Strikes stall as Nigeria deploys troops

UNIONS yesterday suspended their nationwide strike in Nigeria, hours after president Goodluck Jonathan partially reinstated subsidies to keep petrol prices low and deployed soldiers in the streets to halt widening demonstrations.

Union leaders described their decision as a victory for labour, allowing its leaders to guide the country’s policy on fuel subsidies in the future while having petrol prices drop to about 47c a litre.

However, many protesters joined the demonstrations with hopes of seeing petrol return to its previous price of 35c per litre, while also speaking out against a culture of corruption.

Deploying soldiers to the streets stopped demonstrators from gathering yesterday. At one point soldiers fired over the heads of marchers. Jonathan may still have to deal with the populist rage that swept the country in recent days, and the use of the military in a nation with a history of military coups stoked immediate controversy.

“This is a clear case of intolerance and shutting of the democratic space against the people of Nigeria which must be condemned by all democracy-loving people around the world,” read a statement from the Save Nigeria Group, which has organised massive demonstrations in Lagos.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress told journalists in the capital Abuja they applauded the government’s recent promise to explore corruption in the oil sector as they described the six-day strike a success.

“We are sure that no government or institution will take Nigerians for granted again,” said Abdulwaheed Omar, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress.

However, while Jonathan offered an olive branch to unions with the petrol price relief, he used military power to make sure nobody protested against the government yesterday.

In a rare display of military might, soldiers took over major roads throughout Lagos, home to 15 million people, and Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city.

In an early-morning address on state television, Jonathan said: “It has become clear to government and all well-meaning Nigerians that other interests beyond the implementation of the deregulation policy have hijacked the protest... These same interests seek to promote discord, anarchy and insecurity to the detriment of public peace.”

Labour organisers had urged workers to stay home yesterday after Jonathan appealed to them over the possibility of insecurity.

At the Lagos headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress, about 50 protesters gathered anyway.

Lawyer Bamidele Aturu led the crowd, comparing the president to military rulers of the past who used soldiers to suppress dissent.

Hundreds marched tow-ard Lagos’s Ojota neighbourhood, where thousands of protesters had gathered in recent days.

However, soldiers had taken positions there over-night, waving away would-be demonstrators.

As they drew closer to Ojota, about 20 soldiers arrived in two pick-up trucks to cut them off. They told the protesters to go back and some of them began to turn around.

Soldiers fired into the air and tear gassed the crowd to disperse it, leaving protesters running through the stinging gas as gunshots echoed down the highway.

The strike began January 9, paralysing the nation of more than 160m people. Tens of thousands of people protested in cities across Nigeria and at least 10 people have been killed.