Work resumes countrywide as four-day strike ends

Normal life resumed throughout Nigeria on Friday after trade unions ended a four-day general strike to protest at a 25 percent increase in fuel prices. But union leaders warned of another stoppage soon if President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government failed to reverse the price rise within two weeks. Banks, businesses, schools and hospitals shut down during the strike reopened in the commercial capital, Lagos and other major cities in the West African country. At least two people were shot dead during the strike by police in clashes with protesters in the northern city of Kaduna and the southeastern oil industry hub of Port Harcourt. “If the government fails within the next two weeks to reverse the price increases, we will return to protest action again,” said Adams Oshiomhole, president of the 29-union Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), as he called off the strike on Thursday night. Union leaders declared the strike a success, saying widespread compliance was evidence that most Nigerians disapproved of Obasanjo’s economic policies. “It was a vote against government economic policies, especially the increase in fuel prices,” NLC spokesman Owei Lakemfa told IRIN. For the government, the fact that the strike took place was evidence that democracy was working and dissent was thriving in Nigeria, Obasanjo’s spokeswoman Remi Oyo said. She said the government had responded by setting up a special committee, which includes union leaders, to work out measures to ease the pain of higher fuel prices. “That underscores government commitment to alleviate the suffering of the people,” Oyo said. This week's strike was the sixth to be called by the NLC since Obasanjo began to phase out fuel subsidies three years ago as part of his policy of deregulating Nigeria’s downstream oil sector. The government insists the reforms are necessary to eliminate domestic fuel subsidies of over US$2 billion a year. However, the unions argue that the resulting rise in living costs imposes further punishment on Nigeria's impoverished population. More than 70 percent of the country's 126 million people live on less than one US dollar a day.