NIGERIA: Nigerians take to streets for second day and many more strike in bid to force President Goodluck Jonathan to rescind removal of subsidies that have doubled the price of petrol

Record ID: 235450

  • Title: NIGERIA: Nigerians take to streets for second day and many more strike in bid to force President Goodluck Jonathan to rescind removal of subsidies that have doubled the price of petrol
  • Date: 11th January 2012
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST, LANRE "ELDEE" DABIRI, SAYING: "We are talking about the fuel subsidy, but the real problem is corruption, they are wasting our money. In Aso Rock, they use 200 million naira to cut grass." PROTESTERS BUYING DRINKS VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS LYING ON PAVEMENT ENGINEER, ADEBOYE FOROWA, SITTING WITH HIS FRIENDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ENGINEER, ADEBOYE FOROWA, SAYING: "The problem we have here in this country is that the people who lead this country are simply out of touch, they are not in tune with the pulse of the environment. The need to all get out of their houses, out of their offices onto the streets and just listen for a change." PROTESTER SITTING NEXT TO POSTERS POSTER SAYING: "NO TO GOVERNMENT WASTE, TO EMBEZZLEMENT, TO EVEN MORE HARDSHIP, TO CORRUPTION, TO FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL WITHOUT STRATEGY"
  • Embargoed: 26th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1OHK3TX780FAJ1PY5QS1A7JA2
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of Nigerians took to the streets for a second day on Tuesday (January 10) and many more stayed off work nationwide to try to force President Goodluck Jonathan to rescind a removal of subsidies that has doubled the price of petrol.
    Africa's biggest oil producer scrapped subsidies this month on imports of motor fuel, which may citizens see as their only welfare benefit, pushing the price of petrol to about 150 naira (0.93 U.S. Dollars) a litre.
    Thousands gathered at Gani Fawehinmi's Garden, a public space in Ojota, in the capital Lagos.
    Popular Nigerian-American rapper Eldee told the crowd that the fight goes beyond the removal of the fuel subsidy.
    "We are talking about the fuel subsidy but the real problem is corruption, they are wasting our money. In Aso Rock, they use 200 million naira to cut grass," Eldee said.
    Tuesday's protests across the country were roughly the same size as on Monday (January 9).
    Demonstrations of a similar scale have derailed past attempts to scrap the fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
    But Jonathan's resolve showed no sign of weakening, in what is the first true test of his government's policies.
    Protesters, many of them youths, said that the government was out of touch with the people.
    "The problem we have here in this country is that the people who lead this country are simply out of touch, they are not in tune with the pulse of the environment. The need to all get out of their houses, out of their offices onto the streets and just listen for a change," Engineer, Adeboye Forowa, said.
    On Monday the police shot dead two people in the northern city of Kano who were helping to pull down the walls around Government House, the seat of the state governor, according to witnesses and hospital staff.
    But violence at the protests has so far been limited by Nigerian standards.
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