Nigeria traders protested this week against Chinese merchants moving from wholesale into retail, selling directly to customers and undercutting local sellers on price. The question is 'Why now?' Nigeria imported a record $24.9 billion in goods from China last year, about N35 trillion. That scale could be why Chinese suppliers now want to sell straight to buyers, cutting out Nigerian middlemen. Now government has a hard choice: cheaper goods for everyone, or protecting thousands of local traders. Which side should win?