- Title: NIGERIA: Nigerian workers strike over rising food prices
- Date: 10th January 2012
- Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (JANUARY 9, 2012) (REUTERS) PETROL STATION VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPER STAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) BUSINESSMAN, OKECHUKWU AYOTU, SAYING: "I don't want to risk my life. My family is at home, my kid is at home and I don't have to take the risk of going out. Since I've found the road this way - it is very quiet - I think I have to stay at home to save my life." VARIOUS OF EMPTY ROADS VARIOUS OF CLOSED BANKS (SOUNDBITE) (English) OIL AND GAS SECTOR WORKER, DEJI AYODELE, SAYING: "We came to work today to come to resume work, and then we just realised that in Awolowo road (Lagos Island) all the offices have been closed. The banks, they are not working and the streets are empty, so even in my office too we wanted to work, but we are looking because we don't want the hoodlums to come and attack us, that is why we are waiting." POLICE VEHICLE ON THE MOVE
- Embargoed: 25th January 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA54AHIPQ99YFRUJRPQ3XDK9J90
- Story Text: Nigerian workers launched a nationwide strike on Monday (January 9) to protest against the axing of a popular fuel subsidy in Africa's top oil producer.
Shops, banks and petrol stations were shut and the highways into the main commercial city of Lagos, usually clogged with rush-hour traffic, were eerily empty.
Some people braving the streets said they were too scared of going to work, fearful of "hoodlums" enforcing the strike.
"I don't want to risk my life. My family is at home, my kid is at home and I don't have to take the risk of going out. Since I've found the road this way - it is very quiet - I think I have to stay at home to save my life," businessman, Okechukwa Ayotu, said.
Nigeria's fuel regulator announced the end of the fuel subsidy on January 1 as part of efforts to cut government spending and encourage badly needed investment in local refining.
Economists say the subsidy merely filled the fuel tanks of the rich and middle classes at the expense of the poor, fed corruption and siphoned off billions of dollars of public funds to a cartel of wealthy fuel importers.
But unions, workers and middle class Nigerians with cars were furious when the price of a litre of petrol shot up to around 150 naira (0.93 U.S. Dollars) overnight from about 65 naira before.
Critics say wealthy politicians could have found savings within government first and tackled oil industry corruption, before imposing a sharp hike in fuel prices on the public.
Oil industry experts say the strikes are unlikely to have a significant impact on oil output as production is largely automated and installations well guarded.
"We came to work today to come to resume work, and then we just realised that in Awolowo road (Lagos Island) all the offices have been closed. The banks, they are not working and the streets are empty, so even in my office too we wanted to work, but we are looking because we don't want the hoodlums to come and attack us, that is why we are waiting," Deji Ayodele, who said he works in the oil and gas sector, said.
Removing the subsidy has been a flagship policy of President Goodluck Jonathan and his economic management team.
Jonathan pleaded with Nigerians to support the removal of subsidies in a live televised speech on Saturday (January 7) and the lower house of parliament urged both sides to back down in an emergency session on Sunday.
Most people in Nigeria live on less than 2 USD a day and many - the poor and well-off car owners alike - see cheap fuel as the only tangible benefit they derive from an oil-rich state where corruption bleeds billions of dollars from state coffers. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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