Labour unions call off strike after deal to lower fuel prices

Nigerian labour unions have called off a general strike aimed at protesting a recent hike in fuel prices, after fuel marketing companies agreed to revert to old prices, union leaders said. The strike, which was set to begin on Thursday, was called off late on Wednesday night, following a day of talks between union leaders and representatives of petroluem products marketing companies. Nigeria's state governors mediated. "We have agreed that as long as they keep to this agreement, the strike is no longer necessary," Adams Oshiomhole, president of the umbrella union, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), told reporters after the meeting. "The strike is hereby suspended," Oshiomhole said. Under the agreement, the price of petrol which rose on 1 October to between 39.90 naira ($0.31) to 45 naira ($0.34) a litre, will be lowered to the previous price of 34 naira (US $0.26) a litre. Most schools and businesses remained closed on Thursday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the commercial capital Lagos and other parts of the country, because most people had not yet heard that the strike had been suspended. A heavy police presence was noticeable in most major cities after the government ordered the security agencies to ensure people who wanted to go to work were protected. President Olusegun Obasanjo, in a late night national broadcast on state radio and televison accused the NLC of casting itself as a "parallel government" and working in concert with opposition parties to undermine his government. "Since this administration was sworn in for a second term, the NLC has constituted itself into an opposition party," Obasanjo said. He said the union leadership not only enlisted other opposition parties in "an attempt to attain power by undemocratic means" but also paid money to "hoodlums to distribute subversive literature and act against the state". According to President Obasanjo: "The time has come when this government must decide whether it was elected by the people or whether it will succumb to the clearly misguided and irresponsible leadership of the NLC." He said the government was committed to economic reforms which will eliminate waste and enthrone efficiency. Freeing fuel prices, he added, was an important aspect of the reforms. The price of fuel is a touchy issue in Africa's leading oil producing nation. Nigeria's 120 million people see cheap fuel as one of the few benefits they derive in a country where successive regimes have since independence in 1960 been characterised by widespread corruption and plunder of national resources. Obasanjo insists Nigeria should no longer spend US $2 billion a year to subsidise fuel, arguing that savings from deregulation could be better spent on education and social services. The NLC leaders dispute government motives. They accuse the government of deliberately sabotaging the country's petroleum refineries to pave way for fuel import deals awarded to cronies of those in power. According to the NLC, the Nigerians are increasingly impoverished and 70 percent of them live on less than one dollar a day.