Labour unions suspend general strike

Trade unions in Nigeria on Wednesday suspended a nationwide strike they had called to protest higher fuel prices introduced by the government in a new fuel tax. Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the umbrella body for the 29 affiliate unions involved in the strike, said they were calling off the strike - which had already shut down schools, businesses and some public offices - in response to a court order. Judge Isa Salami of the Court of Appeal in the capital Abuja ruled on Tuesday that President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government halt the collection of the 1.50 naira (US $0.1) tax on every litre of fuel sold in the country. He also ordered the unions to call off the strike until Monday when he will hear the main suit filed by the government to stop the strike. On Tuesday night the government announced it had suspended the tax imposed on January 1 in compliance with the court order. “Since the government has agreed to remove the pain, to suspend the tax, we've also agreed to suspend our strike and resume work,” Oshiomhole told a news conference in Lagos. “If the government resumes the tax on Monday, we’ll resume the strike on Monday. If they put it on hold for one year, we'll put the strike on hold for one year,” he added. A court ruling from Abuja on Friday dismissed a government application to halt the strike, arguing that Nigerian workers had a constitutional right to protest against unfavourable government policies by going on strike. The government then appealed against the ruling. In June-July last year the NLC led an eight-day general strike to force the government to pare back fuel prices after a 50 percent hike. But fuel prices rose again later in the year after the government began implementing a deregulation policy under which fuel prices are determined by market forces. High fuel prices are unpopular in Africa's leading oil producing country, where ordinary people see cheap fuel as one of the few benefits they have enjoyed under successive corrupt regimes that have mismanaged the country's oil riches. But Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo insists higher fuel prices are necessary to raise funds for social services and for the repair and maintenance and repair of the country's decaying road network.