Strike against fuel prices shut down cities

Nigeria was shut down on Monday by a general strike called by trade unions to protest at a stiff increase in fuel prices. Banks, schools, government offices and businesses were closed and the normally bustling streets of major cities were devoid of traffic. In the capital Abuja riot police fired teargas to disperse a rally addressed by Adams Oshimhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the trade union movement which organised the stoppage. In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, police fired teargas at protesters who lit bonfires in the main streets and shouted anti-government slogans. There were no immediate reports of violence in Africa's most populous country. President Olusegun raised petrol prices by 54 percent on 20 June, saying Africa's largest oil producer should no longer have to spend US $2 billion a year on subsidising fuel that was already extremely cheap by international standards. However, labour leaders were unconvinced. They argued that the price increases of more than 50 percent for petrol, diesel and kerosene would only aggravate poverty in this country of 120 million people, 70 percent of whom live on less than one dollar a day. After talks with the government failed to avert the stoppage, Oshiomhole said there was a need to fight "the creeping dictatorship" of Obasanjo. The president was re-elected for a second term in April in polls widely held to have been riddled by fraud. Oshiomhole said on Monday that the national strike had attracted strong support. "It's gone beyond what we expected," he told IRIN. "We have got reports from all the states showing that people responded to our call for a total strike." Trade union leaders ignored a court order obtained by the government on Friday that the strike be called off. It has the potential to shut down Nigeria's vital oil industry, which pumps over two million barrels per day and provides 95 percent of the country's foreign exchange earnings. The strike has attracted the support of two powerful oil unions, the blue-collar National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). Oil companies said on Monday that output had not been immediately affected by the stoppage, since key staff who belonged to PENGASSAN were still working. However, union officials said they expected the strike to start hitting exports in the coming days. Obasanjo summoned union leaders to a fresh meeting on Monday afternoon to try and resolve the dispute. Previous attempts at dialogue last week broke down after the government insisted that the price fuel increases were irreversible. Most opposition parties have condemned the fuel price increases and have thrown their weight behind the workers' protest.