Nigerian workers strike over rising fuel costs

TENS of millions of Nigerian workers began a four-day nationwide strike over rising fuel prices as labour leaders launched their latest challenge to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s economic reforms.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, with exports of around 2.5 million barrels per day, and world markets were watching nervously to see if workers manage to disrupt supplies at a time when world prices are at record levels.

On September 23, petrol prices in Nigeria jumped by around 25%. The pump price has been rising since October last year when Obasanjo’s government deregulated the fuel market.

The protest was called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and was backed by civil society and opposition groups, who have called for the west African giant’s long-suffering 130 million citizens to stay at home until Friday.

In the commercial capital Lagos, passenger transport was thin on the ground and banks, offices and markets deserted in many areas of the city. Support for the strike was strong, even if some workers had little choice in the matter.

At the Iyana-Itaja junction in the city’s northern suburbs two busloads of activists from the O’odua People’s Congress, an illegal ethnic militia, blocked traffic and threatened to break commuters’ car windows if they tried to pass.

“The NLC has given a directive that has to be obeyed. We will not allow anybody to frustrate this action, but we’re not making any trouble as long as people comply with the stay-at-home order,” said OPC leader Ganiyu Ajadi at the makeshift roadblock.

In the capital Abuja, banks and businesses were closed and government ministry carparks empty as the day began. A police squad tried to enter the NLC’s national headquarters, but union activists shut the gates against them.

Oil firm spokesmen and oil unions said it was too early to say if the strike would effect Nigeria’s exports of crude oil.

Labour representatives in the sector insisted their members were heeding the strike call, but production and exports have always remained unaffected during the early stages of previous strikes. The NLC has said that the strike will last four days and then be suspended for two weeks to give government a chance to bring fuel prices down.

Nigeria earns billions of dollars in oil revenues every year, and its citizens see cheap fuel as a birthright.