible delay as they pass through our security checks and
are, therefore, advised to arrive at the airport at least three hours
before their flights,” said Mr Demuren. “This directive shall take
effect from 27th January 2011 and shall be in force until further
notice.”

Early this month, the Nigerian Police and other law enforcement
agents at the airport swung into action by effecting stringent security
checks on motorists moving in and out of the airport. Days later, the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority carried out a security meeting with
various organisations and intelligence outfits in a bid to ensure
safety across Nigerian airports. The screening and security meetings
were as a result of the bombings recorded across Nigeria and
preparations for the forthcoming general elections.