/ 4 July 2000

NIGERIA CRISIS TALKS AS STRIKE SPREAD

NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo is holding crisis talks to prevent a second nationwide public sector strike within a month, as industrial unrest spread in the country. The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states met in Abuja on Monday and issued a communique agreeing to pay their lowest paid workers a minimum of 5500 naira (55 dollars) a month, but said they would not pay higher levels demanded by more senior staff. Union leaders said the public sector pay strike that began in Lagos ten days ago to press demands for wage increases had spread to around one third of the country. The strike action is the second major wave of industrial unrest to hit Nigeria in a month, following a general strike in June which forced authorities to reverse a sharp increase in petrol prices.