“Dead country” campaign against high cost of living

Petrol at over US $1 per gallon and soaring electricity, mobile telephone, education and medical bills are uniting Niger’s citizens, who have turned the capital Niamey into a “dead country” three times in the past month. On Thursday, thousands of people turned out in the streets of the capital under the umbrella of the Coalition Against the High Cost of Living, to protest price hikes that they say are putting basic utilities and services out of the reach of most Nigeriens. Protesters were virtually the only sign of life in the capital on 15 and 22 June, when shop owners also shuttered their stores and taxi and bus drivers stayed off the roads. “This fight we will take to the end until our demands are satisfied,” shouted a woman protester as she marched. “What we want is simply the reduction in tariffs of certain products. That’s all!” Utility prices have been on the rise since the government started privatising state-owned utility companies. Niger has been implementing structural reform policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank since the mid-1990s. Land-locked, uranium-rich Niger is the world’s poorest country, according to the UN’s Human Development Index. Average life expectancy is 44 years. “The incomes of the growing majority of Nigeriens have grown progressively weaker,” said Nouhou Arzika, president of the coalition, which is led by labour unions. “It is a degradation that far from allows the heads of family to face the detrimental consequences of the antisocial measures that have led to a rise in the cost of living and considerable fall in the standard of living in households overall.” The coalition is demanding that the government reduce electricity, water and telephone tariffs by between 30 and 50 percent. It also called on the government to reduce expenditures for the president, prime minister and national assembly by half. Protesters also demanded that the government improve Niger’s education system. Only 14 percent of Niger’s adult population can read and write. “Down with the enemies of Niger’s schools!” they shouted. Last year, the labour unions called thousands of people onto the streets to protest a new 19 percent value added tax (VAT) on goods and services. Protests paralysed the capital for a month and forced the government to increase wages for civil servants by 10 percent. sd/cs/nr